Action: Support Shelter Appreciation Week & Iams Home 4 the Holidays

National Shelter Appreciation Week is November 4th – 10th and BlogPaws Be The Change For Pets wants to feature as many shelters as we can while activating social media support for IAMS Home 4 the Holidays, and give back with up to a $1,000 donation to two shelters. 

If you are not familiar with Iams Home 4 the Holidays, it is one of P&G's philanthropic efforts to support pets and continue their mission "to enhance the health and well-being of more dogs and cats." You can participate and help pets in many ways and in turn Iams donates meals to orphaned pets. Started in 1999 it has become one of the most successful programs for pets in the world.

How will we activate support through social media?

We're glad you asked! We invite everyone to participate by showing support for their local shelter and doing a Shelter Drive-by. The Shelter Drive-by program is another idea brought to us by original Be The Change For Pets member, Dr. Jessica Vogelsang and our friends at P&G Pet Care.

The program, initially described here, encourages everyone to take 5 minutes before your next grocery store trip and look online at the wish list of one of your local shelters. It can be a shelter you are familiar with, or simply one you find when you look, but it does need to be a 501c3 non-profit. For a list of one of the 3,938 shelters participating in the Home 4 the Holidays campaign, click here.

While you are at the store, purchase one or two items from the shelter's wish list. Many have things like paper towels, cleaning supplies and garbage bags on them. Then, on the way home, drop them off. Those simple, inexpensive steps could end up winning your shelter a donation of up to $1,000!

How does your shelter get the opportunity to win??

By you documenting your drive-by. Write a post, short, long, picture, video, whatever you fancy and mention the Iams Home 4 the Holidays program in it. Then, next week share your post on our Iams Home 4 the Holidays Shelter Drive-by blog hop. If we can get to 100 blogs in the blog hop between November 11th – 17th, not only will 100 shelters have supplies they did not have before, but BlogPaws will donate $1,000 to Rescue Ink! Rescue Ink's shelter was devastated by Hurricane Irene and the pets they help are in desperate need of support. Plus, one entrant from the blog hop will be chosen through random.org to also win a $1,000 donation! 

And wait, there is more. One winner will be chosen by Dr. V and the BlogPaws Be The Change For Pets team to have their blog post featured on the Iams Facebook page! In order to be eligible for this prize, the post must feature a shelter participating in the Iams Home 4 the Holidays campaign.

We love our community and we know they love pets. Let's give some social media love to our local shelters, as well as some needed supplies – nothing is too small – and give the shelters a chance to win a donation, all the while supporting Iams Home 4 the Holidays which feeds orphaned pets. Wow, that's a mouthful and we can't wait to see the impact.

Are you in?