1st National Tiger Awareness Week a ROARING Success!

Seven tiger-mascot schools across the nation participated in T4T’s 1st Annual National Tiger Awareness Week from November 10th - November 16th. The idea was sparked at the last National T4T Summit held in Columbia, MO and is the first nationally student-led initiative for Tigers for Tigers!

The overall purpose of this week was to raise awareness on campus by engaging with students through interactive activities. One activity known as “The Tiger Skit” involves the university mascot being chased by a “poacher” in high traffic areas throughout campus. Encouraging conversation on social media, students are asked to tweet photos of the mascot using #MakeARoar. As a result, over 300 tweets were produced with the hashtag! Melissa Ventura, Towson University T4T club member said, “The Tiger Skit was a fun and creative way to bring awareness around campus regarding endangered wild tigers.” Rochester Institute of Technology’s mascot, Ritchie, even managed to make it on their local news channel, Fox Rochester WUHF, while competing in a #MascotMatchup! Click here to watch the clip.

A main focus of the week was to showcase the award-winning documentary, “The Elephant in the Living Room.” Starring Tim Harrison, Director of Outreach for Animals, this documentary explores the world of private ownership of exotic animals from both the owner’s and law enforcement’s side. Tim Harrison, expert on the removal of exotic animals, spoke at the 2nd Annual T4T Summit at Mizzou and most recently at Clemson University for National Tiger Awareness Week. Over 100 students showed up on a Friday night at Tillman Auditorium in Clemson, SC to listen to Tim Harrison speak about the consequences of owning exotic animals, why it’s dangerous, and why it’s important to act now. Harrison said, “This is my favorite organization here in the U.S., and I’m not exaggerating, because you guys are going to pick up the baton.” Tigers for Tigers has gladly accepted that offer!

Ranging from Colorado, to Texas, all the way to New York, these universities reached a total student population of over 130,000 on their campuses. Being mostly an awareness campaign, clubs across the country still managed to raise over $1,000 to go towards tiger conservation. Organizations such as National Wildlife Refuge Association, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Big Cat Rescue and Outreach for Animals promoted the week as well, reaching out to over 1 million fans on Facebook and Twitter. Hats off to the T4T clubs at Colorado College, Trinity University, LSU, Mizzou, RIT, Towson University and Clemson University for participating in a very successful National Tiger Awareness Week!

Visit our Facebook to view more photos from the event!

Go Tigers!