Alderson’s Awards West in Centralia recently launched an online store for the Centralia Police K9 Association to support police dogs and their needs.
T-shirts, hoodies, tank tops, apparel for children, hats and drinkware are being sold to support the Centralia Police Department’s K9 program, which relies solely on fundraising and donations to pay for the original purchase of the dog, vet bills, food, equipment, training and other costs.
Kaitlin Pillsbury, an Awards West employee who helps oversee the partnership between the company and the association, said the Centralia Police Department and the K9 Association both have a longstanding relationship with Awards West.
“They like to use local businesses and we love working with our officers. For the store, I originally reached out to Officer (Ruben) Ramirez. When I first started at Awards West and the K9 Association became one of my customers, they were doing a lot of fundraisers and events to help raise money. Unfortunately, when COVID hit, that kind of came to a halt, and they couldn’t do as much,” Pillsbury said.
According to Pillsbury, the association recently purchased a new K9, which depleted its funds.
“I thought (opening the store) would be a great way for them to raise money without having to purchase inventory in bulk and make it easier for our community to support them. We also ship orders, which has been great for those who want to support but aren’t local to the area,” Pillsbury said.
Pillsbury said a portion of all sales made at the new store go directly to the Centralia Police K9 Association and there will be an additional option to give donations for which the association will receive the full amount. She added that since the store opened at the beginning of February, it has raised about $600 for the association.
“The Aldersons are always finding ways to support our community and working with the K-9 Association is just one of those ways. We plan on having a long-lasting partnership with them. We’ve produced their apparel for years; this is just a new way to make things more easily accessible to our community!” Pillsbury said.
The website for the Centralia Police K9 Association store is https://centraliapdk9.itemorder.com/.
