Give & Take: What’s in a Name? How an Animal Shelter’s Name Defined its Mission
Catherine Adams, Charlotte Bader
Recently, a group of Prosek Volunteers took advantage of our volunteer hours and headed over to Bideawee,a no-kill pet welfare organization serving metropolitan New York and Long Island to help them prepare for Clear the Shelters, a national, weekend-long event with the mission to help pets find their “forever homes.”
After a tour of the shelter, we split up into teams and created a folder stuffing competition—which was unnecessarily heated—to see who could most efficiently organize materials for the event. Mid-competition, revelation and potential shame struck as we were quickly reminded that we were a part of something bigger than just an athletic competition where the only looming injuries were paper cuts. By compiling adoption materials, we were in turn evolving into advocates for these animals, several of which we had the opportunity to meet at the end of our service.
The name, Bideawee, comes from a Scottish phrase meaning “stay awhile,” which perfectly encapsulates the mission of the organization: animals in need stay at the shelter, for as long as it takes, until they are placed in their forever home. Bideawee reminds us that it’s essential for a company’s brand to remain consistent to its core.
Working in financial communications, we are frequently tasked with crafting messaging for our often-complicated technical clients. From experience, we have found that this task is most frequently successful when we can create a clear message that truly resonates with executives and then trickles down internally within their organization. One salient and simple message, when properly selected and implemented, can define a company and in turn craft the way that it operates.
At Prosek, we are advocates for our clients, helping to spread their message and intel to key audiences in order to properly bolster a brand and in turn, further their business. For several hours, we had the opportunity to become advocates for dogs like Raisin (pictured). After spending time with Raisin, watching him clumsily chase after a tennis ball and flop onto the ground for brief spouts of relaxation where he coaxed us into copious belly rubs, it’s hard to see how anything so kind (and frankly, relatable) would need an advocate.
We discovered that everyone needs an advocate. Be it a Fortune 500 company or a dog that miraculously managed to sit still for a quick picture, everyone needs a voice to understand and support them. Bideawee knows their dogs just like we know our clients, and their tireless work has helped them to successfully place animals with loving homes for over 115 years. We were honored to have spent our afternoon meeting these incredible animals and the selfless employees and volunteers at Bideawee. 