Miss December is wearing nothing but a Santa hat and a smile. Oh, and holding one strategically placed cat. Chandra Gates, 39, decided the Humane Society of Jefferson County was a worthy enough cause for the 39-year-old to bare nearly all for a nude-calendar fundraiser.
"I'm shy about the picture but definitely proud of the cause," said Gates, an animal caregiver there.
The Humane Society in the city of Jefferson is one of countless non profit organizations around the world selling tastefully nude 2007 calendars.
A group of women aged from mid 50s to early 70s in Yorkshire, England, pioneered the idea in 2000 when they sold a calendar of discreet nude photographs of themselves to raise money for cancer research.
The women, whose story inspired the 2003 movie "Calendar Girls," raised $2.55 million (euro1.93 million) through sales of 800,000 calendars as well as book and film royalties.
The women have released a 2007 calendar, the group's third, that has a photo of the women clothed with Prince Charles.
In Gates' black-and-white photo in the Humane Society calendar, she is pictured from the waist up, holding a cat against her bare chest as she stands in a snowy yard.
{{/usCountry}}In Gates' black-and-white photo in the Humane Society calendar, she is pictured from the waist up, holding a cat against her bare chest as she stands in a snowy yard.
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