AER PAWS Walk:

The crew of Ha’DIbaH lulIgh ghom turned out to assist Sauk County Humane Society for the 19th annual “PAWS Pledge Walk & Fun Fest,” spring fundraiser, at the Sauk County Fairgrounds, in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Targeting this event as the spring debut of the upgrade of our CO’s Klingon persona and uniform, although there were some short cuts that needed to be taken to meet this debut target. XO Skele worked, diligently, at construction of the new base of the “costume,” while the CO forted up in the basement to work on trim and accessories, as well as the first attempt at casting, molding, and creation of an upgraded head-ridge appliance. Moderate success was achieved on the head-ridge prosthetic (it’s always a learning experience, and for a first attempt, this is nothing to be ashamed of). Components of the previous uniform were incorporated into the debut presentation, for the sake of time sensitivity, to meet the deadline. XO Skele worked late into the night on Friday, May 4th, for the outfit to be ready for CO to don the morning of Saturday, May 5, for the PAWS event.

As a result of the late night session, XO Skele was unable to report for duty as a volunteer for the PAWS event as early as she had been scheduled (suffice to say, SCHS managed adequately in her absence), but did report to her duty assignment some time after 0900 hours, manning the SCHS “Gear For Sale” table, which just happened to be right next to Ha’DIbaH lulIgh ghom’s official debut recruiting/information table, manned by CO mar Sal vestai Kurkura. The CO had arrived closer to the 0630 volunteer report time, also debuting the first official duty run of the recently commissioned “scuttle-craft” vehicle, {yay Doq} (recently acquired 1998 Dodge Dakota Sport, V8 318, in “Victory Red” color).

Due to the time crunch of the operation, and the scrambling about of the crew to make it to their assigned duty posts, no exemplar holo-images were acquired of the Upgraded Outfit, to accompany this report. However, a “reboot” of the debut is scheduled for Saturday, May 12, for the local community event, Downtown Baraboo’s Spring Fair On The Square, where another instance of the recruiting/information table will be set up, and manned by the Ha’DIbah’s crew. Holo-Images are scheduled for the F.O.S. event, and will accompany the report of same.

Returning to the matter of PAWS Walk, the crew of Ha’DIbaH lulIgh ghom, once again, excelled as the top sellers of the events companion raffle ticket sales, outselling all other volunteers who took on the raffle ticket sales assignment. Recording a whopping $300 in raffle ticket sales on a day when they showed up at the sale location after forgetting to bring along the cash box and raffle tickets to sell. $300 in just three hours of selling (although the cash box and raffle tickets were retrieved, albeit a half-hour or so, late for the start time). And, this day was not their biggest day of selling.

While XO Sergeant Major Skele manned the SCHS “Gear For Sale” table, continuing to sell raffle tickets right up until the time of the drawing, CO Imperial Marine Major mar Sal vestai Kurkura paraded in front of the Ha’DIbaH info display table, drawing attention to our table, as well as guiding folks, and assisting folks at the SCHS table next door (after all, he WAS doing double duty as our CO AND an SCHS event volunteer as well), and strolling about the “Vendor’s Building” also housed tables presenting information and displays and not necessarily vending anything. mar Sal interacted with several of the “vendors,” as well as many of the passing visitors to the SCHS event, extolling the virtues of science fiction fandom, and KAG membership in particular. A number of these visitors, as well as vendors, expressed an interest in or organization and our chapter, and much of the “hand-out” information was dispensed and picked up by such visitors. While no one actually signed up, at the time, for membership in KAG, or the chapter, we are very encouraged the the level of interest shown in our activities, and we expect, at least some of those inquiries to result in potential members.

The event closed down around 1300 hours, and XO Skele repaired to home base to care for our four-legged companion/crew members (whose breakfast was now very late), while the CO stripped off as much of his outward Klingon persona as possible to break down our info table, and assist, as a scheduled volunteer, with the breaking down of the event space and equipment, loading some remaining supplies into the “shuttlecraft,” Doq ‘yay, to return it to the headquarters of SCHS at the animal shelter elsewhere in Baraboo.

All in all, a most successful day. We thank the vendors and visitors who attended the Sauk County Humane Society’s PAWS Pledge Walk & Fun Fest, as well as expressing our gratitude to Sauk County Humane Society, their staff and volunteers, for allowing us to participate with them in this event

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