The time has come: soon our Camp Fam will be campaigning and voting for our SEVENTH Brand Ambassador! The newest Ambassador will be following in the footprints of some Camp Canine icons; they’ll be in good paws with predecessors like Harley, Oliver, Lizzo, Brinkley, Enzo and now Kirby!
With the nominating of a new Ambassador comes the retirement of our current Ambassador. But Kirby deserves to hang up her crown to thunderous applause, because her reign has been overwhelmingly adorable! Let’s check out the highlights:
This time last year, Kirby was appointed by popular choice (aka an instagram poll). Kirby the Samoyed (@kirbythesammy on Instagram) is the cutest cloud of fluff – she’s been coming to Camp since she was a baby, and she’s filled our playroom with rambunctious energy and endless curiosity ever since!
To enter the contest, our ambassador-to-be submitted a photo of herself posing pretty in front of our iconic ‘Camp Canine’ neon sign and included her favorite things about Camp Canine in the caption.
She said “from goofy smiles in the playroom to stealing treats in the lobby en route to my post-Camp snooze, Camp is my happy place.”
The first order of business from any Brand Ambassador is our ‘Passing the Crown’ photoshoot with the newest Ambassador and all of their pawdecessors. Each time we add a Brand Ambassador, this photoshoot gets more and more chaotic – but the sheer level of cuteness each year makes it worth it! All six ambassadors strutted their stuff down our halls to celebrate Kirby’s coronation.
Her headshot was then hung on our ‘Wall of Fame’ with the other Brand Ambassadors – she’ll live in infamy there, ready to greet each Camper who comes through our doors!
After these headshots are posted, she is introduced on social media in a post that includes 5 fun facts about her. Through this post, we learned that:
- Kirby is a regular at Van Leeuwen Ice Cream and will always show up for a spoonful of vanilla ice cream.
- Kirby is a daddy’s girl! (She really loves her mommy too, of course.)
- Don’t let her size fool you, she is 95% fluff.
- Kirby’s favorite method of play is body-slamming. (We at Camp can attest to this!)
- Kirby has, as her dad puts it, “very expressive ears.” You can tell her mood by her ears!
After these initial announcements, Kirby’s ambassador schedule just got fuller from there; she celebrated each of the 2023 howlidays with us. She dressed up as a coca cola bottle and her pawrents donned polar bear onsies at our Annual Howloween Pawty. When the winter howlidays rolled around she celebrated Pawnukkah with us and got to meet Camp Canine’s Santa Paws!
She was the first of our campers to get her creative juices flowing with our Howliday Camp Crafts – she got to paint the tail on the Thanksgiving turkey, light the Hanukkah Menorah and adorn the Christmas wreath. These masterpieces were hung in our lobby throughout the howliday season – good thing she’s quite the artist!
When Valentine’s Day hit, it was all eyes on Kirby and her girlfriend, Morrigan, when they went out on the first Romantic Central Bark Date of the season. These two are the epitome of girl power – they command a room with their beauty and energy (and they commanded Central Park together, too!) Their date was livestreamed and turned into the cutest reel on Instagram, and it kicked off our Valentine’s Day season!
We hosted our first-ever Valentine’s Day Mixer, ‘Puppy Love Unleashed’! Our Camp Fam gathered, sipped wine and played games that included the dogs building their single pawrents’ dating profiles. Our Brand Ambassador attended the pawty, and was the star of the game ‘pin the rose on the Kirby’!
As a Brand Ambassador, it is a “duty” to promote Camp Canine’s various pawties, partnerships and sales – Kirby posed pawfectly to advertise the Bark Avenue board game created by our partners, TerreDice Games, and Camp Canine’s first yearbook!
And speaking of the yearbook – Kirby, of course, was the pawfect poser for her School Pawtrait, and she’s featured in the yearbook on multiple occasions.
This only skims the surface, we loved our year spent with Kirby as our Brand Ambassador! We shared in so many memories together and were constantly entertained by her enthusiasm; this wiggly girl sat so well for her various photoshoots, flashed her winning smile whenever it was necessary, and learned to get the treats out of the dispensors in our lobby all by herself. We’re glad that she’ll be sticking around to train the next Ambassador!
Now, the time has come for Kirby to pass his crown to our seventh Brand Ambassador. Who will it be and how do you sign your pup up? Here are the deets:
Who Can Enter:
- Your pup MUST be a Camp Canine Member! If you would like to learn more about our Membership, email campcanineny@gmail.com.
- Your pup must have attended Camp Canine for a minimum of 6 months.
- Your pup must have an Instagram of their own!
How to Enter:
- Post a picture (grid post only since stories disappear) on Instagram of your Camper posing with the Camp Canine brand! (We recommend posing with: your Camp tote bags or bedazzled Camp shirts – both for sale in our lobby – your yearbook, our iconic neon signs in the lobby, or the logos on our front stoop.)
- Hashtag it #CampCanineBrand24.
- Let us know what your Camper loves most about Camp in the caption!
Timeline:
- You can post your Brand Ambassador pictures starting NOW! The deadline to get your post up is Wednesday, September 25th.
- Voting will begin Thursday, September 26th and the polls will close Saturday, September 29th.
- The winner will be announced on Sunday, September 29th.
Once appointed as our next brand ambassador, this new celebrity can expect to:
- Model in a “passing the crown” photo shoot with our previous brand ambassadors (Kirby, Enzo, Brinkley, Lizzo, Oliver and Harley will all be invited), as well as be a star in their own photoshoot.
- Their headshot will be placed on our Brand Ambassador Hall of Fame in our lobby.
- They will be featured in our social media, newsletters and blogposts throughout the year.
- And they’ll be given complimentary activities or featured in festivities and events throughout the year. The pictures and videos we get of them enjoying these activities and events will be used on our social media!
To our upcoming 2024-2025 Brand Ambassador – we can’t wait! This is going to be pawsome.