Kaitlyn Vidal, an undergraduate in the communication sciences and disorders program, recently received a $5,000 prize from Cadbury for winning the 2021 Cadbury Bunny contest with her pet frog.
Vidal’s video submission for Betty, an Australian White tree frog, leaped over 12,000 entrants to be “eared” this year’s Cadbury Bunny.
Vidal’s mom encouraged her to enter her pet frogs into the competition after seeing an advertisement earlier this year. Vidal entered her four White’s tree frogs with high hopes.
Vidal and her roommate, Alee Judge, a health sciences major, started with two frogs last year.
“We just thought they were really cute,” Vidal says. “We thought it would be a good way to manage our stress. They like to be with humans, and these guys will stay on you all day if you let them. They are really relaxing and fun to watch and they bring us such joy.”
A few weeks later, she got an email notifying her that Betty was a semifinalist. To advance to the next round, she would need to submit a video. Vidal spent two days producing the video, and enlisted her boyfriend, a UCF mechanical engineering major, to 3D print a little hat to which Vidal attached bunny ears. Vidal says Cadbury liked Betty’s hat so much that it was used in the commercial.
Vidal says the prize money will come in handy as she starts graduate school this May in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders.
“College can be really hard sometimes,” Vidal says. “But there are moments like this that I remember God can use anything, even a frog, to bring us joy during the hardest seasons of life.”
