RUSTBURG, Va. (WDBJ) – A Campbell County nonprofit has been raising money to help build a new animal shelter for the past seven years, and its fundraising deadline is now approaching.
Bringing Animal Renovations to Campbell County (BARCC) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to building a new animal shelter in Campbell County. After years of fundraising, the shelter project is close to becoming a reality, but more help is needed.
“Campbell County is continuing to grow, and this shelter was built in the 80s. So the footprint has not increased, but the number of citizens here in Campbell County has increased. So we just want to make sure we have a facility that better meets the needs of the Campbell County area,” said BARCC President Katie Lane.
The county’s current shelter lacks the needed space to meet its animal control needs.
“It serves seven of our districts here. There are only 17 dog runs and 19 cat cages. So it is not very many animals per district. If you think about a family that has about three animals that come in here, that takes over quite a lot of our room right there. You can see that the paint is chipping. We do not have much space in there, animals have to be taken outside for meet and greet areas, and then there’s no laundry room in there, so actually the volunteers are taking that home to go ahead and do that,” said Lane.
Because of the shelter’s limited space, if it is full and another animal is brought in, an animal at the shelter, unfortunately, has to be put down if they are unable to be adopted or placed into a temporary home. The hope is that a new shelter will lead to more adoptions.
“The animals will need to sometimes be removed from the shelter just to create space, whether that is through fostering or paying for animals to go and spend the night. We don’t want the shelter to ever be full, which is one of the reasons we need a new one. We need to increase the foot traffic here,” said Lane. “We want people to come in here and snoop around, enjoy their time, and hopefully end up adopting while they’re here.”
Lane said a big thing the current shelter is lacking is a place where people can interact privately with animals they’re considering adopting.
“When you walk into the dog area, the animals are facing each other. It’s not comfortable for any of the animals; they’re overstimulated. When you walk through, it is very loud, because they’re barking, they’re excited to see you, but that’s not their natural state. There’s no place inside you can just bring an animal out and see them alone in their natural demeanor,” she said.
Lane said that a bigger and better animal shelter will benefit county residents as well as animals.
“Whether you’re a dog lover or not a dog lover, a better shelter for Campbell County increases the value of Campbell County. We want to keep citizens in the county, we want to have them come look at the shelter, see who is here, and then go eat at a local place around here and spend those dollars,” she said.
The current shelter on Dennis Riddle Drive is located right behind Yellow Branch Elementary School. Lane said the shelter is too small for the school to utilize.
“For their field trip one year, they had to go to the Lynchburg Humane Society, which is great, but they’re not staying in Campbell County because there is no space for them. There is no room for them to come over here, so right now the students are going outside the county for field trips. They can’t come here and utilize their own shelter that’s literally in their backyard,” she said.
The new shelter will be built on the same property as an extension of the existing shelter.
“Our main goal is to get people through the shelter and make it a better experience for people to stop by. Additional space will mean additional runs, but we’re not building a massive shelter behind us. We want to make sure it’s sustainable for Campbell County to do year after year,” said Lane.
In 2024, Campbell County set aside $2.5 million for the shelter project, and so far, BARCC has raised over $660,000. They’re still short around $700,000 as Phase one of the proposed project costs around $3.8 million. The full project would cost $5.5 million and would include a community room, a sally port, and additional dog runs that would be built further down the road.
BARCC has to turn over the money it has raised to the county by the end of the year.
“We will then meet with the county and figure out the funds. We don’t want to restructure our conceptual designs. We want to keep the meet and greet rooms and that welcoming foyer area, so it creates a better experience for everyone,” said Lane.
If the $3.8 million total is not met by the end of the year, the shelter project will still move forward, and the plan will just have to be scaled back.
“The project is moving forward, no matter what is happening. We do need a new animal shelter that is meeting the state codes and making sure we’re making all those great choices. We might have to redo the conceptual designs a little bit, which we just don’t want to do,” said Lane.
While it’s closer than ever to completing its goal, it’s been a difficult year for BARCC. Its co-founder, Jeanie Isaacs, passed away in April, and it hopes to bring her vision to life in her honor.
“She was just one of the most precious humans you could’ve met. If something was wrong, she would help you fix it, and she would probably make you laugh along the way,” said Lane. “We have very big shoes to fill. We are going to continue one of her many legacies here in Campbell County by making sure this happens and making sure the shelter is what would’ve been her wish.”
Campbell County hopes to begin work on the new shelter sometime in 2026.
BARCC will host a Bingo for Hope fundraiser for the shelter project on Saturday.
Anyone interested in donating to help build the new shelter can do so here.
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