Charles Town residents Karen Gregoryk, right, and her son Austin Gregoryk draw the eyes of drivers to the Easter Flower Sale in the parking lot of the Shepherdstown Domino's Pizza on Friday afternoon. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — On Friday afternoon, the Animal Welfare Society of Jefferson County (AWSJC) was helping local residents and visitors alike to celebrate the Easter holidays, by filling their homes and gardens with brightly blooming plants.

The annual Easter Flower Sale has been going on for decades, according to AWSJC board member Jane Tarner, who has helped organize the event since soon after she joined the 501(c)3 charitable organization’s board of directors.

“I came on the board in ’90, so it’s been happening since before then!” Tarner said. “We used to do this two days in-a-row, both Friday and Saturday, but we found out that on Friday we were practically all sold out. So, we’ve just gone down to holding the sale on Friday in recent years.”

The success of each year’s sale depends on the weather which, luckily for this year’s sale, proved to be bright and sunny. Tarner reported the sale having steady business all day long.

“We’re fully a donation-based organization. We may get the occasional grant, if we’re lucky enough to get something like that. All of our programs are based around our budget, obviously,” said AWSJC President Rich Clawson. “We have a spay-and-neuter program. With which last year, we gave out over $30,000 to different pet owners, cat rescue organizations and trap-neuter-release organizations, that type of thing. You come in and get a coupon, and that’s good for $30 or $35, depending on the type of procedure. It helps reduce their cost!

Animal Welfare Society of Jefferson County board member Jane Tarner chats with Carrie Neuman and her eight-year-old daughter, Josie Neuman, in front of the Shepherdstown Domino's Pizza on Friday afternoon. Tabitha Johnston

“Everything we actually make here today goes back into the community. Either that, or to the maintenance of our shelter for homeless pets,” Clawson said, noting that any animals helped by AWSJC are from Jefferson County. “We do take, space permitting, surrendered pets from families that can no longer keep them, either for financial reasons or medical reasons. We try to re-home those pets, when we can.”

According to Clawson, once AWSJC has accepted a cat or dog into its no-kill shelter, it does not give up on trying to find it a new home. A new program recently introduced by the organization will hopefully increase the number of adoptions, by allowing local residents to foster pets from their shelter.

“We try to give back to the community with the spay-and-neuter coupons and sometimes actually working with the animal control — if they come across a bad situation and if we have space, we’ll take in the animals,” said AWSJC Vice President Sean Murtagh.

Helping local animals is the main reason Shepherdstown native Carrie Neuman and her eight-year-old daughter, Josie, come to the sale every year. The Canonsburg, Pa. residents visit Neuman’s parents in Shepherdstown every Easter and always pick up some plants as gifts for them from the Easter Flower Sale.

“I used to come here when I was in college, so [this tradition] has been going on for about 15 years or so,” Neuman said. “We always get hyacinths. Sometimes we get something else, as well. My mom loves to have them in the house, because they make the house smell good. She plants them usually, too, but then the deer eat them! So we have to keep coming back, to replace them.”

All of the plants sold at this year’s sale were purchased at a whole sale price from Sunny Meadows Garden Center in Boonsboro, Md.

The Animal Welfare Society has been serving the community since 1952. The no-kill shelter is located on Old Leetown Pike, just past the Jefferson County fairgrounds. Learn more at https://awsjc.org/.