One subject appears pensive, sitting on a table next to a glass of IPA. Looking for laughs, another wears a makeshift beer helmet, equipped with two cans and a couple of straws hanging by his floppy ears.
The two characters had their pictures taken recently at Redemption Rock Brewing Co. Although they didn’t opt to flash their canines, Dijon and Tater made for stellar models, albeit furrier than most: They didn’t bark about the lighting or beg for that perfect shot.
For the first half of the month, Redemption Rock Brewing Co. fans voted on the mugs of about 50 different dogs, shown posing around the brewery’s Shrewsbury Street taproom.
In all, 3,000 people voted online for their favorite dogs in Redemption Rock’s annual calendar contest. The top 12 dogs, announced last week, have made the fifth edition of the B Corp brewery’s Taproom Dogs Calendar, and their owners get to schedule a professional photo shoot for their pups.
A portion of the calendar sales goes to benefit NEADS, a nearly 50-year-old Princeton nonprofit that trains and places service dogs. To date, Redemption Rock’s calendars have netted NEADS several hundred dollars.
“NEADS is so grateful for our partnership with Redemption Rock Brewery,” Hannah Kump, NEADS’ supervisor of retail and community fundraising, said in an email. “Donations from the sale of the calendar over the past 5 years have been invested in the breeding, raising, training, and matching of our world class service dogs with people with hearing loss or physical disabilities, children with autism, and veterans with PTSD.”
Top Dogs
Gizmo, a 2-year-old rescue from Puerto Rico, and Arnie, a 4-year-old golden retriever, came in first and second, respectively. Their proud owners enlisted help from friends and family for support. And both reached out to their large work communities for votes.
Arnie’s owner, Krista Braga, teaches fourth grade, so she campaigned around her classroom and school. Braga, of Hopkinton, got Arnie, named after the legendary golfer Arnold Palmer, in 2020 during the pandemic.
The friendly golden is no stranger to the spotlight. Braga submitted a picture of Arnie for last year’s calendar, too, and he went on to win sixth place. She picked July for his month and bought a bunch of patriotic props, even nodding to Fourth of July barbecues by giving Arnie a toy hot dog.
“I felt like we had to meet the standard again,” Braga said of entering Arnie again this year. “What if he didn’t get in this time? I’d be devastated.”
Arnie will have February for this year’s edition, and Braga has already started loading up on Valentine’s Day props.
Erin Stomski, who lives in the city, adopted first-place winner Gizmo last year from a nonprofit based in Puerto Rico. He’s likely part Brussels Griffon, but Stomski doesn’t know for sure.
“I usually say he’s just a good boy,” she said, adding, “He’s strange looking, but that’s why we all love him.”Gizmo had some spirited support thanks to Stomski’s job as a cheer coach for the Worcester Railers Cheerleaders. “I bring him to work almost every single day,” she said. “He’ll sit with us and watch us dance.”
Gizmo garnered a massive following at the three different dance studios where Stomski teaches. And he has his own TikTok, started by Stomski’s sister.
“I even had people out in Puerto Rico voting him,” Stomski said.
With Stomski choosing December for Gizmo’s month, she has been brainstorming themes for his photo shoot – maybe Buddy the Elf or A Christmas Story.
“The wheels have been turning,” she said. “It might come to me in the middle of the night before the photo shoot.”
She has two other dogs, both of them rescues, which gives her a profound respect for nonprofits like NEADS.
“If it weren’t for these nonprofits and other like it, I wouldn’t have Gizmo today,” she said. “We’re going to do our best to really promote this. With Gizmo’s new following, we can sell more calendars.”
Through Redemption Rock, Braga has learned more about NEADS, inspiring her to bring a therapy dog to her school.
“I think dogs in general are so therapeutic to so many people,” she said. “The more money we can give to the NEADS program, the more we can help people get access to that support and therapy.”
Redemption Rock’s Taproom Dogs Calendar presale begins around Thanksgiving, but follow the brewery online at redemptionrock.beer for the exact date. Calendars get delivered in December, and they can be picked up at the taproom or shipped; they cost $15.
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