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10-27-2004, 09:03 PM | #1 |
YT 6000 Club Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 6,238
| [News] Bark the Vote! November 2nd There's "Vote or Die," the slogan of hip-hop mogul Sean "P. Diddy" Combs' get-out-the-vote drive. And now a five-pound Yorkshire terrier named Schmitty is also helping to drum up voting in "Bark the Vote," a fun campaign launched by her owner. "We might be better off going to the dogs," quipped Elly McGuire, an Upper West Side Manhattan media sales consultant and political junkie, who is Schmitty's campaign manager. McGuire was expressing her frustration that millions of Americans won't go to the polls Tuesday in "this especially important election." So she figured one way to encourage the nation's 64 million dog owners to exercise their right to vote might be through their pets. With more than four million pet owners in New York City alone, McGuire said she thought, "Wouldn't it be fun if Schmitty and myself could unite their pooches to walk their two-legged friends to the polls on Nov. 2 to exercise their right to vote." Schmitty -- whose biography refers to her gender as "not a leg lifter" -- could ask the city's other pooches and those around the country to "bark the vote," McGuire said. "Think of how many people might vote. I was all excited about that," she said. "Everything is so serious in the world right now. It's so scary out there, we need a little levity in our life." But how to get the word out? Through a campaign built around Schmitty. Her four-year-old pet -- which has an arresting black, tan and rust coloration, an expressive face, and "a wonderful effervescence" according to McGuire -- had already achieved some recognition. Schmitty was featured in appealing poses in a line of "New Yorkie" greeting cards McGuire produced after terrorists brought down the World Trade Center in Sept. ll, 2001. McGuire wanted to raise funds to honor some of the firefighters who lost their lives. There was an overwhelming response to the cards, which McGuire subsequently developed into a business. Proceeds from sales are going to the Uniformed Firefighters Association Scholarship Fund in the name of nine firefighters from Ladder Co. 25 on 77th Street in Manhattan. Schmitty was one of the neighborhood dogs that regularly received biscuit treats from the firefighters when McGuire walked her. "To see these big guys playing with this little five-pound dog, it was quite a sight," McGuire recalled. Schmitty's popularity escalated in January when the Defense Department ordered 10,000 "Operation Thank Boss" cards that McGuire had created showing Schmitty and the U.S. flag. The cards were given to the U.S. National Guard and Reserve troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to send to their stateside employers, McGuire said. Then, during the GOP convention, Barnes & Noble devoted an entire "red, white and blue" Schmitty window at its Rockefeller Center location to "Bark the Vote." The idea for promoting the campaign sprung from a stationery show in May at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan. A vote card was among the items McGuire exhibited. It featured Schmitty leaning against red, white and blue baby blocks spelling out the word: "VOTE." Representatives of the U.S. National Archives who were present "got all excited," McGuire said, "because they said no one else had addressed the election in the whole show." For the campaign, McGuire developed neutral T-shirts and buttons carrying the message: "Schmitty says Bark the Vote." She also provides free posters with the slogans: "Be a Party Animal," "It's a treat to vote," and the tongue-in-cheek message "What's wrong with this country going to the dogs?" The T-shirts, buttons and posters are available at Schmitty's Web site: www.schmittysays.com. McGuire said 100 percent of the proceeds from sales of the T-shirts and buttons will go to Animal Care & Control of New York City to support its no-kill goal for 2008. To help get out the vote, on weekends McGuire walks Schmitty in and around Central Park, handing out buttons. "People come up and ask who she's going to vote for, McGuire said. Schmitty is nonpartisan in running "Bark the Vote," but the terrier hoped to make up her mind about who to vote for after the last presidential debate. She remains undecided, however, McGuire said. The pooch has her own way of commenting on the decisions of the four-legged voters her campaign targets. "When asked if people don't vote how she will feel, she tucks her head under a basket with her paws over her head," indicating her displeasure, McGuire said. "When people tell her they're going to vote, she gives them a high-five." http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/...lines-politics |
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