In 2021, our founder, Craig Umberger, was part of the Pennsylvania Pugs Facebook Group and realized that there were no pug meet ups near his area of Pennsylvania. He decided to add an event page to the Facebook Group, and set the date for May of 2022 at Knoebels Amusement Park, a dog-friendly amusement park where Craig worked in high school. He was expecting maybe 30 to 40 people to come at max, but the day of the event came and there were over 100 people in attendance. At the event, people asked when the next event would take place, so another one was set for October 15 (National Pug Day) later that year. It came to be that almost 400 people showed up to that event, and Craig quickly realized that there was an opportunity to do more, and becoming a nonprofit was the next logical step.

Since then, PugFest Inc has held events not just at Knoebels Amusement Park, but other events such as a Christmas Party and a picnic fundraiser, and plans are underway to continue to grow and broaden our scope. We’ve attended events as vendors to help raise money for other organizations while we spread the Pug Love, and it’s helped get our name out there.

Officially, our Mission Statement is to organize fundraising events to benefit animal rescues and other animal organizations. But our overall goal is to create a collaborative network of Pug Events that share a common mission all around the country, and Spread Pug Love as far as we can to as many people as we can. If you’re a rescue, we want to help you and your rescues. If you’re an organizer for a Pug or another dog event, we want to work with you to make the event the best it can be. If you’re a pug owner wanting to find an event, we want to make it easier for you to find.