One of my favorite animals is severely endangered because of human cruelty. The elephant is one of the most hunted species because of the immense value of its tusks. It is my personal belief that no one in the entire world needs these tusks besides the elephants themselves, so when I found out there was an opportunity for me to help prevent elephant poaching, I was obviously interested in getting involved. This amazing opportunity was none other than the Elephant Pants, or TEP for short. The Elephant Pants sells (you guessed it) pants—tons and tons of beautiful, comfy pants with intricate elephant prints. They also sell shorts, rompers, bags, tapestries, and assorted jewelry. A portion of every sale goes towards the African Wildlife Foundation to help end poaching.

I immediately invested in the marvelous pants and decided they were the greatest pants ever to be made. They’re stylish, cozy, perfect for lounging and yoga, and surprisingly inexpensive. It was even better knowing I had helped save my beloved elephants by purchasing them! But it got better. I soon learned that TEP offered an ambassador program which would provide me with a personal discount code that I could give out to encourage sales and therefore donate more to the African Wildlife Foundation. I gave it a shot and applied. One week later, I got an acceptance email.

A lot of people were interested in the pants; they were a great conversation starter. I was surprised and thrilled to learn how many people shared my love of elephants! Soon my code was being used by tons of people. I was added to a Facebook group of over 900 other ambassadors from all over the world to help brainstorm new ideas for the company and discuss our love of elephants and TEP products. Many of the people in the group have had the opportunity to work with elephants first-hand and it was amazing to hear their stories and be (digitally) surrounded by such a friendly and supportive group of people. I even made a friend who also lives in Erie and we did a photo shoot together to promote TEP. Her name is also Jenna!

A couple weeks into my ambassadorship, I received an email from TEP’s Marketing Manager asking if I would promote TEP on my college campus to celebrate the one year anniversary of the company. Twenty ambassadors were selected, and I couldn’t believe I was one of them! So here’s the scoop, Gannon. On October 13^th, there is going to be a crazy girl running around campus in an elephant costume asking for hugs. No worries, it’s just little old me.

The one year anniversary of the Elephant Pants is Thursday, October 15^th, but since we will all be home enjoying Fall Break, I will be out and about on Tuesday the 13^th promoting the company. We’re calling the event Hug and Elephant! I will be all over campus talking about how serious of a problem elephant poaching is and how you can help save the elephants. I will also be handing out my discount code to anyone interested in saving the elephants and looking good doing it! Here’s the really fun part: if you take a picture hugging me and post it to Instagram on the 15^th with #HugAnElephant and tag me @jennadarlinn, you will be entered into a contest to win your own pair of the amazing Elephant Pants! I think it would be in your best interest to try to run into the crazy elephant girl that day.

It would break my heart if the only way my future children or grandchildren could see elephants was in pictures or videos, and at the declining rate their population is going, it’s unrealistic to be afraid of their extinction. But I don’t want that and TEP doesn’t want that. Whether it’s through TEP or not, take the time to see what you can do to help endangered species such as the elephant. It IS important.