A contingent of IITs staffed a table at the annual convention of the Minnesota Homeschooling Association ()MHA) on Saturday, Sept 22 at the National Sports Center in Blaine, MN, a northern suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul. Jason, Mike and Laura had a great turnout of interested folks, mainly women, who saw the large Appleseed 'Madonna' poster at our booth and inquired about instruction.
There must have been 100+ attendees and over half or two-thirds probably stopped at our booth, then got a 2 minute spiel on Appleseed. We collected a dozen or so e-mail addresses and gave out lots of tri-folds with a MN Appleseed schedule tucked inside.
This event triggered more interest in AS than any of the other 5-6 gun shows I have staffed. Only one person was against firearms in the home while all the others either were shooters or hunters. All were very interested in attending an Appleseed.
We had a bunch of books (Paul Revere's Ride and Washington's Crossing) and handouts on the table along with a looped video of AS shooting from our Indiana friends on a 27 inch flat screen. We eventually were allowed to run the video on the 50-inch flat screen mounted on the wall behind our table.
We gave the MHA a "Shoot like a Girl" cap to raffle off.
A suggestion would to have a sign about minimum age of AS shooters or our criteria for youngsters attendance prominently displayed on the table.
We also found out that Edina HS and St. Thomas Academy are starting or have started some type of shooting clubs. Not sure if they are small bore, air rifle, skeet or trap. We will try and find out more online.
Also, updated calendars for MN, IA and WI would have helped since there were a few out of state folks attending.
This was a great place for showcasing Appleseed.
Great report! Thanks to all the volunteers :)
Great Post!
It sounds like you had alot of interest. Mike and I had a booth at the Constitution Fest here in Alexandria Sept. 22. This was our 1st booth and outing as Appleseed promoters. We were talking about that also to have a drawing of some kind or have a jar of candy for the kids. Very informative post. Thanks!
Deb (DebH)
Thanks for your help promoting Appleseed!