Since Pokémon Go launched July 6, it has become the No. 1 game on the Apple and Google Play stores and encourages people to get out of the house and walk outside. But for Muncie and the Ball State community, the game has contributed to helping the local animal shelter as well.
The game, which uses augmented reality to put characters from the classic Pokémon franchise into the real world for people to catch, has led to more people walking around campus, their neighborhoods and other Muncie locations to find Pokémon.
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With more people walking, Phil Peckinpaugh, director of the Muncie Animal Shelter, decided to encourage people to volunteer with walking the shelter dogs while catching Pokémon.
Senior urban planning major Samantha Wiser helped Peckinpaugh develop the shelter’s marketing strategy.
“[Peckinpaugh] and I were talking about the game,” Wiser said. “We were joking around about all the people walking around downtown, then like a light bulb, [Peckinpaugh] said, ‘What if they were walking dogs?’”
By noon that same day, Wiser had made an ad that was posted on the animal shelter’s Facebook page encouraging people to come look for Pokémon while walking the dogs.
Within 48 hours of the Facebook post, 200 people showed up to walk the dogs, and two of the dogs have been adopted, Wiser said.
The animal shelter’s idea quickly went viral, gaining national attention through TIME Magazine, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed and many other mass media sources.
Wiser said she never expected the idea to take off like it did.
“[Peckinpaugh] kept getting interview after interview and I knew that he had started something,” Wiser said. “I was just lucky to be a small part of his perfect idea.”
There is also a Facebook community for Pokémon Go players in the Muncie area, which serves as a platform for app users.
Peckinpaugh took to the Facebook page to share the news that Facebook is sending a film crew to the Muncie Animal Shelter on July 18 to document the Pokémon Go dog walking program.
“It will be shared by Mark Zuckerberg on Friday [July 22]. We want a big turnout of players. Please spread the word. Walking begins at 10 a.m. and lasts until 5:30 p.m.," Peckinpaugh wrote.
Players who participate in the dog walking program will have a chance to be featured in Facebook’s coverage.
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