SNOOTY THE MANATEE’S BIRTHDAY BASH
At the South Florida Museum
Snooty is the oldest-living manatee to be born and raised in captivity. He is also the very first manatee to have a recorded and documented birthdate. When you combine these two attributes with a personality that loves people and attention, you have a celebrity “spokes-manatee” and wildlife ambassador unlike any other.
In 1997, 1998 and 1999, I was in charge of planning Snooty’s Birthday Bash, as well as publicizing it.
In terms of bringing people and attention to the South Florida Museum, it was the facility’s biggest public outreach event. (Attendance — between 3,000 and 3,500 for 1997 and 1999 — topped out at nearly 5,000 for Snooty’s 50th birthday celebration.)
Each of the free, four-hour parties featured live entertainment, children’s games and art activities, and a wildlife awareness festival spotlighting regional animal groups. An expanded slate of museum, planetarium and aquarium programming was also available for a reduced admission fee. The festivities culminated with the singing of “Happy Birthday” to Snooty and the awarding of prizes to winners of the children’s birthday card contest.
As the event planner, I was responsible for recruiting sponsors, lining up exhibitors and entertainment, placing food and rental orders, coordinating children’s activities with the museum’s education department, implementing the birthday card contest, planning all event publicity, promotions and printing, and serving as the day-of event manager.
During my tenure as the facility’s public relations officer, Snooty’s Birthday Bash received intensive, regional media coverage, including story placements in the Bradenton Herald, the Manatee and Sarasota editions of the Herald-Tribune, the Tampa Tribune, the St. Petersburg Times, independent weeklies and regional magazines.
Regional television coverage was even more extensive, with almost every station in both the Tampa-St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Bradenton markets airing either (or both) pre- and post-event stories and PSAs.
These stations included: Bay News 9 (Time Warner – Tampa Bay), WWSB News 40 (ABC – Sarasota), WTVT-FOX 13 (FOX – Tampa/St. Pete), WTSP Ch. 10 (CBS – Tampa/St. Pete), WFLA Newschannel 8 (NBC – Tampa/St. Pete) and SNN 6 (NY Times/Comcast – Sarasota).
Most of these news organizations participated in the Florida News Network video wire service and were CNN and network feeds. As a result, “Snooty” stories and footage were shared throughout the United States and beyond. (Visitors from as far away as Washington state, California, England and Germany discussed seeing these pieces with myself and the manatee staff in the months before, during and after the actual events.)
