TODAY THE WORLD UNITES FOR ORPHAN PETS

10th Annual Remember Me Thursday® Campaign Honored with Virtual Meeting Between Animal-Loving Countries Across the Globe…

RANCHO SANTA FE, Calif., Sept. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Helen Woodward Animal Center invites animal-lovers everywhere to participate in the global event for Remember Me Thursday® (RMT), a worldwide pet adoption awareness campaign now in its 10^th year. In addition to the actions animal-lovers can take via social media, participants are invited to a virtual event uniting animal advocates from locations as far away as Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Panama, New York, North Carolina, and the United Kingdom, via video chat, to simultaneously light up the world for orphan pets. Helen Woodward Animal Center invites the public to join us on Remember Me Thursday®, TODAY, September 22 at 9:00 a.m. PST to #SeeTheLight about pet adoption. 

RMT was established in 2013 by Helen Woodward Animal Center President and CEO Mike Arms. Moved by the staggering statistics that over a million homeless pets lose their lives each year in the U.S., Arms put out a call to rescue organizations in an attempt to create a social media global awareness campaign. As creator of the International Pet Adoptathon and the International Home 4 the Holidays® program (placing over 19 million pets in homes since 1999), he was able to send out an expansive request and the response was significant.

"We understand that not everyone is in the position to adopt a pet," explained Arms, "but we also know that anyone who loves animals and is tapped into social media has the ability to share a message of support. By uniting all of these social media voices on one day, we can make a larger impact and really affect change."

Now in its tenth year, RMT has been supported by 190 countries with hundreds of thousands of individuals and more than 1,000 separate animal welfare organizations around the globe holding candle-lighting ceremonies of their own, spreading the message on social media, or lighting a virtual candle. The enormous swell of celebrity support includes this year's spokesperson Jasmine Tookes, as well as stars such as Kristin Chenoweth, Carrie Ann Inaba, Katherine Heigl, Rick Springfield, Wynonna Judd, Bethenny Frankel, George Lopez, along with dozens of athletes, designers, musicians, and social media influencers. With over 100 luminaries onboard, the star power behind the campaign has resulted in the topic trending each year on both Facebook and Twitter, garnering more than 2 billion social media impressions since its start. 

Today's Remember Me Thursday® virtual event will unite representatives from rescue organizations across the globe to share the state of animal welfare in their area and highlight how they are commemorating the pet adoption awareness campaign. The ceremony will also include words from RMT founder and Center President and CEO Mike Arms, a reading of the official RMT poem and a presentation of the RMT Rescue Pet Hero award. The event will end with a heartfelt candle lighting in remembrance of the millions of orphan pets still waiting in shelters for their own forever homes.

The very special international RMT Zoom call and ceremony will be available online for the animal-loving public to watch. Those who wish to watch can click here. The public can also get involved by tweeting, tagging, posting and sharing the beauty and life-saving significance of pet adoption using the hashtags #RememberMeThursday and #SeeTheLight and tagging @hwac. 

Animal-lovers can also win life-saving funds, toys and food for adoptable pets looking for forever families at their favorite non-profit, pet adoption organization. To enter the Remember Me Thursday Social Media Contest, simply upload your rescue pet's photo and story to the #RememberMeThursday Photo Wall for a chance to win!* (*Restrictions apply.  Final selection remains at the sole discretion of Helen Woodward Animal Center).

For more information on Remember Me Thursday® and a full list of participating celebrities and animal welfare organizations, go to www.remembermethursday.org.

SOURCE Helen Woodward Animal Center