Juneau Animal Rescue on the joy of compiling the Alaska Pets Calendar

This is Tongass Voices, a series from KTOO sharing weekly perspectives from the homelands of the Áak’w Kwáan and beyond.

Each year, Juneau Animal Rescue gives pet owners a chance to put their favorite photos somewhere other than social media while promoting animal adoption.

JAR’s annual calendar is made up of pets who win a photo contest, voted on by the community. And the whole thing — from the contest to the calendars themselves — is a fundraiser to support the daily needs of all the pets waiting to be adopted at the shelter.

Juneau Animal Rescue’s Executive Director Rick Driscoll and Board Member Aurora Hawke say the process takes about 6 months and features all types of animals. 

Listen:

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Aurora Hawke: I’m Aurora Hawke. I am on the board of JAR, and I am the fundraising committee chair.

The photo contest and calendar together raised between $10 and $12,000 per year for the shelter. 

For about six weeks, starting in July, but we’re going to move it forward to June. So look at our socials. Then we have the photo contest in which people can enter their photos and vote on them, and also get their family and friends to vote for their photos so that they can get into the calendar. This year, we introduced a feature called Reserve a Spot where you can put a picture of your pet on a particular day. 

For instance, my rescue Pomeranian, Bear, is on his Gotcha Day, April 24.

And when that closes, the top 10 vote-getters are featured in the calendar in the months. 

We also jury with the Juneau Photo Group – it’s a Facebook group here in town – the best cat and the best dog picture. And then the board chooses the cover. 

This cat’s name is Wink, and she is a JAR alumni as well, so really lovely to see that. 

Rick Driscoll: My name is Rick Driscoll. I’m the Executive Director of Juneau Animal Rescue.

When people enter their photo of their pet to the contest, they get to write a little narrative about their pet. And so Wink — this is from the narrative that we received — Wink came to JAR in December 2023 as a tiny kitten, her right eye was pretty badly injured, but after trying to save it, they decided that she would be more comfortable and would recover faster without it. So her right eye was removed. 

As she healed up, she was able to meet her new dog sisters, and has since joined them on hikes and beach trips. She’s very adventurous and loves to explore new things. 

Aurora Hawke: I would say a good camera that takes a really high quality, high resolution picture, so that it looks really nice and sharp in the calendar. And then just look at, look at everything we have outside. Just go outside with your pet and take a picture. One of my favorite pictures from this year is a cat looking longingly out the window. 

Rick Driscoll: Tupac. 

Aurora Hawke: Tupac, yes!

Rick Driscoll: We want to inspire people to adopt pets. That’s probably the primary reason why we do it. It’s open to anybody with a pet. And I get the most excited when we get entries that aren’t necessarily cats or dogs. We get goats or turtles or, you know, various reptiles … 

Aurora Hawke: Hamsters. 

Rick Driscoll: … hamsters, chinchillas, that sort of thing.