BOISE, Idaho — Zamzows Inc., with the help of community members in the Treasure Valley, raised a record donation of more than $60,000 for local animal shelters.
The $61,286 check was presented at an in-person ceremony Friday morning. It is the second year Zamzows, a family-owned, garden and pet retailer, has held the donation drive and said this year's donation efforts raised considerably more money than last year.
Last year, $23,000 was raised by community members, which is $7,000 less than this year's community donations.
"We were actually expecting numbers to be slightly down. We've heard that a lot of organizations were having trouble raising money, as the economy has started to change, but we actually saw a pretty dramatic increase in the amount of money that people are giving to local shelters," Zamzows Co-CEO, Josua Zamzow, said. "People were very generous this year."
Josua, along with Co-CEO Callie Zamzow, presented the individual checks to shelter representatives at the Zee, Zamzow's event center next to its State St. location in Boise. The money will benefit the Idaho Humane Society of Ada County, Pet Haven in Nampa, and The Pet Adoption League in Emmett.
During November and December, Zamzow's employees asked customers to donate whatever amount they could to the "Stockings for Shelters" fundraiser; in those two months, 9,677 Treasure Valley residents donated $30,000, making a new record this year.
"People still value what the local shelters are doing to support animals," Josua said. "We had almost 10,000 customers donate to this cause and that's just a lot of good people in this valley that raise their hands and say 'those things matter to me and I'm willing to pay for part of it', and I think this is really just proof of that.
Zamzows also pledged to match the entire amount of donations raised, bringing the overall donation total to over $60,000.
"There are a lot of programs where they get donated pet food to feed the animals, but there are a lot of other costs to running a shelter that don't get covered by food donations; the veterinary bills, and just turning the lights on and all that type of stuff requires cash," Josua said.
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