Cherryland Humane Society Pet Calendar Contest: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is the Cherryland Humane Society Pet Calendar Contest, and who runs it?

Cherryland Humane Society, an animal welfare organization based at 1750 Ahlberg Road in Traverse City, Michigan, stages this contest as a fundraiser for its own work. The format is seasonal and personal: supporters enter photographs of their pets, the community buys votes for the entries it loves, and the revenue flows straight back to the shelter. When the tally settles, the ballot crowns a top winner, and that photograph takes the highest honor the contest offers. In the ballot's own words, "The top winner will win the coveted cover photo for the 2027 calendar!"

The voting itself runs on GoGo Photo Contest, a photo-contest service, at www.gogophotocontest.com/cherryland2027. That single address handles the whole experience, from entering a pet to buying votes to checking standings.

The product behind the prize

Every cycle ends in a tangible object rather than a trophy: the following year's wall calendar. For this ballot that means the 2027 edition, which supporters will be able to buy once printing wraps. The contest thus does double duty, financing the society in the moment and leaving a calendar that keeps the shelter visible on kitchen walls all year.

When does voting open and close, and which editions have run?

This ballot prints its clock in full. Per the rules, "The Voting Period starts at 8:00 AM (Eastern Time) on Monday, February 9, 2026 and ends at 9:00 PM (Eastern Time) on Sunday, March 8, 2026." The Submissions Period keeps those same boundaries, so entering a pet and backing it with paid votes happen inside a single late-winter stretch.

After the close, the printed calendar follows on a separate schedule: "Calendars will be available for purchase in or before November 2026." That leaves the balance of the year for the count to settle, the layout to be set and the print run to finish before buyers can pick a copy up.

The fundraiser predates this cycle. The earliest calendar contest for the society ran in 2024 and raised more than $17,000, later editions followed in 2025 and 2026, and the organizer treats the project as a fixture: "Our annual rescue calendar has evolved into one of our top annual fundraisers."

Sorting is the loose thread. No grouping of entries into named brackets or themes appears anywhere on the ballot; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

How does a supporter actually vote on this ballot?

Support on this ballot is bought, in the plainest sense. A supporter opens www.gogophotocontest.com/cherryland2027 while the window is live, browses the View Entries gallery, and selects a favorite photograph. The posted price rule is blunt: "Votes are $1 each with a five-vote minimum." Every order starts at that five-vote floor, and larger baskets simply multiply the donation.

Entering versus voting

Entrants follow a separate path. The Participate tab opens the submission flow during the Submissions Period, which mirrors the voting window exactly, and the Contest Rules tab carries the image standards, including caveats around copyrighted or professional photos. Reading that tab before uploading saves a rejected entry later.

All deadlines run on Eastern Time, and the 9:00 PM close on the final Sunday is a hard stop; standings lock where they stand. The menu rounds out with Prizes and About Us links beside the Sign In option.

Standings stay visible in the gallery throughout, which lets backers pace their spending against rival entries.

Where does the Cherryland ballot sit among Michigan public votes?

The nearest relative on this site is the 2026 UPAWS Pet Calendar Contest, another Michigan shelter calendar built on pet photos and community payments. The pair share a format but serve different communities, and each posts its own window, prices and rules.

Beyond that, the neighbours change character quickly. The Ann Arbor-Area High School Football Player of the Week and the MLive Bay City-Area High School Football Player of the Week are free weekly sports polls, the Detroit Free Press Athlete of the Week runs the same pattern, and Best of Northern Michigan together with the Detroit Community Choice Awards rank local businesses across wide category slates.

The Cherryland ballot separates from all of them on its engine. Those programs hand out free clicks backed by newsroom audiences; this one prices the click itself, turning each vote into a $1 gift. Support here is therefore expressed in dollars first and enthusiasm second, and a campaign's shape looks more like a mini fundraiser than a get-out-the-vote drive.

For a pet owner weighing where to invest effort, that difference matters more than any similarity in subject matter.

How can a backer strengthen a favorite pet's chances?

A paid ballot rewrites what mobilizing supporters means. Because votes cost $1 and orders begin at five, boosting a favorite pet is fundamentally a fundraising push: invite backers to treat their bundle as a donation to the shelter, and to give early instead of saving everything for the final weekend in March. Sharing the ballot link the moment entries open matters more here than on free polls, since a dollar gathered in February is a dollar the closing bell cannot add afterward. Personal appeals, social posts and group chats all fit inside the organizer's framework; anything beyond that, including outside assistance, answers to the Contest Rules tab. The broader playbook for widening support sits in our guide to earning more votes online.