They’re open for business and ready and willing to accept donations.
That’s the message from the Richmond Animal Protection Society’s (RAPS) new thrift store manager Laura Padulo, just a few weeks after her predecessors retired.
According to Padulo — and a few of the many volunteers who help keep the Granville Avenue charity shop alive — there was a misconception that the store was closing due to the retirement of former managers, Ed and Marie Malinoski.
As a result, claimed Padulo, the number of customers visiting the store and the amount of donations dropped significantly.
“The ones that were coming in kept saying they’d read we were closing, because of Ed and Marie retiring,” said Padulo, an animal lover and cat owner, who has volunteered at the store for more than three years.
“But we are very much open for business and, since we got the word out on facebook and things like that recently, people have started to come back in and donations have risen again.”
Asked why she stepped up to take the role as manager, Padulo said she was “always in there anyway, so ‘why not?’
“Somebody had to step up, or we would have to close and I couldn’t have that happening,” added Padulo.
The News reported last month how the Malinoskis decided to retire from voluntarily running the store after 10 years without a vacation.
Both of them, however, still volunteer at the store.
* Meanwhile, RAPS is hosting one of its biggest annual fundraisers for the year, the Paws & Pumpkins Halloween Gala on Saturday, Oct. 31.
The event is being held at the Pacific Gateway Hotel on Cessna Drive from 6 p.m., with live and silent auctions, dinner, prizes, a live band and dancing. Tickets are $90 each; a table of 10 is $800, which includes dinner and entertainment and a $50 tax receipt per ticket.
Tickets are available on 604-275-2036, at any RAPS location or online at www.rapsociety.com.
