Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Justine Schumacher. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Justine, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

My mother has been sick my entire life and helped animals even when she physically couldn’t. About 5 years ago I had the owner of American Wildlife Refuge come out as a make a wish for my mother with 3 owls. She got to release an owl right from her wheelchair and it meant so much to us. My husband and I started to apprentice for that refuge and collect licenses to help animals and become a sanctuary ourselves. It was a lot of building aviaries and cleaning up owl pellets! After we did all our required hours we became our own sanctuary and my mother got to name our first owl before she died. It means so much to me that my mother got to see me make her dreams and mine become a reality. It’s so rewarding and truly a purpose driven life knowing she is proud of my husband and I.

Justine, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

We are children’s entertainers who also do animal education shows to try to spread awareness about wildlife and domestic pets to families in North Carolina. My husband and I have been entertaining children for 17 years and we have been running our sanctuary for 5. We take in orphaned wildlife and domestic surrenders from the public and we try to educate families on what the best choices are for first pets for children. Our motto is know better do better.

Have you ever had to pivot?

We saw a lot of businesses go under during Covid. My husband quickly picked up magic from another local fabulous magician that took him under his wing. We also started doing free magic and character videos and lives on Facebook for kids that were stuck at home. Covid pushed us to go on social media and was truly a silver lining for our business.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The kids keep us going every single day. They just love us so much and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a child tell me they want to be like us or do what we do when they grow up. Sometimes children who have seen us their whole childhood eventually figure out we aren’t the “real Cinderella” or whoever the character was and they don’t care! They love us for who they find out we were the whole time. It’s truly magical. We have inspired so many young minds in the RDU area. It feels so good.

Contact Info:

• Website: Fairytaledreamer.org
• Instagram: Schumachersanctuary
• Facebook: Fairytale Dreamer
• Linkedin: Justine smith Schumacher
• Youtube: CreatureCatcherClay

Image Credits
Mike Kopack Clay Schumacher