2024 "BEST BUDS" Pin Up Paws Calendar Contest: How Voting Works & How to Win

What the Pin Up Paws calendar contest is and who runs it

The 2024 "BEST BUDS" Pin Up Paws Calendar Contest is a pet calendar fundraiser run by the St. Augustine Humane Society, an animal welfare organization based at 1665 Old Moultrie Road in St. Augustine, Florida. The ballot sits on the GoGo Photo Contest platform at gogophotocontest.com/pupcalendar24, and the society frames the fundraiser in its own words on the ballot header: "A home without a pet is like a garden without flowers."

The stakes are stated just as plainly. The society writes that "At the end of the contest, the pet with the most votes will be our 2024 Pin Up Paws cover pet," so supporters are voting a single animal onto the front of the printed calendar. The ballot page also thanks participants for helping the society raise $49,735, a figure the fundraiser page printed alongside its leaderboard.

Questions about the calendar or the contest go to Carolyn Smith at [email protected] or 904-829-2737x110, the contact the society prints on the ballot itself. The site navigation around the vote carries a PUP Garden Party Sponsorships page, a Contest Rules page, a Prizes page and an About page, which is where the society keeps the material it chooses to publish about each cycle.

The dated record: editions, deadlines and what is not printed

The society's own ballot for a later cycle greets visitors with "Welcome to the St. Augustine Humane Society's 15th annual Pin Up Paws Calendar Contest!", which places Pin Up Paws as a long-running annual series rather than a new experiment. On this ballot's address, the confirmed editions are 2024 and 2026, and the society reveals each finished calendar at its Pin Up Paws Party after the vote closes.

For the 2024 cycle the organizer printed two deadlines on its GoGo Photo Contest pages. Entries: "All contestants must be entered in the competition by 8:00 PM (Eastern Time) on Tuesday, July 16, 2024." Voting: "The deadline to submit all votes online is 8:00 PM (Eastern Time) on Wednesday, July 17, 2024." The 2024 ballot now reads "Contest has ended," so the 2024 calendar race is closed.

What the society has not published is the rest of the rulebook. Neither the ballot page nor the rules link it carries prints a category roster, an entry fee, or any ceiling on repeat voting by a single person; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. The society also leaves the opening date of the current cycle's voting window unprinted ahead of the ballot going live, so the page itself is the only source for that date.

How a supporter votes on the Pin Up Paws ballot today

The mechanic is a plain public photo vote. A supporter opens gogophotocontest.com/pupcalendar24, selects View Entries, browses the pets entered in the calendar contest, and presses the vote control beside a favorite. The ballot notes that all times are Eastern Time, and the header carries a Sign In link alongside the entries, rules and prizes pages.

Whether casting a vote requires an account is not stated in the text the society publishes; the Sign In link exists, and the ballot itself settles the question the moment a supporter attempts to vote. The same goes for repeat visits: the society prints no daily return rule for Pin Up Paws, so a supporter planning to come back should read the Contest Rules page on the society's own ballot rather than assume a pattern from another fundraiser.

Timing matters more than anything else in a contest this shape. The 2024 cycle gave entrants a July 16 entry deadline and a July 17 voting deadline, a compressed window in which a pet's total could move sharply in the final hours. For the live 2026 edition, the printed deadline on the ballot is the only date that counts, and the cover pet is decided by the tally at that deadline, exactly as the society's rules sentence describes.

How this ballot sits beside its Florida neighbours

Pin Up Paws is unusual among Florida public votes because the entrants are pets, not businesses, and the organizer is a shelter rather than a publisher. The state's better-known ballots work differently. The Best of Florida Awards ranks businesses across the whole state, the Best of Miami Readers' Poll and the Best of Orlando ballot are metro readers' choice contests, and the Best of Tallahassee, Best of the Bay and Best in Destin ballots serve their own markets.

Those differences matter to a supporter because the rules travel with the organizer, not the state. A readers' poll run by a media company can carry nomination rounds, category lists and paid upgrade options that a shelter's photo fundraiser simply does not have. Pin Up Paws runs on GoGo Photo Contest, a platform built for photo fundraisers, while several of the readers' polls above run on entirely different voting systems with their own account and limit rules.

For a pet owner in St. Augustine, the practical comparison is simple: this is the only ballot on this page where a photo of a dog or cat competes for a calendar cover, and the money raised goes to the society's shelter work. Every other Florida ballot linked here answers to a different publisher with a different rulebook.

Strengthening support for a Pin Up Paws entry

A calendar contest rewards the entry that can reach the most people inside a short window. The 2024 cycle allowed roughly a day between the entry deadline and the voting deadline, so the entries that finished strongest were the ones whose owners had already lined up supporters before the ballot opened. For the live edition, share the pet's entry page the day it appears, name the deadline in every ask, and ask supporters to return if the ballot allows repeat voting.

The society publishes no statement on its ballot about outside help or purchased votes, so the only written rule a supporter can point to is the Contest Rules page on the live ballot itself. Read it before spending money or effort on anything beyond ordinary outreach. Our votes guide walks through outreach that fits a photo fundraiser, and the award votes page explains how packages work on public ballots generally. No vote package, whoever sells it, can promise a win in a tally the shelter controls.