Museum launches animal food drive
Molly Myer, caretaker for the 70-plus animals in residence at the Museum of Appalachia in Norris, holds a rescued bunny as she stands in front of a wooden trough set up outside the mueseum’s headquarters to collect food donations for the animals for the coming winter. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
They’re not actually her animals; they’re the living residents of the Museum of Appalachia.
But because her full-time job is taking care of them, they’re like family≠ to her, and she treats them accordingly.
The museum, along Andersonville Highway in Norris, depends on grants and revenue from fund-raising events, memberships and donations to operate, but it’s expensive to keep it running, Myer said.
Adding to those expenses is the cost of animal feed, particularly during the winter when grazing is not an option for some of the farm animals at the museum.
“The museum receives grants for our history collections and grounds, but the animals rely on direct support from our community to stay fed, happy, and healthy,” she said.
“For the first time ever, we’re hosting a Fall Animal Food Drive throughout October. My hope is to stock enough food to carry our animals through the winter, when care becomes even more demanding,” Myer said.
“We have donkeys, goats, sheep, horses, pigs, chickens, ducks, turkeys, peacocks and rabbits, along with our three museum cats, Cat Stevens, Oreo and Marilyn,” she said.
Two of those donkeys were the stars of the show last Friday, as the museum held a “Donuts with Donkeys” event as another fundraiser. Myer was the overseer of the two-hour event.
People – mostly parents with their children – were able to partake of doughnuts and beverages in the pavilion behind the museum’s administration-restaurant-gift shop building, then walk into a pen to visit with donkeys Frisco and Anton.
There were plenty of kids on hand for the event, and they seemed to be enjoying their time with the long-eared museum residents.
“I’ve always been an animal lover, and I’ve been taking care of the animals here since June 2023,” Myer said. She is the wife of museum official Will Myer, who is a grandson of the museum’s founder, John Rice Irwin.
Molly Myer said people who want to help keep the museum’s animals fed may pick up feed at Clinton’s Tractor Supply store or the Anderson County Farmers Co-Op in Clinton and deliver it to the museum – or just pay for it and leave it at either store, and she will go by to pick up the donations.
Monetary donations may also be made on the museum’s website or through Venmo, she said. “You can find our preferred feed list on our website.”
Monetary donations: Venmo @MuseumOfAppalachia or donate online (note “animal food drive”): museumofappalachia.org/donate.