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Pokey’s 8th Street Grill will be hosting Big Valley Animal Rescue’s furry friends for an adoption and fundraising event Saturday. The event will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. (EST) at the restaurant, located at 307 8th St in West Point.

Pokey’s will be donating 10% of the daily sales to the rescue’s medical fund. Big Valley will have some of its dogs that are up for adoption out on the restaurant’s patio. There will also be donation jars, card-readers and cashless options, like Venmo, for those wanting to make a direct donation to the nonprofit.

The rescue is hoping to have around five dogs there on Saturday, many of whom will be longer-term residents of Big Valley. In the future, they hope to have more volunteers at events, so more of their dogs can go and meet people.

While you cannot take the animal’s home right after getting some grub, there will be employees from the rescue there to assist potential adoption and fostering applicants.

“We’ll give them the link fill out an application, we do a home visit, we do meet and greets, making sure that we know to the best of our ability that they are going to their forever home,” said Tiffany Weaver, a board member and event coordinator for Big Valley.

The two establishments try and make the event a regular thing, with Big Valley coming every few months. The money raised from the restaurant’s sales usually average from $300 to $400.

Georgia Norman, who co-owns Pokey’s with her husband John, wants her business to be active in the local community.

“Our customers support us. That’s who we want to give back to,” Norman said.

Pokey’s has also partnered with local schools, recreational sports teams, and organizations such as the Chattahoochee Humane Society. Norman likes that the restaurant can provide jobs to locals, including multiple high school and college students.

Weaver reiterates the importance of these partnerships saying, “We are a smaller rescue, so this helps, get our name out there …We use it as an outreach for anything we can do to help these animals.”