It's time to give Thank-You's to everyone who helped make the St. Louis
Ferret Symposium a success.  There are so many people involved in this
kind of undertaking and so many people played such a vital role - it is
truly a team effort!
 
Thank you first to our Sponsors!  To PETsMart, Mazuri, OxBow, Petco and
Parrots of the World!  Having such great sponsors allows us to pull in
some great speakers!
 
Thank you to our Vet Speakers: Dr. Bruce Williams, Dr. Karen Purcell, Dr.
Kevin Fitzgerald, Dr Sandra Kudrak and Dr Tom Kawasaki.  These great
veterinarians not only take time away from busy practices to come and
educate us, but they continually give to the ferret community.  We are
lucky to have the best vets in the world taking care of our ferrets!!
Saying thank-you doesn't hardly seem like enough!  You guys are awesome!
 
And to our other speakers: Bob Church, Chris Matlick, Jeanne Carley,
Lisa Leidig, Shirley Hewett, Travis Livieri, and Troy Lynn Eckart!  Thank
you all for wonderful, wonderful presentations!  And a special thank-you
to Bob Church for pulling double duty as not only a speaker, but as
moderator, too!  He did an excellent job and his enrichment tips during
breaks was very well-recieved!  Thanks, Bob!
 
Great shopping during the weekend!!  We need to thank our Vendors for
lots of wonderful ferrety items!  Thanks to the Capital City Ferret Club,
Ferret Company, Ferret Depot, Greater Chicago Ferret Association, Heart
of Ohio Ferret Association, Lakeroad Ferret Farm, Melatek, Peg Francisco,
Performance Foods, Pretty Bird, San Antonio Ferret Enthusiasts, and
Support Our Shelters.
 
Our Table Topics hosts and hostesses did an awesome job!!  As did the
core of volunteers who manned the Registration, ELF, and ADV tables!!
Thanks to all of you on a job well done!!
 
I also want to take a minute to thank the IFC Coordinators.  I am proud
to be associated with such a fine group of people!!  To Danee DeVore for
her work on the CE credits and for manning the ADV Table.  To Bill Gruber
for his expertise with the A/V equipment.  To Alicia Drakiotes for
hosting the first Shelter Workshop and for lining up some great Table
Topic hosts and hostesses!  To Fran Prager for assembling a great team of
volunteers!  To Renee Downs for an awesome Shelter Dinner, great Speaker
Interviews and pitching in wherever help was needed.  To Brenda Johnson
for organizing and handling our vendors!!  To Sukie Crandall and TroyLynn
Eckert for an endless amount of support and advice, and to Sharon Bearden
for getting our sponsors and the donors - who gave an unbelievable amount
of items for our raffle!
 
I need to thank Julie Fossa and Linda Iroff, too!  These are two of the
most dedicated and determined women I know.  They continually strive to
do more and be better and so much of the credit for the success of this
event goes to them!  They volunteer their time and energy and ask nothing
in return.  These two ladies are awesome - thank you, guys!!  You make
this look so easy - when I know it's not!!
 
And last, Thank You to Randy Belair - for making all this possible!
Without your vision, we would not be enjoying the success we are today!
We will never forget what you started in Toronto and will forever strive
to live up to the standards you set!  I am also very pleased to announce
the IFC will be giving Randy a $1000.00 grant for the International
Ferret Congress Ferret Aid 2006 to be held in Toronto June 23rd-25th.
 
The generosity of the ferret community was again present in St. Louis -
an incredible amount of money was raised for several wonderful causes!
The Shelter Dinner and Special Dance Performances by Dr. Karen Purcell
raised $1250.00 and $400.00 for a total of $1650.00 going to Support Our
Shelters.  The auctioning of a darling Ferret costume raised $900.00 for
MAFF.  The new emergency fund, ELF, raised $758.00 and over $600.00 was
raised for ADV Research.  A check presented to Dr. Willams for $240.00
was raised through the Memorial Page in the program for the Tissue Bank.
And for Travis Livieri - who wowed us with a totally awesome Black-Footed
Ferret presentation, over $2200.00 was raised for the Prairie Wildlife
Research BFF program!  I think I am putting it mildly when I say he was
astounded!
 
Through raffles, auctions - including Bob C's shorts, tee shirt sales
and donations, the IFC raised a little over $10,000.00, bringing the
total raised in a three day weekend, by about 180 people to well over
$16,000.00!  There is no community in the world as caring, giving and
generous as the Ferret Community!
 
Over the coming weeks, the IFC will be announcing several programs which
could only be made possible with this kind of money!  Everything we
raised will go back into the ferret community with the single goal of
making this world a better place for our ferrets!  Through education
and research, we will continue to strive to fulfill the goals of our
mission statement!
 
Thank you to everyone who attended the St. Louis Ferret Symposium and
to everyone who supports the International Ferret Congress!
 
Judy Cooke
Co-Director
International Ferret Congress
<www.ferretcongress.org>
[Posted in FML issue 4869]