On January 1st 2007, Slovenia will join the EU countries with the euro for a currency. Because we are aware of the fact that a lot of tolar coins and bank notes will remain home for various reasons during the transition to the euro, we have organized a charitable effort at the BTC called “I Exchange Tolars for a Warm Bed”, with which we will ennoble these tolars by donating them to animal shelters in Ljubljana, Maribor and Koper.
Thus, from December 1, 2006 to March 3, 2007, we will be conducting this charity at BTC City to raise donations for animal shelters. The effort will be running at selected locations at the BTC (BTC City business building, Kolosej, Arena, Hall A, Hall D, Merkur, Mr Pet store, Tukano, …), where visitors will be able to contribute their share in two ways:
– by placing it in the form of coins or bank notes into special containers. Small donation cases will be placed at selected locations around the BTC where visitors will be able to contribute tolar coins and bank notes until March 3, 2007, as well as euro coins and bank notes until the end of 2007. Collection and counting of the donations will be carried out by Bank Austria Creditanstalt d.d. Ljubljana.
– by choosing the “long-distance adoption”, where a visitor decides to take care of a chosen animal. Some animals are too old or have behavioural disorders, which are a result of neglect, and are therefore unsuitable for adoption, spending the rest of their lives at the shelter. With the “long-distance adoption”, donors enable these animals to have a nice life at the shelter. The “long-distance adoption” effort will be running every Saturday from January 6 through February 4 at introductory workshops, where visitors can choose a certain animal from the shelter for which they will help care for with single or monthly monetary donations through postal orders. The visitor can determine the duration of the “long-distance adoption” it can last until the animal is given away or until its natural death. Twice a week, the Slovenske novice, as our media sponsor, will publish photographs of the animals in need of care and all the necessary information regarding adoption. “Long-distance adoption” is possible at the Maribor and Koper shelters. At the Ljubljana shelter, the average period in which animals are given away is 17 days; thus, adoption is not possible. However, they will be happy to receive any donation to buy food for the animals; it is possible to donate in single or monthly contributions.
– With the help of this charitable effort, we will also be searching for warm homes for all those animals that come to the small animal clinics (injured, ill or the owner is unknown). The shelters can not accept such animals because they require treatment and special care until they recover, which only clinics can provide. For example, there is a young German shepherd dog named Rex waiting at the Tristo kosmatih clinic in Ljubljana. He was run over by a car; they saved his life at the clinic, and now he is looking for kind people who would like to take care of him.
In addition to charitable fundraising, introductory workshops, introductions of stores, clinics (Tristo kosmatih from Ljubljana, Klinika za male živali from Novo mesto and Prva – K from Ljubljana) and societies for small animals will be held every Saturday from January 6 through February 24, 2007 at various locations around the BTC. The workshops’ main purposes are to raise awareness and improve the care of domestic animals. Here, all owners and lovers of small animals will receive free professional information on feeding, medical treatment, care and the breeding of animals. The schedule for the workshops will be published on programme leaflets available at various locations in the BTC and in the Slovenske Novice.
The donations will be given to the shelters symbolically at the final event on March 3, 2007. In addition to making donations, there will be an entertainment programme and raffle, where the winners of the “long-distance adoption” effort will be drawn.
