Due to popular demand, the Moose Jaw Humane Society has made their bookstore fundraiser a year-round event; the bookstore is now permanently set up at the shelter and available to everyone, every day.
Executive director Dana Haukaas has found that the new structure for the bookstore is working well; more people are stopping at the shelter to buy some books and pet some animals.
“It's more accessible, it's cheaper to have it here, and we can have it open every day that we're open,” said Haukaas. “And it kind of gives people the chance to see our animals and gives the animals a little more exposure to the people when they come in as well.”
Previously, the fundraiser happened twice a year, at a separate location from the shelter — like the Exhibition Grounds. But Haukaas said that enough people were always asking about the next set of dates that it made sense to make it a constant thing.
“We just decided, why make people wait? We're going to give it to them all the time, keep it open and accessible to everybody every day,” said Haukaas. “We eliminated the overhead [of renting another space] and that gives us the opportunity to put even more money toward the animals in our care.”
Though it may look smaller than when they were set up at other locations, Haukaas assures people that they still have a pretty impressive stock of books, in every genre: romance, science fiction, biographies, children’s books and teen novels, horror, even puzzles and games.
“We have a big semi-trailer full of books so you'll have to keep coming back because this space is a little smaller than our other locations, but we have a great selection of books and our volunteers keep the selection changing every day,” said Haukaas.
The Humane Society is always taking book donations as well, which can just be brought down to the shelter and dropped off. They take any genre — excluding Reader’s Digests, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and magazines — and Haukaas said one thing they can’t seem to get enough of are Westerns.
All proceeds from the Humane Society bookstore go towards the care of the animals in their shelter, said Haukaas, making it an easy way to support a good cause and find some new reading material at the same time.
“Every dollar raised by the bookstore stays right here at the Moose Jaw Humane Society, and it helps the homeless animals right here in the community,” said Haukaas.
The bookstore is open during the shelter’s regular hours, which are 12 to 5 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and 12 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday. They are closed on Sundays.
