Pacific Wildlife Care Wins the 2026 Defender Service Award
A three-minute video, a community-wide voting effort, and a lot of Central Coast pride brought the Defender Service Award home to PWC!
Where it all started
We first heard about the Defender Service Awards in 2025, when Defender reached out to Pacific Wildlife Care (PWC) with information about the awards and an invitation to apply. The annual program, presented by Chase, celebrates and supports nonprofit organizations across the U.S. and Canada. Organizations apply by submitting a three-minute video sharing who they are, the work they do, and how a Defender vehicle could help advance their mission.
Volunteer Karen T. and Development Coordinator Kelley B. teamed up with PWC staff and volunteers to create our first submission, showcasing the work we do for wildlife across San Luis Obispo County. We submitted our video, but didn’t advance that year. When submissions opened again in 2026, we decided to build on what we’d created the year before. This time, Los Angeles-based cinematographer Richard Kim (www.richardhanjoonkim.com) volunteered his time to help. The timeline was tight: Richard drove up to Morro Bay on June 1, the day submissions were due, filmed at the clinic, edited the video, and helped us get it submitted that same day. And then we waited.
The Public Voting Period
In July, we learned that PWC had been selected by the judges as a finalist in the Animal, Wildlife & Marine Mammal Welfare category. As a finalist, PWC received a $5,000 grant from Chase and moved into the public voting period!
That’s when our community really stepped in.
Supporters shared our video, encouraged friends and family to vote, and helped spread the word far beyond our usual audience. When Santa Barbara Land Rover, our nearest Defender dealer, heard that PWC was a finalist, their team drove a Defender up to our clinic, met some of our Animal Ambassadors, and learned more about our work. They also helped rally their audience to vote for PWC and bring the Defender win home to the Central Coast.
The response from our community was incredible. While the exact number of votes for each organization wasn’t shared, more than 250,000 votes were cast across all six Defender Service Awards categories.
When public voting ended, we learned that PWC had made it into the top two in our category! That meant we were headed to Destination Defender Weekend in Temecula, where the winner would be announced.
And the Winner Is…
Executive Director Kristin Howland attended Destination Defender Weekend on behalf of PWC.
“I spent the weekend with the 11 other finalists, and every organization was tremendously deserving. The other finalist in our category was the amazing Picolini’s Animal Rescue in Miami, Florida. Each of these organizations is doing important, grassroots work in their communities, and it was truly inspiring to spend the weekend alongside them.”
And then came the announcement we’d all been waiting for:
Pacific Wildlife Care was announced as the winner of the Animal, Wildlife & Marine Mammal Welfare Category Presented by Disney!
Kristin accepted the award on stage in Temecula while back home, PWC supporters gathered at SLO Cider to watch the livestream together.
“Winning this award truly feels like a win for our entire community,” said Kristin. “The incredible support we saw throughout the voting period was a wonderful reminder of how many people care deeply about wildlife here on the Central Coast. We are so grateful to Defender, Disney and Chase for recognizing the importance of wildlife rehabilitation and investing in our work.”
A New Vehicle for a New Chapter
The award comes with a customized Defender 130 and $30,000 to support our work. Over the coming months, we’ll work with the Defender team to design the vehicle wrap and choose how we want the vehicle outfitted. We expect to receive the Defender in spring 2027, and it will be PWC’s first organizational vehicle.
The Defender will give us a new resource for supporting our work, with potential uses including educational outreach, transporting animals and equipment, and participating in community events. We’re still working out the details of how the vehicle will best support PWC’s needs. The $30,000 will likely be placed in a reserve to help cover maintenance and other ongoing vehicle expenses.
And because this is our first organizational vehicle, there’s one important item on our to-do list before we put it on the road: creating our Organizational Vehicle and Driver Policy!
The timing couldn’t be more exciting. Construction is in its final stretch on the Kim & Derrel Ridenour Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, our new permanent home in San Luis Obispo. The new center will expand our capacity for wildlife care and bring PWC’s operations to a more centralized location.
Between a new home for PWC and our first organizational vehicle, we’re entering a whole new chapter!
Thank You for Helping Us Get Here
This award belongs to everyone who watched our video, voted, shared a post, told a friend, encouraged someone else to vote, or simply cheered us on along the way. Thank you to Defender, Disney and Chase for believing in the work of organizations like PWC and helping us take our mission further. Thank you to Richard, Karen, Kelley, and the PWC staff and volunteers who helped bring our video to life. Thank you to Santa Barbara Land Rover for coming to San Luis Obispo and helping us spread the word. And most of all, thank you to our community. You showed us just how many people care about the wildlife we serve.
We can’t wait to put that Defender 130 to work!
Watch the Destination Defender Awards Ceremony (see PWC’s announcement at minute 1:23!)
