Thanks to all that showed up for the fun! It made my day, week, month... There were several people there that were new to or restarting the hobby (like I did 2 years ago), and they got good starts today. Lots of helpful info floating, no, flying through the room.
I appreciate the donations for the table space. Got about half the signs paid for and I'm good with that.
Speaking of donations...we've got over 2x as much food for MultiServices in Federal Way. I'll be taking it over to them this week. This is heartwarming folks.
Poke...you rocked with the nametags. Thanks so much.
Thanks for those that showed early and helped with the tables - JesseM (our newest daddy) was big on that one.
And now for the behind the scenes folks....
Aron (angelman) had an emergency and couldn't be here with us. He has been instrumental in promoting on Craigslist and Facebook. As I asked around when people arrived I learned a lot of them saw us on those places. He was totally devastated he couldn't be here.
Brian Oliver was instumental in getting awareness on the Reefbuilders forum and that produced some saltwater enthusiasts as table people and visitors.
Thanks to Jacob Hall of PSAS for getting our event published in their newsletter.
The wonderful redhead that registered people at the first table as you entered was Barbara Braaten, a close friend. She volunteered this morning when she heard Aron wasn't going to be here.
The cleanup crew consisted of Barbara, her husband, Stan, and my wonderful supporting wife, Linda. I thought I was going to have to do it myself and they just jumped right in and did it. Stan and Barbara are newly back into the hobby, and Linda really enjoys the fruits of my aquarium labor.
There were a lot of good conversations about many aspects of this wonderful fishkeeping hobby.
We are looking ahead to the next one folks and if any of you have any ideas, thoughts or suggestions, please PM me or Aron (Angelman) with them. We're open to getting others involved in planning and preparations if you you want to join us.
It was great to put faces with names. Now all I gotta do is try to put them together the next time we meet up!
Looking forward to seeing all of you at the next one.