By Jim and Jane Madden (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #102) on Thursday, August 9, 2007 - 8:13 pm: |
Hi, BT'ers. The animal shelter is making plans to start a gift shop on the premises to help raise money to sustain the shelter. We are hoping to make it appealing to both tourists and locals. As far as locals, there is really a lack of quantity and variety of available pet items on the island in the form of cat and dog toys, scratchers, nyla bones (non existent on the island), collars, leashes, etc. We would appreciate any donations of new items that we can sell in the shop (plus provide some to our residents!. Even if you only drop off one or two items to help us stock our shelves it would be greatly appreciated. If anyone has any connection with any of the major pet stores (i.e. Petsmart, Petco) perhaps they might be willing to donate discontinued or overstock items. Tourists may well buy some of these items, too. We did have the idea that perhaps the beer/drink "coolie cup" holders/sleeves with the shelter logo would be a great seller with tourists. A friend and BT'er gave me one that looks like a little flat t-shirt and when you put it on a bottle or can the little "sleeves" stick out and it looks like the bottle/can is wearing a t-shirt...we thought it would be really cool to sell those with our logo. Obviously we don't have the funds to pay to have them made, so any ideas or help in how to get that done would be much appreciated. Just throwing all this out there as I know you BT'ers have always helped us out and been so generous in the past. Let me know what you think. Feel free to e-mail me if you want to. Thanks!
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By Melissa (BonaireTalker - Post #39) on Thursday, August 9, 2007 - 9:16 pm: |
The gift shop is a wonderful idea.
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By Sue from NJ (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #656) on Thursday, August 9, 2007 - 9:46 pm: |
I'll be there in early '08 & have almost a case of nylabones still in packaging I can try to remember to bring.
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By Sue Steiner (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #127) on Thursday, August 9, 2007 - 10:13 pm: |
Will be happy to bring a suitcase full of goodies ( I'll pack light!) when John and I visit Bonaire for 2 weeks at the end of November. Before we go I'll ask for a specific list. It's always such a pleasure to visit the shelter. Love the t shirt we bought last year.
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By Tribs - BT Bon Meet Aug 08 - let's dive (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #4728) on Friday, August 10, 2007 - 7:32 am: |
I second the need for directions. I made it there once with Becky, but then tried to find it myself on the next trip and never got there. Can someone make a map like the one for Gibi's? Include address and phone number too so we can call when we are driving around lost yet again (yes, even with a map some people still get lost on Bonaire ).
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By Alex Brown (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #231) on Friday, August 10, 2007 - 8:59 am: |
Janie, Excellent news! And I'm glad you like the T-shirt coolie cup .
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By Kobi in Virginia (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #932) on Friday, August 10, 2007 - 9:24 am: |
Jane....it was SO awesome to meet you last month and ALL the critters there at the shelter! You have a nice facility. Thanks to Alexs' help, I hooked up with you
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By Kinki "no trip in sight either" (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #2571) on Friday, August 10, 2007 - 10:21 am: |
Jane, what a wonderful idea! I'll have to put my "thinking cap" on and see what I come up with. Ball caps would be another great idea (I know they can be expensive but there are a couple BTers with "connections." that might be able to work something out.
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By Kobi in Virginia (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #933) on Friday, August 10, 2007 - 12:12 pm: |
Could some of us have access to the logo? I have friends in the biz too and may just get them to make some things to get to you so you can sell them?
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By Alex Brown (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #232) on Friday, August 10, 2007 - 12:55 pm: |
Cynde.
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By Christina Glass (BonaireTalker - Post #18) on Monday, August 13, 2007 - 1:06 am: |
Hi, new people on the island (going to school). my kids and I will be out to adopt some of your residents this week sometime and can't wait! Just wanted to let you know of a great website that you can make ALL kinds of things free! We have used this for our online formalwear store for merchandising and my kids even get into it for their clubs and sports teams. You can go to the website, create anything you want whether it be a t-shirt, a calendar, a mug, clock, etc. You can set the price you want to sell the item for and the site sells it directly for you. The site is www.cafepress.com I used to work in a lab for the University of Pittsburgh and we made T-shirts (free) that one of the girls designed then set the price at $10.00 so we could all get really cheap awesome T-shirts. I have had mine for 3 years and it is a solid T and the logo didn't wear off or anything. Just thought it may be a very economical way to get some great products out to support the animal shelter!
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By Tribs - BT Bon Meet Aug 08 - let's dive (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #4753) on Wednesday, August 15, 2007 - 1:46 pm: |
Wow! Looks like when BT went down we lost some great posts on this thread.
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By Jim and Jane Madden (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #103) on Wednesday, August 15, 2007 - 7:50 pm: |
Wow, I see that my big long post answering and thanking everyone is now missing from this thread....threw away all my notes that I used so just want everyone to know that I thanked all of you alot and explained that the delay in my response was due to my being in the middle of moving (and on Bonaire everything takes twice as along to do!). Did get most of your response posts via email notice...hope you all got mine.
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By Jim and Jane Madden (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #109) on Saturday, October 20, 2007 - 11:45 pm: |
Not sure exactly who brought all the GREAT toys over the last month (Melissa, was that you??) but they are a HUGE success...I even bought some myself!! At our open house on Animal Day (Oct. 4) we did great with the sales of the toys and word is now out that we have terrific toys that aren't available elsewhere on the island. So thanks to all of you who have brought us things to stock our gift shop...and PLEASE don't stop...we need to keep things going. Thank you all so much.
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By Melissa (BonaireTalker - Post #47) on Sunday, October 21, 2007 - 11:47 am: |
Glad to hear of the successful sales. I dropped off some toys and flea market items in Aug. Sounds like I am just one among a big group of BTers who are very impressed with the shelter and the great work being done for the animals.
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By Carole B. (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #6228) on Sunday, October 21, 2007 - 12:35 pm: |
What a terrific idea! Pardon me for not realizing this was being done until just now...I missed this thread!
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By Spicy Mad (BonaireTalker - Post #11) on Monday, October 29, 2007 - 3:08 pm: |
I will be coming to Bonaire in less than two weeks and would like to bring something. Are nylabones and scratchers still needed? How bout if I wanted to bring something donkey specific....any ideas as to what I could bring? I of course plan on making a cash donation but thought I ask anyway.
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By Jim and Jane Madden (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #114) on Monday, October 29, 2007 - 3:45 pm: |
Spicy, Nylabones are great as well as dog Kong toys, cat scratchers, stuffed cat toys and collars and leashes. As far as donkey specific, I really can't say as we don't have donkey residents. However, perhaps you can contact the Donkey Sanctuary and see what their donkeys might need. Thank you for your willingness to help us at the shelter.
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By YucatanPat (BonaireTalker - Post #48) on Monday, October 29, 2007 - 10:03 pm: |
Jane, this may sound like a crazy donation idea but I may have a used refrigerator if the shelter could use it as my wife and I are replacing the one in our condo. Its kind of old, brown and makes some noise but otherwise it works ok. Please let me know if you can use it, and I will make arrangements with you to get it to you when ours is replaced. We will also be bringing a few toys for the cats on our upcoming visit in November. Wish we could pack more but have very limited space this trip.
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By Jim and Jane Madden (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #115) on Monday, October 29, 2007 - 10:55 pm: |
Patrick, It's not a crazy idea at all...and thank you for the offer. However, we already do have a nice big refrigerator that we keep all our medications, opened cans of food we are using, ointments, cat and dog treats, etc. It's still working so we are good with that right now. May I suggest that you see if the Donkey Sanctuary or perhaps some of the other people-related non profit organizations might surely need your kind offer of the refrigerator.
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