Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth (#636!) at Earth Day Dallas this past weekend! There was a lot of talk that it was going to surpass last year’s numbers, with 75,000 folks projected to pass through Fair Park during the 2-day event. Not sure if we actually reached 75k, but I can tell you that we were pretty busy throughout the festival! We sold all of the stuffed seal toys, most of the hand-painted seal rocks, and a bunch of T-shirts, not to mention had pages and pages of signatures for our two main petitions (the Red Lobster petition and the petition to Stephen Harper, Canada’s prime minister). All in all, a huge, huge success!

We’re especially grateful for the support of Diana Marmorstein, HarpSeals.org‘s CEO, who flew down from her home base in Joplin, MO, to help us at our booth. She brought plenty more literature, flyers, and sale items and provided much-needed expertise as we spoke to the hundreds of folks who wanted to know more about the seal campaign and HarpSeals.org. Although we are an independent harp seal campaign advocacy group, we work especially closely with HarpSeals.org and are grateful for their continued support, and in particular for sponsoring the Earth Day Dallas booth!

We’ll have pics from the event up on our website soon, but in the meantime, stay tuned for updates on our next event: a public screening of Nigel Barker’s A Sealed Fate documentary. We are talking with the good folks over at Veggie Garden in Richardson, as they have graciously and generously offered to host a screening and fundraising dinner at their location. If you haven’t been there, you’re in for a real vegan treat. I just dined there for the first time this past Saturday and loved their extensive vegan menu. How can you not love a place that has a coconut chocolate tart with a healthy dollop of vanilla ice cream — and it’s all vegan?

And last, but not least, we’re always looking for more volunteers to help us expand our outreach in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. We are especially interested in folks who can help us organize and table at events; organize film screenings and/or presentations to youth groups and civic organizations, including schools and Scout troops; solicit donations; promote events and screenings; and even write for our blog! Please contact us ASAP if you’d like to contribute your time and talents. Thank you!