Tuesday, November 2, 2010
New York City Meet the Breeds 2010
Fran Prince – Booth Coordinator, Member of the Public Education Committee
Getting ready, decorations, booklets, asking people to be on the team; hoping all of last year’s Volunteers would help again. Good news, just about everyone said yes. Several new participants including Gale Golden and her spectacular dogs and Camille Stilliano (whose 
spectacular dogs had to stay home).
We got our booth assignment from the AKC, but it was not the larger size we had hoped for. So I got on the phone and begged, groveled and pleaded, used every persuasive method that I could think of and Gina DiNardo graciously granted our wish. We got a double size Booth!!!! This was a gift; after the crowding of last year, our Breed NEEDED the space. Our booth last year was like Times Square 10 minutes before midnight on New Year’s Eve. We made great use of the space.
The day before I made a trip to the Javits Center to drop off decorations and material. And, Oh My Goodness, The AKC really did listen. They rented a lot more space. The aisles were double the size of last year and our booth was HUGE. Vendors were setting up, the place was a whirlwind. It seemed like nothing would get done in time, but we knew it would.
Saturday at 8;30 we arrived at the Javits. We still needed to put up our Club Banner. But, how to put it up?? Luckily, Robin Stansell happened by to show us how to affix the Banner to the piping. Voila – decorations. We weren’t fancy but it didn’t matter, people came to see the dogs. The funny thing was that all the Frenchies we had were Brindle. People kept asking throughout the day, ” is that they only color they come in???”
We had gorgeous Champions and wonderful pets to show. On Saturday, we had two puppymill rescues also. Every single dog self-stacked when Gale Golden brought out the bait. Oh my, it was a sight to behold. Everyone who walked by stopped.. to look at our dogs and to ask questions. Even with the extra wide aisles, we had traffic jams..same as last year. Everyone wanted to see the Frenchies, to pet them, to find out more about our special dogs.
Sunday, our crew again was Brindle from as young as 2 to our Veteran girl of 12. Something about those Brindles, they loved the attention.
Same questions: health, length of life, do they make good family dogs, how to find a breeder. Several times we were asked if we had “puppies available.” A few even asked about intact puppies. That brought on a long strong lecture. The two days were spent teaching people about our dogs and how to use the Club Website, teaching why NOT to go to someone who intentionally breeds DQ colors, teaching how to use the Infodog website. We stayed on a high note (unless you asked for an intact dog.) We also sold lots of our booklet, “French Bulldogs: The Basic Course.”
The two days flew by like a whirlwind. We had a great time and all of us believe that we imparted knowledge and educated a lot of people. That is how we define success.
