The winning name with 45.5% of the votes is Anchors Aweigh Animal Transport & Lodge. I may delete the "Lodge" part when I register the business so as not to misrepresent that I'm a shelter or boarding facility (I have no intention of being one of those). The tagline winner is, "Connecting animals in need with people who care.", getting 60.6% of the votes. I am grateful to those who took the time to respond to my survey. I sent it to 70 people, and 34 replied. That's a pretty phenomenal response rate by social science standards. A 30% response rate is considered really good. I'm sure it helps that these were all family, friends, and colleagues, but still...impressive.
My current plan is to operate under the umbrella of another nonprofit (the amazing Tabby Tales Rescue) for a while as I get pieces in place, and figure out how I want to run things. I've got a lot of research to do, but my hope is for Anchors Aweigh to be operational as it's own entity within 12 months.
So, why Anchors A-W-E-I-G-H and not A-W-A-Y? The correct phrase is actually "anchors aweigh" and is defined by the US Navy as follows.
The word "weigh" in this sense comes from the archaic word meaning to heave, hoist or raise. "Aweigh" means that that action has been completed. The anchor is aweigh when it is pulled from the bottom.
(https://www.navy.mil/navydata/nav_legacy.asp?id=191)
Some have used the incorrect phrase, "anchors away", to describe the action of the anchor leaving the anchor locker, being released into the water, and set into the sea bed. This is the opposite of the correct/original phrase's meaning and was not used by seafarers of yore.
I deliberately chose Anchors Aweigh as the organization's name to evoke the feelings of hopefulness and excitement that can occur when a ship begins a journey, or starts back to its home port. To weigh anchor is to start off on a new, or the next, adventure and is a perfect metaphor for the transport mission I want to cultivate.
Now! A logo...😊
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Love the explanation of the name of the organization. I never knew that aweigh was the correct phrase. It is also helpful to ready why the name is important for this particular organization and rescue strategy of being a transport mission.
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