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Charlotte Amalie
Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Not For Profit: Blue Mutt

Laura Ballard, left, and Asha Colianni stock books at the Blue Mutt.Residents can pamper their own pets while helping less fortunate cats and dogs that don’t have homes by shopping at the Blue Mutt, a new Christiansted store that supports the St. Croix Animal Welfare Center.

The store, at 55 Company Street in downtown Christiansted, is a way to have a presence to promote the AWC and its programs in a part of the island that gets a lot of foot traffic and tourists.

Asha Colianni and Laura Ballard, friends and animal lovers who were on the board of directors at STXAWC together, came up with the idea of a store promoting and profiting the AWC around six years ago.

“It’s good for the shelter to have a presence in town,” Colianni said. “It gives us a connection with the public that we were lacking. We can highlight and educate people about the programs and services offered at the center – like Pets from Paradise.”

In the fall they started to think seriously about opening the store. The timing was finally right, Colianni said. She had been off island for the summer and came back to St. Croix and thought about work and a job.

She knew the Island Tribe clothing store relocated a few yards down Company Street, so the perfect location for a store was available. Bernard Victor, their landlord, gave them the first three months rent free, she added. Volunteers helped with donated furnishings, displays, shelves, book cases, and the air conditioning for the store.

The store opened in mid-December after successful soft openings in November at Jump Up and Art Thursday. Ballard came up with the name, using the blue dog on the AWC logo.

“And we’re all about mutts and mix breeds,” Ballard said. “And we are an eclectic mix of things.”

There is something for everyone in the store, including art and books. They also offer art classes taught by prominent local artists.

“We love the art scene and wanted to be a part of it,” Ballard says. “We were tired of town looking empty. We decided to open up the store different days and evenings for art classes. It’s another opportunity to get people in here.”

Isabelle Picard, a well known local artist, is teaching a three-part class on the basics of her whimsical style. Ballard will offer classes on torn paper collages and Theresa Boswell will teach a sea glass jewelry class.

“The purpose is for people to come together to be creative and have fun for a good cause,” Ballard says. They will have featured artists’ displays set up for Art Thursdays.

The books in “The Pick of the Litter” are generally used ones that Colianni hand picked from the huge assortment at the AWC Flea Market. Colianni had managed Under Cover Books, so she knows her books and she loves to read. All the profit from the books goes right back to the center.

There are cute, original, art pieces by shelter dogs in the Paw Print Project. Dogs dabbed their paws in colorful paint and left their prints on multicolored 8-inch by 8-inch boards. The AWC gets 100 percent of the profit from the project.

The canine artists share display space with humans Kasey Willard, Carolyn Robler, Barbara Gilardi, Tim Porter and Ballard, who also have pieces for sale with a portion of the price going to AWC.

The store has handcrafted items such as wreaths and whimsical inspirational signs made by Ballard on pieces of pallets for sale.

“We have great stuff for a great cause,” Colianni said. The store sells reasonably priced pet themed items such as picture frames, mugs, magnets and T-shirts with catchy wording such as “Alpha Bitch.” They have a Kitty Corner with cat toys, bowls, cat nip, and collars.

The two women have been on a shoe-string budget and seeded money for the operation and the purchasing of merchandise for the store. “We’ve put in a large percentage of time and money to make a go of it,” Ballard said. Colianni said they had a very successful holiday season.

The Blue Mutt also hosted a cookie sale in December that netted AWC around $1,000. They are going to do more cookie sales at the store for Valentine’s Day and Easter.

“People love to bake and donate cookies for the shelter,” Colianni says.

The store is open from noon to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Colianni said people might sometimes catch them in the store earlier, and added that they are looking for volunteers to help out in the store.

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