What’s Happy Valley’s ‘Tourist Attraction of the Year’? Here are the Hospitality Award winners
It’s hard to stand out in the tourism industry — but it turns out it’s a lot easier if you have a herd of goats.
Boalsburg area’s Nittany Meadow Farm, known for activities like goat yoga (which is exactly what it sounds like), was named Centre County’s “Tourist Attraction of the Year” on Tuesday night during the Third Annual Happy Valley Hospitality Awards organized by the Happy Valley Adventure Board.
Eight awards, such as Festival/Event of the Year (Centre Film Festival) and Volunteer of the Year (Renea Nash Nichols), were handed out at the awards ceremony attended by nearly 300 at Brass 16823 in the Bellefonte area. But Nittany Meadow Farm came away with one of the biggest honors.
“I’m so surprised; I had no expectations,” said Tara Immel, who runs the farm alongside her husband Mike. “We have a lot of people who come here, thousands every year, but there’s still a lot of people in the area who never heard of us and don’t know what goat yoga is. ... When they said our name, we both looked at each other in shock.”
Nittany Meadow Farm began as an agritourism business around 2021, when Tara invited friends and family to visit the five pet goats she always dreamed of owning. Friends and family kept asking to return, one thing led to another, and the farm now boasts 74 goats — 23 of which have been born in the last three weeks — to go along with cows, pigs, lambs and chickens.
Two cozy cottages on the property are rented out through Airbnb, goat yoga classes are scheduled publicly and privately, and the farm is looking to open a dairy in the next month — with goat milk, yogurt and cheese — with a retail space open to the public. (Most of the goat visits are currently by appointment only.) Goat yoga usually consists of performing yoga for 30 minutes while the animals run around, jump and cuddle — with another 30 minutes dedicated to snuggling the goats, feeding them and playing with them.
“Goats have the personality of dogs and the agility of cats,” Immel added. “They’re the perfect pets.”
Here’s a look at the full list of businesses and individuals honored Tuesday night:
Tourist Attraction of the Year: Nittany Meadow Farm
Festival/Event of the Year: Centre Film Festival
Volunteer of the Year: Renea Nash Nichols for her service to Eagle Ironworks and Curtin Village, and Union Cemetery
Rising Star: Erin Pugh, General Manager, Hublersburg Inn
Excellence in Tourism/Hospitality Leadership: Lucy Rogers, Tasting Room Manager, Big Spring Spirits
Excellence in Tourism/Hospitality Service: Mike Tedesco, owner, Happy Valley Nomadic Spirits
Excellence in Tourism/Hospitality Teamwork: Casie Garber and Asia Pilger, Assistant Innkeepers, The Queen Bed & Breakfast
Co-recipients of Peter J. Walker Spirit of Hospitality Award: Gary Brandeis, CEO/founder of Scholar Hotel Group & Liz Grove, owner of Pine Grove Hall and Flour & Stone restaurant
Nichols, named Volunteer of the Year, has played a key role with Eagle Iron Works and Curtin Village, a historic district that has seen attendance and revenue increase since her involvement.
The Centre Film Festival, named Festival/Event of the Year, officially kicked off Monday and will conclude Sunday night. This is it’s sixth year, and it’s already earned a strong reputation among filmmakers for a welcoming atmosphere that features more stars than most small festivals. “Star Wars” director J.J. Abrams was a guest last year, for example.
But it was Nittany Meadow Farm that came away with arguably the top prize. The farm that sells beef, pork and lamb — but not goat meat! — operates a goat-filled bus (Goats2Go) for traveling visits, and it has more in store for the future.
Goat yoga is not available for about three months of winter, starting in early December, but the Immels are aiming to increase the heating capacity in one of their barns. And Mike is also hoping, by the end of next year, to have an aquaponics greenhouse that will allow him to raise tilapia in a 1,000-gallon tank.
“We’re not just for little kids or older people; we get everyone in-between,” Tara added. “And no one has ever left here unhappy.”
