2 | ALL IN THE FAMILY January 23, 2017 | VOL. 53, No. 4
YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS
Bridgeport couple turns animal welfare into twin businesses
State tourism officials reach out on the road kzimmerman@westfairinc.com
W
ith restoration of the state’s three regional tourism districts unlikely to be a high priority this year, the Connecticut
Office of Tourism is in the midst of a “listening tour” to determine how it can help cities and towns in their outreach efforts to Nutmeg State visitors. “We knew that with the defunding of the three tourism districts — Western (which includes Fairfield County), Central (Hartford/New Haven) and Eastern
westfaironline.com
BY PHIL HALL phall@westfairinc.com
W
(Mystic/Quiet Corner) — we were facing a tough fiscal year, just as we did last year,” said Connecticut Office of Tourism Director Randy Fiveash. “We felt we needed to figure out some additional ways to make sure that the tourism industry and those individual entities within the state that were previously covered by the tourism districts were not left out in the cold.” Fiveash and his staff began their own tours of the state in November, “and they’re still going on,” he said. “We want to go out and look at what people are needing and experiencing, what’s happening in the industry. Of course we’re in regular contact with the attractions, hotels, arts and culture organizations, but we felt it was also necessary to look at the situation from a grassroots standpoint.” Initially 10 visits took place, including stops in Danbury and Norwalk, with new meetings and follow-ups now taking place
hen Jimmy Gonzalez was the chief animal control officer for Bridgeport, he witnessed the seemingly endless problems associated with the area’s surplus of unwanted dogs and cats. “Bridgeport has the largest animal shelter in Connecticut, and people were bringing in tons and tons of animals,” he recalled. “But I found out it was really just a revolving door. Animals were coming in and hopefully they were going out. But a lot of them were getting euthanized. And after so many years, I felt, this sucks.” Gonzalez had hoped that local animal rescue groups would alleviate the overcrowding at the shelter, but he learned that many of them offered good intentions rather than solid solutions. “You have to understand that most of them are out of their basement, most of them don’t have budgets and most of them will take an animal that is really not adoptable,” he added. “It was just not working.” Gonzalez teamed with Melissa Kuian, an animal adoption coordinator at the shelter, in an effort to provide a viable difference. In 2008, they created the nonprofit A Hand for a Paw, which sought to provide mobile humane resources to underserved Bridgeport area neighborhoods. “While we were at the shelter, people would come in and say, ‘Oh, I have to get rid of my animal,’” Kuian said. “And we would ask why, and they would say, ‘We couldn’t afford the food or the spaying/neutering and vaccines.’” Responding to that feedback, Gonzalez and Kuian’s nonprofit helped families obtain affordable vaccines, microchipping and professional assistance for their four-legged companions; they also set up a pet food pantry. But financing the nonprofit required fundraising outreach; the duo quickly found that animal advocacy T-shirts were popular sale items. But supply costs limited the nonprofit’s revenue. “When we were selling T-shirts and we would run out of medium or large, we would call the supplier company and say that we need to get a couple of mediums
» State Tourism, page 6
» Animal Welfare, page 6
Jimmy Gonzalez and Melissa Kuian at their Vox Eorum business. Photo by Phil Hall.
BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN
7 | MAKING CONNECTIONS