In 2016, pet food company Hill’s Pet Nutrition hosted a national contest to recognize the most dedicated pet-care volunteers in the country. The contest invited animal shelters to recognize a deserving volunteer in the form of a short video nomination. As the Development Director of the Humane Society of South Mississippi, I chose to nominate long-time shelter volunteer, Wendy Kennedy, and filmed/produced a short video highlighting her many contributions to the pets of HSSM.

Hill’s Pet Nutrition received hundreds of video submissions from shelters across the country. My video was hand-selected as top 10 semi-finalist and entered in a public voting competition, which would award each of the top five shelters with the most votes a $10,000 grant. I designed social media & email campaigns and orchestrated television, print and web interviews with local news stations to bring awareness to the competition and increase votes, ultimately securing our shelter as a winner and recipient of the $10,000 grant.