“We can use the business and we can sure use some hugs,” says Brenda Harris.
Harris and her husband Rob are the owners of White Hat Drycleaners and Commercial Laundry located at 601-11th Avenue.
Shortly after midnight on June 22, fire broke out in their dry cleaning shop.
Campbell River firefighters were quickly on scene, but flames spread fast, devastating the only dry cleaning business located on upper Vancouver Island.
However, within days of the fire, White Hat was back in business with a temporary storefront located in the next door plaza on 11th Avenue between Sure Copy Centre and Merle Norman.
Harris says they are receiving the help and support of other dry cleaning businesses located on southern Vancouver Island and work is underway to rebuild the burned-out shop which is expected to re-open in September.
“Dry cleaning is going up and down the Island every day,” says Harris, who urges any customer who lost an item in the fire to come by the new store to file a claim.
The Harrises not only lost their business in the fire, it also consumed many personal family items, including all the donated books they had collected for the first annual Rotary Club Book Sale.
Rob Harris had collected three pallets of used books for the sale to take place on Sept. 7, at the downtown Community Hall. But they all burned in the fire and now he’s hoping the public can come through with more.
The Campbell River Mirror is sponsoring the Rotary Book Sale. Used books can be dropped off at the paper’s office at 104-250 Dogwood St., or these other supporting businesses: McDonald’s, Work World, Outdoor Addictions, Thrifty Foods, Discovery Foods, Save on Foods and Quality Foods.
The second round of collections got off to a great start thanks to Holly Gordon, owner of Willow Point Used Books. She generously donated several thousand books to kick-start the collection process.