In November of each year the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria’s annual photo calendar goes on sale, a calendar 6 months in the making. Rewind to earlier in the year, May, and you would find pets posing for photos and families selecting the best shots to give their best friend a shot at the title of Alexandria’s Animal of the Year. How do they win this title? By getting the most votes in the AWLA’s Photo Calendar Contest.
For 2021, that winner was Chewy. He was featured as a work-from-home helper in June of 2020 posing in his family’s kitchen, chef hat, apron and all! “He enjoys eating more than cooking, but he is still a real treat to have at home,” his family said in his contest entry. The entry includes space for a video to highlight your pet in action, a place for comments from friends, family and fans and an option to include where you met your best friend. While many calendar contestants are AWLA alumni, 27 shelters and rescues from across the country also had alumni who participated, including animals across the country as well.
That includes 2021 runner-up Asbury, who has spent her 13 years traveling the country with her family, which included time in Alexandria where she assisted her family in fostering cats and kittens with the AWLA. Now in California, she still joined last year’s calendar contest with the goal to earning a top prize, which also means helping a lot of fellow animals. Every vote in the AWLA’s calendar contest is a donation to help an animal in need.
As the AWLA’s biggest fundraiser of the year, every participant makes a difference. From recent adopters who enter their pet just to see their photo in the calendar – yes, every entrant is in the photo calendar! – to seasoned contenders who rally the support of friends and family and participate in weekly competitions to race their way to the top of the leaderboard, the photo calendar contest has something for every pet and their person, including some big prizes. From professional photo sessions to having their photo featured on buses in Northern Virginia, see Chewy below, top placing pets can earn top perks.
How do you enter? Starting June 1 at 8 a.m., visit AlexandriaAnimals.org/Calendar where you can enter your pet, vote for other animals, order photo calendars and share our fundraiser to help as many animals as possible. Follow us throughout the contest on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as we share about our contestants and fun ways to win extra votes. And be ready to get all of your votes in by Friday, June 25 at 8 p.m., when we will declare this year’s winners. See some of our other top-place pets from last year:
Our annual photo calendar contest is our favorite time of year because our community comes together from near and far to support animals in need. Especially as we celebrate the AWLA’s 75th anniversary, your dedication to the work we do makes a difference now more than ever. So get ready for another month of adorable pictures and friendly competition all in the spirit of helping animals, and people, in our community.
Thank you to the companies sponsoring this year’s calendar event:
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