From the valley below the Wildlife Waystation’s business office, the staff hears a sudden roar from one of its 10 resident lions. The sound instantly triggers a playful chorus of roars, howls, screeches and squawks from the community of 450 rescued exotic animals on the wildlife sanctuary’s 162 acres in the Angeles National Forest in northern Los Angeles County.
Like the roar of its lions, the non-profit Wildlife Waystation works to inspire other animal lovers to help sustain its remote canyon refuge, which has provided shelter and care to over 76,000 animals from across the globe since 1976. The animals may have started out in a circus, animal exhibit or research lab, orphaned or abandoned by a parent or owner. The sanctuary on Little Tujunga Canyon Road, founded by wild animal expert and director, Martine Colete, is a 24/7 operation including hospital facilities, animal response services, and an educational outreach program.
Leap in Productivity
With 40 full-time employees and over 300 volunteers, the Wildlife Waystation found a high-speed, efficient office tool to cost-effectively create promotional material and attract donors to care for many of its exotic animals including tigers, bobcats, leopards, and chimpanzees. Behind the scenes at the center, productivity and efficiency saw a significant boost when an Epson® WorkForce® Pro WP-4540 all-in-one replaced an older, unreliable all-in-one printer.
Looking forward to a major grant for emergency fire preparedness, the Waystation received the Epson all-in-one printer at a crucial time as it prepares to resume giving future tours on a limited basis. “The Epson printer has been a huge help as we work to bring everything up to current code compliance,” said Kevin Scott, Wildlife Waystation’s senior operations analyst.
“It’s helped us print everything from fundraising kits, volunteer instruction material to color floor-plan designs to invoices and receipts,” he said. “The built-in scan-to-email function made it easy to send off donor material very quickly.”
Scott spends a lot of time going up and down the hillside, often on his two-way radio communicating with the office or workers in the canyon below. Today, he stops to talk to a caregiver about Dasha, a beautiful spotted leopard who was bequeathed with three other leopards and a lynx to the sanctuary by a private owner. “It’s great being on the run like this and no longer hearing complaints from the office about a slow, poor quality office printer that keeps breaking down,” he said.
Five Waystation workers leverage the centrally located WorkForce Pro WP-4540’s network capabilities, and print, scan, copy and fax from their office computers. With its built-in wireless features, the all-in-one is ideal for those using mobile devices. With Epson’s free mobile app, Epson Connect, users can easily print to the WorkForce Pro WP-4540 from their hand-held device.
“The Epson all-in-one printer is great for a non-profit like ours because it’s reliable and works hard to help us attract donors with outreach material,” said Scott. “It’s also saved us a lot of money because we no longer have to buy new ink as often, thanks to Epson’s DURABrite XL ink cartridges.”
Running with Wolves
With the printer’s 580-sheet input capacity, the Waystation can produce a high volume of one- or two-sided documents, including fundraising letters, photo prints, donor thank you notes, news announcements and tip sheets. A built-in, 30-page automatic document feeder can copy, scan or fax stacks of one- or two-sided documents. Staff can print alternative paper, envelopes, labels and card stock with an 80-sheet rear-feed tray.
Since educating the public is a big priority, the WorkForce Pro helps the Waystation create material on preventing endangerment and extinction. “We often put printed material out on the counter, and it’s important to us the materials are high-quality, professional prints. The Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4540 has helped us achieve those results,” said Scott. Office staff also uses the printer for payroll, spreadsheets, presentation handouts and volunteer training.
The Epson printer is also used to print high-quality, smudge-, fade- and water-resistant photos of the many animals, a popular way to attract donors to the Waystation family. Now staff can quickly print any photo on the spot – Cyrus the bobcat having a lazy day, Penelope the porcupine eating a sweet potato, or Shiloh the bright Bengal tiger under the eucalyptus.
Saving Time and Money
"The first time I used the WorkForce Pro to scan, I had to scan about 45 photos to meet a tight deadline,” said Scott. “I didn’t know what to expect because scanning used to take forever with our old all-in-one. Scanning with the Epson WorkForce Pro turned out to be so simple. It recognized my computer immediately.”
The WorkForce Pro WP-4540 also saves paper with two-sided printing and a lower printing cost than color lasers. “When we received the Epson WorkForce Pro, it streamlined everything here in our office,” said Scott. “Our costs have decreased while our productivity and office efficiency have increased. We’re making great strides toward our goal to resume giving future tours on a limited basis.”
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Epson provided the Epson WorkForce Pro WP-4540 to the Wildlife Waystation for business use. EPSON and WorkForce are registered trademarks of Seiko Epson Corporation. All other product and brand names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.