First, on behalf of HOFA-Rescue and the Ferret Buckeye Bash Committee,
I want to extend a very heartfelt THANKS to everyone that attended or
contributed in some way to this year's Ferret Buckeye Bash and helped
make this year the most successful show HOFA has had to date.

Importantly, we want to express our gratitude to our wonderful
sponsors.. without their financial support there would be no Buckeye
Bash. Please, everyone show our sponsors your support by patronizing
them Thanks to FerretDepot.com for being our title sponsor. They truly
have the ferret community's best interest at heart. Their philosophy of
not vending at a show and letting the shelters vend to support their
shelter in addition to their shelter discounts is phenomenal!

Our contributing sponsors were Petco, Ferrets Magazine,
SuperPet-Sheppard and Greene and Zupreem. Most of them were also there
at the show. FerretDepot was at the door greeting everyone as they came
in - we had over 700 walk-ins! Marylou from Ferrets Magazine came in
all the way from California and SuperPet was there in form of little
white stuffie ferrets....they were everywhere!

Also, thanks to Greater Chicago Ferret Association for running our Fun
Events... they went all out. The tube racing drew a huge crowd.. much
to the horror of all the little furry faces coming out the other end
of the tube...made for a a lot of immediate about faces....:>) The
American Ferret Assoc. judges, Championship and Specialty alike, all
worked in overdrive to get the record number of entries judged.
Championship entries were over 240 - largest # ever. We only had 9
judges (12 last year) and they kicked butt and finished on TIME!
Specialty entries were over 230 and with even fewer judges..

Eleanor Mead's adorable clay ferret statues on Ross's Petitto's trophy
bases again were a hit... This year we had them as our specialty
trophies also-so even more people got a chance to get one of these
delightful trophies.

Thanks to Kay Amrine as co-coordinator, who took over registration this
year...confirmations actually went out over 2 weeks before the show!

Our raffle is usually pretty awesome but this year it surpassed all
expectations..thanks to all that generously donated and to Jennifer
for stepping in at the last minute and picking up when our raffle
chair was ill.

Hope you all viewed Suzy and Joe's pics... I have some my husband took
that we will try and get out soon too. Here is the link:
http://www.fototime.com/inv/60FE37F20E0EC88

The Ferret Buckeye Bash is a GROUP effort. It was through everyone's
hard work and dedication to ferrets that truly made this year's Ferret
Buckeye Bash so successful. HOFA Members ROCK! I hope everyone had a
good a time as I did. For those of you that know me..hee heee... it
was kinda scary how cheerful and smiling I was, wasn't it? :>)

The great thing about the Buckeye Bash that we need to remember is not
only is it a fun show to come show your ferrets.. it supports the many
homeless and ill ferrets at Heart of Ohio Ferret Association and
Rescue, it offers a venue for other shelters to sell items to make
money for their shelter, gives a group of fun people the chance to
network and socialize with other ferret owners/breeders and rescues
and gives the public educational opportunites to boot.

If you can't make it to a ferret show.. consider helping out your local
shelter... every little bit helps!

Scarlett

Scarlett Gray-Saling, Event Chair
Ferret Buckeye Bash Co-Coordinator
Heart of Ohio Ferret Assoc. & Rescue
www.HOFA-RESCUE.org
FERRET BUCKEYE BASH 2008
SAT. Aug. 23 - Veteran's Memorial
Columbus, OH

[Posted in FML 5715]