We are pleased to welcome our four Marketer of the Year nominees as guest bloggers in the weeks leading up to the Spark! and Marketer of the Year Awards Luncheon.
Kay Hyman Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Charleston Animal Society
Marketing “Previously Enjoyed Pets” or “How did I get here”?
As a child I always knew I was going to help animals. I mended wings of neighborhood birds, helped lost dogs find their way home and weaned countless kittens. Unfortunately I lacked the skills to become a veterinarian and was told by my Naval Shipyard retiree Dad, “Kay, you have to be able to make a living.” So I began to look at my natural skills and education options.
In 1976 there was very little offered by colleges that interested me. Very few schools offered creative interesting classes and most of what I saw was numbers and more numbers, not my idea of a fun career. So I set my path toward Visual Merchandising, a creative way to market. I attended the Savannah School of Design taking a few classes. I had my own business and clients for two years designing windows for store fronts of local businesses. I then went to work for the Navy (my dad was thrilled) displaying everything from cans of oil to furniture. After thirteen years with the Navy Resale System as a Visual Merchandiser, I realized I was not happy. I wanted to do something that meant something. I wanted to change the world! So I left a very lucrative career in Government Service to follow my dream to help animals.
I decided to put all my skills to work for a local non-profit shelter The John Ancrum SPCA. At the time the shelter was at an all time low in the public eye. We were known as “THE POUND” and because of a high profile cat case, “The cat Killers”. My goal in life for the past twenty years has been to change the public’s perception of our shelter and to help our community become a better place for animals.
I built up our media presence to include seven live weekly radio appearances, two weekly television spots, countless recorded television spots and helped to develop a Marketing Campaign which won national attention. My natural talent to speak honestly and to communicate our needs has put our shelter in the forefront of the country’s humane societies. I think I have finally lived my dream, to make a difference on this earth and to help Joe dog to have a better life.
One Dog at a Time
I was recently reminded of the reason I have worked in the shelter system for over twenty years as an employee and another five as a voluntee– when I look into the faces and the eyes of yet another soul, which passes, through our doors. I still tear up when I think about the many animals whose lives have touched me. Their owners are usually just background in my memories. Many times I can remember a dogs name, which I have somehow been involved in their adoption, but rarely the owners name.
These faces are the source of great joy and the source of great pain in the life of a shelter worker. Everyone who works in this system is affected by the reality of the plight of the homeless animal. Some of us get them healthy enough to find a forever home, some of us make sure they will never bring unwanted animals into this world and some of us do the paperwork…but all of us are touched by them.
Many people have asked me “How can you work there?” “I could never do what you do”…I consider that an extreme compliment. Even though I have never performed the actual act of euthanizing an innocent creature, I have witnessed it many times in the eyes of the employees I work with. Euthanasia is a bittersweet end, which sometimes liberates a tortured soul but more often ends the life of an innocent one.
When you look into the eyes of the homeless animals featured on Facebook, our website www.CharlestonAnimalSociety.org and in the Post and Courier, needing homes or who have been so unjustly tortured by their supposed caregivers, please remember that they are why we give so freely of ourselves to this system. The Alumni of our shelter are just a few of the reasons why I and fifty other dedicated staff members twenty one Board Members and countless volunteers work at the Charleston Animal Society. They are our inspiration to face a new day. Adopt a shelter pet, and convince someone else to do the same!
Contact Kay
Kay Hyman, Director of Marketing and Public Relations
Charleston Animal Society
phone: 843-329-1544
khyman@charlestonanimalsociety.org
www.charlestonanimalsociety.org
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