Photos by Jolene Craig Marge Packer of Lancaster, Ohio, poses with her Pilot Dog Becky, a 6-year-old black Laborador Retriever, at the Lions Club Dog Days Festival in Belpre’s Civitan Park Saturday. Packer received Becky five years ago through the Zone 7 Lions Clubs.

BELPRE — Community members and their dogs came out to Civitan Park Saturday for the sixth annual Lions Club Dog Days Festival. “Our goal is to raise enough money to purchase a Pilot Dog for a visually impaired person in our local Lions district,” said Stan Starling of the Chester Hill Lions Club. Starling, who is also on the Pilot Dogs Inc. board of directors, said the area Lions Clubs have raised enough money to purchase six Pilot Dogs in the past five years. Funds raised last year did not purchase a dog, but did purchase a Braille computer for a Warren High School graduate who needed it to further his education. “This year’s festival is all about the dogs,” Starling said. The weekend event, which included live music, a country store, a flea market and food concessions, raised money for the Zone 7 Lions Club to purchase a service dog. Pilot Dogs cost an average of $8,500 each, Starling said.