The “Meet Penny- A Lost and Found Story” coloring book was created to explain the mission of the Peninsula Regional Animal Shelter and to introduce its new adoption bus. The shelter, located in Newport News, Virginia, is a municipal facility that serves four jurisdictions- Hampton, York County, Poquoson and Newport News. The shelter is an open admission facility that accepts all the animals picked up by the four jurisdictions’ animal control officers and animals surrendered by people who can no longer care for their animals. The Peninsula Regional Animal Shelter intakes the highest number of animals of any shelter in Virginia.
Since opening in 2015, the shelter has worked to explain its mission to the citizens across the large four jurisdiction area. In 2019, the shelter received its first adoption bus to take adoptable animals to local events. The shelter staff requested coloring book to hand out to children at community events and to give school groups that visit the shelter. Their wish for the coloring book was to show the ways the shelter serves the community and to introduce the new adoption bus. They requested that the main character should be a pit bull mix dog, since that it type of pet that they intake the most at the shelter. The four animals in the coloring book show the variety of animals served by the shelter and their names (Penny, Reggie, Annie and Sheldon), represent the shelter name (Peninsula Regional Animal Shelter).
“Meet Penny- A Lost and Found Story” is a popular giveaway item that explains the shelter’s mission on a child-appropriate level while also providing adults with important information about the Peninsula Regional Animal Shelter (what to do if you lose/find an animal, contact information). In addition to the printed copies, the coloring book is also available as a PDF download on their website.
“Meet Penny- A Lost and Found Story” started with pencil sketches, was illustrated in Adobe Illustrator and finished in InDesign. All of the images are original. The project was completed in house by the Promotions Coordinator of Newport News Parks, Recreation & Tourism (Renee Popernack).
