Where Do You Stand?

Standing Partnership is proud to support Stray Rescue of St. Louis as one of our 2008 community partners. Tomorrow, we’re hoping that hundreds, maybe even thousands, of St. Louisans will also be proud to support this critical organization for the city’s homeless animals.

At 9 a.m. on Thursday, May 1, Stray Rescue will be hosting their largest event to date at 2320 Pine St. — next to the building it hopes will someday soon become a state-of-the-art animal shelter. But, in order to make the shelter happen, it must first win a $1 million shelter makeover competition, sponsored by www.zootoo.com.

In a brilliant social media move, www.Zootoo.com began challenging animal shelters last October to drive attendance to its new Web site. Shelters were able to gain points “towards the makeover by encouraging their communities to be active on Zootoo.com.” Each mouse click gained more points for the shelter makeover, and also connected animal lovers across America. In turn, online dialogue began booming on the site, and Zootoo’s mission to help raise awareness of pet shelters and loveable, adoptable animals came alive. Bravo!

After more than six months of generating awareness and excitement for the contest, Stray Rescue hopes tomorrow’s pep rally will show Zootoo officials the determination we have for getting homeless animals off the streets.

Cardinals’ Manager Tony La Russa, Mayor Francis Slay, the St. Louis Rams Cheerleaders and St. Louis Blues players Barret Jackman, Bobby Plager and Kelly Chase are just some of the local dog lovers who will be in attendance. Adoptable Stray Rescue dogs and the St. Louis Police Department K-9 unit will also be showing their spirit.

To view the potential new shelter, along with the kind of dogs that will benefit, click here.

We hope to see you there!

As I’m sure you’ll learn in upcoming “How I Started at Standing” entries, many Standing staffers began here as interns. Beth, Susan, Jadea, Maria and Patrick are just a few examples…

And, guess what?  Standing Partnership is currently seeking high-qualified intern candidates! So get those resumes in!

What does an ideal intern candidate look like?

• You like love to write;
• You know what “pitching” is, and you’re good at it;
• You enjoy working on a variety of clients, projects and teams;
• You can work alone, and enjoy working in a team;
• When someone says, “Take the ball and run with it,” you think of exciting opportunities to showcase your talent, capabilities and prowess, versus a football game; and
• When someone asks you, why PR?  You say, “Because I’m a ‘people’ person.”  You take the opportunity to describe how you enjoy the challenge of managing clients’ reputations through strategic planning, social media, crisis communications, employee communications, smart media relations and more.

What do we offer?  An award-winning culture that provides interns the environment to build impressive and valuable experience, alongside leaders in their field.  

Oh yeah, did I mention it’s full-time, paid well, and, interns get their own mentor and office? (…Susan’s office decor will be tough to beat.)

Do you know the perfect intern candidate?  If so, please let us know.

Standing Partnership encourages its team members to get involved in boards and organizations for which they are passionate.

As a St. Louis dog lover, rescuer and foster parent, I’m passionate about helping animals, and I am very proud to be an active foster parent for Stray Rescue of St. Louis and the Humane Society of Missouri.

My journey, captured at http://kgump.wordpress.com/, has been extremely rewarding, and has made me even more driven to help these animals who have been abandoned, abused, and altogether left alone to fend for their lives or else die on the city streets.

But today, as I read the news from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on the dog fighting ring bust, tears threatened my eyes and anger entered my heart.  

This hits home. Missouri has a problem. We are one of the leading culprits of puppy mills, and we obviously have a dog fighting issue. St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay comments on the issue in his blog, From the Mayor’s Desk.

According to the Humane Society, national legislation is pending to toughen penalties against animal cruelty.  Here’s hoping we don’t hear about another bust for quite some time.  

What’s your story? Have you adopted a rescued animal? Fostered? Or stumbled upon a puppy mill or dog fighting ring?