When completed, Whidbey Animals’ Improvement Foundation’s new building will greatly increase the nonprofit agency’s capacity.
WAIF’s current shelter can hold 38 cats. The new shelter, which broke ground July 2014, will hold up to 150.
In addition to a larger cat holding area, the number of dog kennels will jump from 32 to 48, with room to grow, said WAIF’s Development and Communications Manager Cinnamon O’Brien.
O’Brien and Development Director Claire Creighton said they are excited to have all of the added space.
“We’re going to have areas that we’ve never had before,” Creighton said. “I’m excited about the cat community rooms, and the six acres for the shelter dogs and the play area for the dogs. “It’s going to be a healthier, happier environment.”
Creighton and O’Brien are two of the leaders in charge of raising funds for the new shelter.
WAIF’s new shelter recently received a $25,000 grant from Petco Foundation.
When WAIF’s executive director, Charles Vreeland, applied for the grant, the nonprofit shelter was happy to get it.
“We were hoping for it,” O’Brien said. “Sometimes it’s a little difficult to get grants for capital campaigns.
“It was a vote of confidence from Petco Foundation.”
Another business supporting WAIF’s capital campaign to fund the new shelter is Payless Foods, a grocery store based in Freeland.
If someone donates to the shelter, Payless matches the contribution.
“People are drawn to it because if they give $100, it becomes $200,” O’Brien said.
The offer is good through April 15 and is for a match of up to $50,000, a potential $100,000 windfall for WAIF.
Most of the funds, however, come from individuals in the community.
“It has come mostly from private donors, people interested in the shelter,” Creighton said. “It’s people who have an attachment to the island.
“I did a lot of hand delivery from Coupeville down the island,” she said. “In hand delivering, I was able to tell them why this was happening and ask them whether they were animal people.”
This capital campaign is different from the funding for daily operations at the shelter.
“WAIF gets a great deal of support from the community on a day-to-day basis,” O’Brien said. “It (the shelter campaign) hasn’t taken away from our operations.”
“We’re really asking the community to step in in a big way,” Creighton said, adding the response has been great.
“The money has really been coming in the door since we broke ground on the shelter,” she said. “There are many ways people can contribute to the new shelter.”
There will be recognition for those who donate, she said.
For example, for $50, people can tag a wall — essentially engraving their name, a pet’s name or a loved one’s name into a steel tag. They can do that online or by filling out a brochure at each WAIF location — the cat cottages in Oak Harbor and Freeland and the Coupeville cat and dog shelter, which will all remain open after the new shelter opening.
When people pay for a tag, it’s a way of leaving a legacy, O’Brien said.
“A lot of people love leaving legacies for the animals they love and the people they love,” she said.
WAIF is about a half million dollars from reaching its funding goal, and volunteers are trying to raise that by the end of the summer, Creighton said.
That’s when the shelter is anticipated to be completed.
“We wanted to get into a building that was built to be a shelter. It (the current facility) was only meant to be a temporary shelter,” Creighton said. “We want a building to call our own.
“This is a transformational moment for WAIF.”
