README: surface the star ask in three places

The existing "Help it grow" section near the bottom was a good
list but easy to scroll past. Made the ask prominent at three
visual altitudes so anyone scanning the README at any depth sees it:

- **Top:** shields.io GitHub-stars badge in `?style=social` (the
  classic, restrained look) right after the H1, linked to
  /stargazers. No copy, no nudge — just a number that says "n
  people liked this".
- **Middle:** a "👨‍👦 A note from the makers" blockquote between
  the version line and the family photo. Single short paragraph
  in the project's existing voice — "Sunday afternoon between a
  dad and his 10-year-old", co-authored with Claude (Anthropic),
  Justus checks the count on Sundays, with a bold star link in
  the middle of the prose. Closes with a pointer to CREDITS.md
  for the full story.
- **Bottom:** the existing "Help it grow" section renamed to
  "Support the project" so the closing CTA reads as a
  support/sponsor section rather than a generic "help" appeal.
  Content is unchanged — five concrete contribution paths,
  closing "no CLA, no Slack, just GitHub" line.

Plus the H1 picks up the 🐾 emoji per the user's brief.

Anchor cascade: the rename moved the section anchor from
#help-it-grow to #support-the-project, so updated the four
places that linked to the old one — the README's own quick-nav
header, .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/config.yml's "How can I help"
contact link, CONTRIBUTING.md's pointer back to the README, and
docs/setup-goo-goo.md's "next steps" link.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: Marcel Dütscher

.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/config.yml

@@ -4,5 +4,5 @@ contact_links:
     url: https://github.com/marceld23/Pixel-Pets/discussions
     about: Built one? Modified one? Photos and videos go in Discussions.
   - name: How can I help?
-    url: https://github.com/marceld23/Pixel-Pets#help-it-grow
-    about: The "Help it grow" section in the README lists low-effort ways to support the project.
+    url: https://github.com/marceld23/Pixel-Pets#support-the-project
+    about: The "Support the project" section in the README lists low-effort ways to support the project.

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 Thanks for being interested. Pixel Pets is a small father-and-son hobby project — we're not a company, there's no contributor agreement, and no Slack to join. Contributing is just GitHub: open an issue, send a PR, share your build.
 
-The README's [Help it grow](README.md#help-it-grow) section covers the high-level *what's the most useful thing I can do?* question. This file covers the practical bits.
+The README's [Support the project](README.md#support-the-project) section covers the high-level *what's the most useful thing I can do?* question. This file covers the practical bits.
 
 ## Setting up the dev environment
 

README.md

@@ -2,22 +2,34 @@
   <img src="assets/logo.jpg" alt="Pixel Pets logo" width="220">
 </p>
 
-# Pixel Pets
+# 🐾 Pixel Pets
+
+<p align="center">
+  <a href="https://github.com/marceld23/Pixel-Pets/stargazers">
+    <img src="https://img.shields.io/github/stars/marceld23/Pixel-Pets?style=social" alt="GitHub stars">
+  </a>
+</p>
 
 <p align="center">
   <a href="#highlights">Highlights</a> ·
   <a href="#fastest-start">Fastest start</a> ·
   <a href="#for-parents">For parents</a> ·
   <a href="#for-makers">For makers</a> ·
   <a href="#documentation">Documentation</a> ·
-  <a href="#help-it-grow">Help it grow</a> ·
+  <a href="#support-the-project">Support the project</a> ·
   <a href="#version-history">Version history</a>
 </p>
 
 A family of virtual pets on M5Stack hardware. **Three pet variants** — **Muffin** (CoreS3 + LLM), **Visu** (CoreS3 alone), **Goo-Goo** (Core2) — plus one optional **accessory**, **Pip** (M5StickC PLUS2), which acts as a pocket-sized companion device for any of the bigger pets. One source tree, five build envs (`cores3` / `visu` / `core2` / `pip` / `pip-s3`). Pet logic, animations, mini-games, ESP-NOW friends and weather/location are target-agnostic; voice and the front camera are CoreS3-only.
 
 **Version 1.0.0** — first stable release. See [Version history](#version-history) at the bottom for the rough scope.
 
+> **👨‍👦 A note from the makers**
+>
+> Pixel Pets started as a Sunday afternoon between a dad and his 10-year-old son, Justus, sitting on the sofa together. Every line of firmware was co-authored with Claude (Anthropic) under our direction.
+>
+> Justus checks the GitHub star count on Sundays. If you think a 10-year-old shipping a kid-safe AI pet on real M5Stack hardware is cool, [**drop a ⭐**](https://github.com/marceld23/Pixel-Pets) and make his weekend. The full story is in [`CREDITS.md`](CREDITS.md).
+
 <p align="center">
   <img src="assets/photos/photo_pets.jpg" alt="Pixel Pets family — Muffin, two Goo-Goos and a Pip" width="640"><br>
   <em>The whole family on the desk: Muffin showing the dog pet, two Goo-Goos showing the bear and cat, with a Pip on the Tricks page in front.</em>
@@ -253,7 +265,7 @@ Every line of firmware was written by AI assistants — primarily **Claude (Anth
 
 See [`CREDITS.md`](CREDITS.md) for the full story, and the in-app credits screen via Settings → Credits.
 
-## Help it grow
+## Support the project
 
 Pixel Pets is a family project — not a startup, no roadmap, no metrics dashboard. But we'd love for it to find more kids and dads who want to tinker.
 

docs/setup-goo-goo.md

@@ -63,5 +63,5 @@ The shared pet logic — moods, mini-games, foraging, ESP-NOW friends, weather,
 
 ## Next steps
 
-- Open the [README's Help-it-grow section](../README.md#help-it-grow) for low-effort ways to support the project.
+- Open the [README's Support-the-project section](../README.md#support-the-project) for low-effort ways to support the project.
 - Want a friend for your Goo-Goo? Add a [Pip](setup-pip.md) accessory.