east valley
Volume 5 Issue 12 Mesa, AZ
October 2, 2022
Love for animals gave birth to high-end Mesa thrift store BY JOSH ORTEGA Tribune Staff Writer
A
IN THE BIZ
Mesa boutique has gone to the dogs – and cats – but that’s exactly what it’s there for. Paige Beville and Donna Geisinger opened Cause4Paws Resale Boutique at 9911 E. Baseline Road in July. Geisinger said she’s loved animals her entire life and believes that more rescues could get adopted if they received the necessary medical care. “This has been something that I life-long wanted to do,” Geisinger said. Two years ago, Geisinger reached out to the Apache Junction Animal Control Paws & Claws Care Center to �ind out how she could help and met Beville. Beville has volunteered at Paws & Claws for several years and started a nonpro�it called Saving Paws Rehabilitation Fund to help raise money for urgent medical procedures at animal shelters, such as amputations and eye surgeries. Beville also has some experience working for a similar thrift store for 13 years in Colorado that supported an animal shelter. “We decided opening a store, that we could send the proceeds to local shelter animals would be the best way to help them,” Geisinger said. But Beville said “thrift store” conjures up certain expectations: a mishmash of junk in a dimly lit room. But that’s not what the pair wanted. Geisinger started the work on Cause4Paws in 2020 and said she and Beville started colPublic Notices ............... page 2 © Copyright, 2022 East Valley Tribune
lecting donations, which she said “were just awesome.” They have now �illed the 1,100-squarefoot location to the brim with various clothing, houseware and other items. The sweet aroma welcomes customers as they walk in with bright lights overhead and a well-organized layout immediately makes customers realize that Geisinger and Beville put the “upscale” in upscale resale boutique. The ladies use that term because they remain very selective about what they sell their customers, including fashion items by designers like Fiore and Chicos. “We are pretty selective about what we’ll take,” Beville said “We get donations and, like every other boutique, will vet them.” They can’t accept donations of men’s or children’s items, books, furniture or electronics due to space but the two women donate what they can’t sell to the Arizona Humane Society, Beville said. Their selectiveness might mean a slightly higher price at checkout compared with a traditional thrift store. But every cent that doesn’t go to maintaining the storefront bene�its rescued animals at the Apache Junction Animal Control Paws & Claws Care Center, 725 E. Baseline Road in Apache Junction. Lori Erlandson, shelter supervisor for Apache Junction Animal Control, said the donations from Cause4Paws have helped prolong the lives for many of the animals that come in and need urgent medical care. “Previously, without having access to these funds, we may have to make euthanasia decisions and decide that humane euthanasia is (USPS 004-616) is published weekly
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really our only option,” Erlandson said. With a small medical budget, Erlandson said some of the surgeries can quickly become very costly – starting at $500 for a sixmonth treatment of valley fever to more than $4,000 to amputate a puppy’s leg due to an accident. Erlandson said these donations come at a good time for the animal shelter as Cause4Paws has become the angel donor East Valley rescue animals needed. During the pandemic, Erlandson said adoptions increased as more people began working from home. Now, Erlandson said the reverse has happened, with people downsizing from homes to apartments due to the economic downturn in recent months. “Unfortunately, they weren’t able to take their pets with them,” Erlandson said. “So we’ve seen a pretty big increase in animals being surrendered to the shelter.” Erlandson said the shelter has the capacity to hold 38 animals, and reached that in May, a �irst in her seven years at the shelter. Last month, she said the capacity held at 32. With a steady stream of medical funds coming in, Erlandson said they have continued to get animals the care they need and get them adopted out to forever homes. That’s exactly what the ladies at Cause4Paws want to continue to do if they can get more customers in the store. “Your angel donor that you know is going to always be there to contribute,” Beville said. “And that’s what this store does.” Information: cause4pawsshop.com, 480306-4588. Subscriptions are $26 for 2 years, $14 for one year. Periodicals postage paid at Phoenix, AZ 85026.
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