Recently, my friend @FrugalDougal and I each boarded a plane for New York City, NY, USA, to join up and watch the 135th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Established in 1877, The Westminster Kennel Club is the USA’s longest running purebred dog association. Very prestigious, the Westminster is the crème de la crème of the purebred dog world and is shown on over a million televisions across America; and so @FrugalDougal and I got a little spiffed up before we visited all of the doggies. @FrugalDougal and I showed our #PawPawty anipal passes at the door, and the Westminster doors opened wide, welcoming us in to mix and mingle with the elegant and graceful canine athletes. Clearly, the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is a strong demonstration of human’s devotions to dogs.
@FrugalDougal
Adding to the glory of the Westminster show, @FrugalDougal had arranged for a live tweet-up, the #WKCPawPawty, where Twitter anipals joined in the fun tweeting along at viewing #pawty for the Westminster Dog Show. The #WKCPawPawty opened with an hour of rocking tunes by Da Shibbering Cheetos (@ShibberingC), as they welcomed all animals to gather and join in the fun as they watched the show live and participated in the tweet-a-long during the next three hours cheering on the The Sporting, Working, Terrier and Best In Show competition live on the USA Network from (8-11 PM ET). While @FrugalDougal and I hooted and hollered at the doggies as they pranced about, @CosmoHavanese was leading the live tweet-up, and encouraged all the anipals on Twitter to join in the fun; and joined @FrugalDougal on his iBone in tweeting about the event with @MaggieTKat leading the #pawty games and giving away prizes.
As I sat next to Dougal I asked him about the #WKCPawPawty event and he said, “Thanks to @PedigreeUS the #WKCPawPawty raised funds during this event for the Save-A-Pet in Grayslake, Illinois, USA! For every tweet with the hashtag #WKCpawpawty Pedigree donated 1$ to Save-A-Pet, so anipals don’t need to do anything other than #pawty and tweet!” Oh, I get it! While we hung out at the Westminster show, Dougal tweeting from his iBone and @CosmoHavanese keeping things fresh at the #WKCPawty, anipals were able to watch all of the lovely pure breed pooches and help some of the less fortunate animals in a shelter waiting to find their forever homes!
Foxcliffe Hickory Wind
The Best in Breed (sporting, working and terrier breeds) event was filled with great moments and made @FrugalDougal bark with delight; while I was taken with the Best of Group activity. But, neither one of us was prepared for the splendor of the Best in Show action, where seven (7) glorious dogs strutted their stuff in the grand finale, competing for the title of “Best in Show” (click here to see all of these beautiful canines for yourself). The 2011 Westminster Kennel Club Show was a blast! We got to see some of the most beautiful dogs cross the stage, and we were in awe as the Best in Show trophy was awarded to GCH Foxcliffe Hickory Wind (a.k.a. Hickory), a Scottish Deerhound.
On the ride to the airport, where we’d both catch our flights to our hometowns, I asked @FrugalDougal how he got the idea to partner with a larger organization (@PedigreeUS) in order to raise funds for animal charities, and he said, “For quite some time I have been trying to think of ways we could help more shelters, asking our pals on Twitter for more funds every month is one way to do this but given the current economic climate I thought that maybe that would be a bit too much to ask. So one way of helping more shelters is to try to see how a larger organization who have lots more funds available can partner with the #PawPawty team to help even more anipals!”
“I have always been approached by larger organizations to try to partner in some way to help raise more funds for the #PawPawty shelters and I have been in conversations with Pedigree in the USA to try to see how we could do something together. Pedigree got in touch with me as they are very much involved in the Westminster Dog Show and they wanted to see if we could team up to try to host a special type of event. Whilst Pedigree sponsored the pure breed dog show they also always want to highlight less fortunate animals who are stuck in shelters waiting for their forever home. I had also been approached by a lot of pals on Twitter who wanted to help the animals in Australia who have been hit hard by the awful floods and freak weather conditions. So I came up with the idea of trying to help two shelters by asking Pedigree if they would match funds raised for the Australian shelter and donate these funds to a USA-based shelter. Pedigree was very happy to do that and also suggested that they would be able to donate even more funds to the USA shelter if we could host a special Westminster Watch-A-Long #PawPawty.”I ask @FrugalDougal to check his iBone to see, through his collaboration with Pedigree, how much money has been raised for the charities. ”So far the totals raised at the events are $1,598. This amount will go to the Animal Welfare League in Queensland and Pedigree will match this donation; so $1,598 will go to Save A Pet as well. That is a massive $3196 just from this #PawPawty event!” @FrugalDougal and I high-five and hug each other, excited knowing how much this will help the shelter animals. The special #WKCPawPawty funds, for Save a Pet, are still being tallied for the final numbers, but we know from the number of tweets that went out during the event that the donations will be historical.
Don't Stop Believing!
What a wonderful collaboration, working with organizations that are willing to get involved in helping animals in shelters is important and will help place animals in forever homes. “I would love to be able to partner with larger organizations who can help us help more animals in shelters and it would be great to be able to help two shelters every month by having a larger organisation match funds. Pedigree was great in their approach as they worked very much with the values and vision of the #PawPawty being a community-led initiative so they were happy to let us do our thing.” said @FrugalDougal. “When anipals reach out to larger organizations in order to help expand their audience to raise awareness and funds for animal charities they have to be prepared to come up with new ideas and suggest things, even if they sound a bit mad!” added Dougal. “Make sure you are clear about what your goals are and what the goals of the organization are so that you can find a way to make things work for both. Be aware that you may have to plan things quite a bit in advance as large organizations usually work on their plans at least 12 months in advance so approach them in plenty of time. It may not even be about money from a large organization, perhaps they can help with awareness, physical donations of food, etc.” Every little difference helps, and when we all do our bit we can combine to do great things.”
Remember to contact me, MattieDog, with your ideas for fun and interesting @Anipaltimes articles! You can email me at: mattiedog AT anipaltimes DOT com or tweet me at: @MattieDog on Twitter.
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It was a great event Mattie – just a great event. Thanks to you and Dougal for leading this. How exciting it must have been to be there in person.
Great article Mattie, the #WKCPawPawty was so much fun, almost like being there ourselves too! Great commentary from everyone!
Great article Mattie!
You and Dougal do so much for all the anipals. I think I missed this pawty, but I’m glad to hear that #WKCPawPawty was a success, even better that Pedigree contributed matching funds and TWO different charities benefited! Keep up the good work.
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