After the fair ...

This last week has been pretty much taken up by the Montezuma County Fair. After the ranch rodeo last Sunday, I did some "streetwalking" on Monday and Tuesday, going mostly to banks for donations to our Minds in Motion campaign (with mixed success).

Wednesday we set up our booth at the fair and Saturday evening we took it down. Having an indoor venue was a welcome change ... we could put things up on the tables and not worry about the wind blowing them off!

I really didn't get much time to see what else was happening at the fair. I was impressed that rocketry is now a 4-H project field. The judging ring was about 30 yards away from our booth, so we were often regaled with the comments the sheep and goats and cows were making about the competition (the bunnies were nice and quiet!). I caught this one girl wrestling her sheep into the proper stance and then a goat looking kinda disgusted at being decked out in hula trappings.

They were long days, but fruitful. Fortunately, I had the help of other team members in staffing the booth, which allowed me to come in a little late on Friday morning and get home early that night, leaving others to enjoy the concert. Saturday morning we had to split our forces, because we had both the booth at the fair and one at the Cortez Farmers' Market, both good venues. We haven't taken in a lot of cash (about $1,100 so far), but we've made more than 700 contacts as we've "talked SWOS" in the different communities we serve. Those contacts are already paying off in terms of new parents/students contacting the SWOS office to register for this coming school year, our 25th. We've also made contact with a lot of former SWOS students and graduates. And, you can never underestimate the value of being able to talk SWOS face-to-face with elected officials, business owners and others in the community.

Tomorrow and Tuesday we'll have interviews on two of the local radio stations, so that will get us more exposure. I will also follow up on some of the promised donations from businesses and see whether those are coming in. We've got farmers' markets in Dolores and Mancos this week and then we have to turn in a donation request to Empire Electric Cooperative, preparatory to our making a presentation to their board on August 20. THAT will be an opportunity for a larger donation and for us to really tell the SWOS story.

In the meantime, Sandy has been at Artisans and everyone's sales there have been booming during the month of July. She also bore the brunt of hosting a family of five Hungarian Servas travelers Thursday night. The mother and father had visited me 16 years ago, so it was interesting to catch up with them. tv