Children who attended the Palmerton Area Library earlier this week were in for a real treat.

About 50 children and some adults were able to interact with reptiles as part of a program that was open to the public for those that registered.

Christina’s Reptile and Animal Sanctuary Inc. visited the library Monday afternoon to do a live reptile presentation, which proved to be one of the busier programs for the library.

Christina Obrecht, CEO of the Sanctuary, along with volunteer Larry Zawaly, brought about a dozen reptiles to the library.

They included small to large snakes; Salmon, the 13-foot albino Burmese python, large tortoises, small and large lizards, and a smaller alligator named Caesar.

“It’s always a great time to bring the reptiles out and see the excitement on their faces, especially the children, as they gasp in amazement of these misunderstood creatures, some of which they may never get the opportunity to ever see in person,” Obrecht said.

Christina’s Reptile and Animal Sanctuary was founded in 2007 in Palmerton, and is a 501c3, nonprofit reptile and animal sanctuary.

The sanctuary not only does rescue and adoptions, but also travels and does live presentations, displays, birthday parties, teach classes, and much more.

The sanctuary has had the honor to teach a class at Penn State University each year for the past decade.

Events such as these help the sanctuary financially to keep their doors open to continue to save and help more reptiles, amphibians, and other small exotics.

Last year alone, the sanctuary rescued 257 reptiles and small exotics.

The Sanctuary is hoping to get a larger facility down the road, as it is very much needed as the demand for more space with the ever increasing rescue calls, grows, and more and more reptile rescues around the U.S. close their doors due to lack of funding.

“We couldn’t keep our mission going without help of not only our supporters, donors, and volunteers, but our fosters as well,” Obrecht said. “Without our fosters, we would not be able to save and help as many reptiles as we have been, especially the last two years with record breaking numbers not only from Pennsylvania, but from states around the U.S.”