Thanks to the Plant City Kiwanis Club, some cool pups received recognition for their paw-fect personalities.
Plant City’s Kiwanis Club held the best doggone contest in town this year and announced the paws-itively awesome winners Saturday at the Robert W. Willaford Train Museum.
The contest, which Kiwanis simply dubbed “Coolest Dog,” came to a close on May 10 and hundreds of people voted for the 15 submitted contestants. On April 1, the club announced it would host the new contest to help fundraise for the service organization.
Anyone living in Plant City was invited to submit a photo of their dog and provide a few short sentences on why their beloved pup deserved the title of Plant City’s “Coolest Dog.” The fee for participating was $10 but also came with 10 votes, all of which was done online. The community then could log onto the website and vote for whichever dog they thought was worthy of the title. Votes were $1 each and there was no limit on how many times you could purchase.
Kiwanis is a non-profit that has served Plant City for nearly 100 years. They use their funds to benefit children in the community and are always looking for a creative way to get more people involved.
They seemed to stumble upon a flourishing prospect with the contest, as hundreds of votes went to each of the top competitors. The top three dogs and their owners were invited to join Kiwanis in a special ceremony on June 8 where they received their hard-earned prizes.
The Coolest Dog of 2019 was awarded to Bonsai, who received 520 votes. Second place went to T. Oliver Wagglesworth, who received 447 votes. Third place was Angel, who received 150 votes.
The excited pups eagerly received their customized bandanas and medals, took a photo with Kiwanis leaders and walked away with an assortment of prizes.
First place received its medal, a $500 gift card, the Coolest Dog bandana and an engraved Coolest Dog in Plant City dog bowl. Banzai also was the lucky winner of a professional photo shoot by Portray Photography OS.
Second place also received a medal and a Cool Dog bandana, as well as a $250 gift card.
Third place walked away with the medal, Cool Dog bandana and a $100 gift card.
Any dog entered up through the 10th highest number of votes was also deemed a “cool dog” and given a bandana.
Kiwanis said they plan to start the contest even earlier next year, with speculations of it beginning in January so as not to interfere with the any end-of-school year activities. As word continues to grow, more and more dogs will be submitted and there is a chance they may even open it up to Tampa Bay pups, as well.
