MASSACHUSETTS FERRET FRIENDS CELEBRATE FERRET FREEDOM DAY
 
The Massachusetts Ferret Friends (MaFF) celebrated the first year of legal
ferret ownership on Sunday, March 9th, at the Veronica Smith Senior Center
in Brighton.
 
Over 120 people attended feast and frolic, and by all accounts, had a
wonderful time.  MaFF had plenty of food (in spite of early worries when
more people showed up than we had anticipated*), merchandise, and a lot of
great ferret items that were donated from various companies for raffles.
 
Kicking off the fun events, Lorraine Denicourt and BarbaraLee Baron held the
tube races.  The winner of this event became MaFF's official mascot for
1997.  Winner of the event went to Thor Goldman whose mom is Amy Goldman.
Thor was adopted by Amy from Dick and Joan Bossart's 4 Little Paws Shelter.
MaFF is proud to have such a handsome and "fast" ferret representing their
organization.
 
Sit up contests and paper bag contests rounded out the fun events.  Lorraine
and BarbaraLee were quite disappointed that no one took them up on learning
how to line dance with their ferrets.
 
Ronnie (Scoop) Dicomo and Jan Fleury did an excellent job in taking
professional portraits of the little fuzzies against patriotic (for Ferret
FREEDOM day) and St.  Patrick's Day backdrops.
 
Thanks go to the following individuals for all their help: Alison Bruyette
and Megan George for handling the ticket sales at the door, Jo Fowler for
signing on 9 new MaFF members!!!, as well as for the beautiful balloon
centerpieces and the pretty feret bandanas and scarves.  Michael Lepore and
Nancy Wright for handling the raffle and merchandise tables.
 
Food service people, Jim Bruyette and Joanna Deemys did an excellent job
with presentation and working under pressure without a kitchen!!!  Ed Fowler
and his two grandchildren (Bryan & Jennifer) for all their help, setting up
the hall, the balloons, decorating and clean up.  Ed also made up some neat
stainless steel litterpan splashguards for us to sell.  Lee McKee for
everything she's done to make this day quite an event.  And of course,
everyone who came and made this an event to remember--and you all pitched in
to clear tables bring the supplies and rescue ferrets back out to the cars,
and lent your enthusiasm to the party!
 
Before the event, the MaFF membership was polled and asked to nominate
people who they felt deserved special awards based on their dedication to
ferrets.  We received a testimonial written by Jo Fowler nominating Dick
Bossart for this award.  The decision was immediate and unanimous that we
would not only give Dick this award, but have named the award after him.
So, the first annual Richard K. Bossart Ferret Friend Award was given to
Dick for all his help and hard work he gave to our cause.
 
Also, we asked for nominations to the board of directors.  Only three came
in--the present board will stay for one more year!  I did place a plea that
three new people would be standing in our places next year.  Bill Williamson
will continue as Treasurer, Lee McKee will continue as Clerk and I, Sharon
Burbine will continue as President.  Really, this is our last year!  Really!
 
Looking forward to next year's Ferret Freedom Day.! Now it's off to eat some
leftover lasagna and roasted potatoes.
 
* We shouldn't have worried.  The caterer was North End's La Famiglia
Giorgio.  Those of you who have eaten there know (Jeanne Carly) that you
come away with more food in your doggy-bag than you had orginally ordered.
[Posted in FML issue 1871]