Ripley Co. 4-H Fair Promo Updates!

[Barbie]

I will update this "promo aar" nightly...

Day 1

Well, talk about a small world.  The folks from NAPA Auto Parts, whose booth is right next to ours, are "undercover" AS supporters.  The man who was running the booth was none other than Mr. Rob Voegle... president of the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association, down at our range in Friendship, IN!  I got a kick out of that, and I'm assuming he did also, because he called his wife to tell her who his booth was next to!  So, FYI - Instructors who are running the shoot at Friendship this weekend, we are trying to heavily promote that one... let's hope the line fills up!

We had A LOT of folks stop on by, some of which had read about Appleseed online, others of which had no idea what we were about.  After listening to an explanation of what we were about/do, many took our handouts/fliers/schedules, and expressed a genuine interest in coming out to a shoot.  We had quite a few hunters come out.  I asked one young guy (17yrs) how he was doing... he replied "I came close to a turkey, but just missed it." I replied with, "Would you like to learn the skills, for free, that would allow you to not miss your next shot?".... of course, the obvious answer was yes, and he also seemed intrigued by a brief overview of the history aspect of Appleseed.  I bet we'll see him at an event one day. 

A big thanks to Matt (spitfire51) for coming out and helping me tonight... I'd probably have lost my voice if it wasn't for you coming out!  I'm sure he has some good words to say about promo day #1... and the delicious porkburger he snagged from a foodstand!  I had to laugh when, at the end of the night, we both agreed on one thing... "We smell like Appleseed!  But, without the gunpowder!"... a day in the life of a promo volunteer! 

Until tomorrow 

- Barbie

Day 2

To heck with this heat, bring on a winterseed!

Like yesterday, a lot of folks stopped by to hear all about Appleseed.  The man in charge of shooting sports in Ripley Co. stopped by and we chatted for a bit... I'll be getting in contact with him after this week to see what we can do about getting Appleseed hooked up with their shooting sports program.  There were quite a few veterans that stopped by today also, and they we're intrigued first and foremost by the history aspect of our program    One man stopped by and chatted for a solid 15-20 minutes, and he said he was going to go down to Friendship this weekend (Army Vet)... huzzah!

- Barbie

Day 3

There weren't as many folks that stopped by today, although those who did stopped by stayed and talked for a lengthy amount of time, and took extra flyers to hand out to friends and family that they said would be interested in attending one of our events.  Some expressed interest in coming out to Friendship this weekend, others wished they didn't already have plans so they could.... but plan to attend one when their schedule allows.  It sounds like folks attending this fair are pretty interested in checking out our events in Friendship at some point.  Also, some kids who were involved with shooting sports stopped by, and were pretty interested in attending an event. 

- Barbie

Day 4

Slow day today, d/t rain... well, more like a short lived monsoon.  The few that stopped by seemed interested, and one boy brought his mom & stepdad to the booth (I talked to him yesterday), and as his dad looked at the booth from a distance, the son spoke up and said to him "Go on dad, ask her about it!"  When I was explaining how we tie the history/marksmanship together, I asked the son what the 13 shots on the redcoat target represented, and he remembered!  The dad plans to take his son to an event as soon as their schedule allows.  I'd call that success 

- Barbie

Day 5

The storms/rain scared a lot of people today, but the visitors we had, like yesterday, stayed and talked for a while.  They expressed interest in attending an event, and were making sure they had the necessary stuff for when they came out.  One conversation made my night... I spoke to a man who was recently out of the military (he was in 20 yrs).  He stopped by and asked me what we were about, etc... We talked for a solid 20 minutes or so but the funny thing was, we only talked about the marksmanship portion 5 minutes or so.  He was really hooked on the history behind it all, and really seemed "to get it".     He said he has been looking for something like this ever since he had gotten out, and said outright he appreciated the history behind it all and how we made people aware of it, etc.  It's a small world, b/c he lives not even 10 minutes from me.  Anyways, he took some extra tri-folds/targets/handouts to give to his buddies & said he was definetely going to come out to a shoot, and bring his friends.  Another thing about our lil' conversation I enjoyed was he outright said that he didn't have any experience with "small arms", b/c in the military he always dealt with the "big guns", and wanted to learn marksmanship skills/etc. on his .22 he just purchased.  Huzzah!     Promo success 

Here's a few pictures from the booth:

[spitfire51]

That porkburger was good!  And we were able to get our name out and I believe we generated some good interest in the program.  Major kudos to Barbie for coming up with the idea and putting it all together.

[Barbie]

That porkburger was good!  And we were able to get our name out and I believe we generated some good interest in the program.  Major kudos to Barbie for coming up with the idea and putting it all together.

I believe 5-6 people stopped by and asked "How?".... regarding your sign you put up about the M1 Garand