Ami Patel Hopkins of Philadelphia located all the DNC Donkeys Around Town with her husband, Anthony Hopkins and friends. Patel Hopkins (above), a native of Maryland, shows affection toward her home state’s donkey on top of the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps.
Ami Patel Hopkins has gotten a real kick out of donkey hunting. Patel Hopkins, her husband, Anthony Hopkins and friends, have located all 57 donkeys, which are scattered around Philadelphia as part of the Democratic National Convention’s Donkeys Around Town program. The DNC begins today, Monday July 25, and runs through Thursday July 28.
The Donkeys Around Town program features 57 fiberglass donkeys that are painted by local artists, each representing a participating Convention delegation in the DNC: 50 states, five U.S. territories, Washington D.C. and Democrats Abroad. The “Donkeys Around Town” program includes an official scavenger hunt through the 28th, using a mobile app called Scavify to locate donkeys and win prizes. Patel Hopkins and her husband didn’t use the app and chose to hunt the donkeys in their own grassroots effort.
The New York Donkey in front of the Loewes hotel on 1200 Market Street.
“I’ve been volunteering for the DNC the whole year, so I knew the donkeys would be arriving. As soon as they were put up, I got excited and started posting a picture on Facebook every time I saw one,” Patel Hopkins said. “Friends started responding to my posts with other donkey pictures. I challenged my friends to find more of them. I started keeping all the donkey photos on my phone.”
Patel Hopkins’ husband then caught the donkey bug and printed out the official list of where all the donkeys are located in the city. Patel Hopkins and Anthony started planning their daily walking routes around the donkey locations so they could check more donkeys off their list.
“We were strategic in how we walked places. It became an obsession and it was fun to see the response when we posted the donkeys that we found,” Patel Hopkins said. “It was exciting for my husband and I to be nerds together! We love exploring the city, and this forced us to do that even more. It was exciting to know that each donkey we found represented a state that would be at the DNC. It got us excited that Philadelphia is hosting.”
Patel Hopkins and Anthony found 50 of the donkeys themselves and their friends worked on their behalf to find seven of them and send the photos to Patel Hopkins for her donkey photo collection.
The Georgia Donkey on display in the courtyard at City Hall.
Their most challenging donkey to find was the one in the Navy Yard.
“We were walking around aimlessly looking for it. Anthony had to look on Twitter to see if anyone else had posted a picture of the donkey there,” Patel Hopkins said.
Her favorite donkey, without a doubt, is the Maryland donkey, located at the top of the Art Museum steps.
“Maryland is my favorite because I’m from Maryland,” Patel Hopkins said. “I’m definitely biased, but I love it!”
Patel Hopkins’ photo collection of all 57 Donkeys Around Town:
The donkeys will be on display through September 9. For more information on the Donkeys Around Town, visit: http://www.phldnc.com/donkeys/
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