NATURAL BABY FEST IN FRESNO, CALIFORNIA in may!!

[tinawoman]

our local AP group is in the planning stages of our first ever natural baby festival out here in fresno, california...and i would love some ideas from some of y'all!

we have tons of ideas already but always looking for more! we are going to have babywearing be the theme of this festival, and the center of it will be a sling/baby carrier fashion show!

we are working on getting a grant to fund the event so that it will be able to be free to the public and so we can get lots of advertisement out there! we really want to educate the public!

we want to have freebies to give away with a logo of the event on it, something that will remind people to hold their babies...and we are going to have at least one children's performer singing for the kids for part of the event (oklin bloodworth is a local children's entertainer and really fantastic! i have a couple friends of mine who live in sacramento that are also kids performers with albums out and i'm trying to get ahold of them...hoping to have more entertainment like that throughout the day)

anyway, what i would love from y'all is more ideas! i posted about this elsewhere for ideas before and someone told me to talk to mothering magazine for promotion and i am in the process of doing that...haven't heard back from them yet, and hoping to get them to donate some subscriptions for raffle and maybe for freebies to hand out.

if anyone here knows of any online natural mothering type stores...particularly ones selling slings! that are somewhere in or near the central valley, california, please let me know or send them to me because we would love to have lots of mommy vendors! its hard to figure out who's local since they don't all advertise where they are located.

you can email me offlist at epponine@fresnofamily.com with your ideas or for more info.

thanks for your help! oh and this is a nonprofit event...the place where we are holding the event is a local nonprofit kids science museum and any proceeds we get will go to them. they had a fire that destroyed their main building a couple years ago and are still recooping from it. its a great place and a great cause! and they are excited to help sponsor this event!


thanks!


tina
mommy to maeven, 2yrs 3mos

[lovinmyboy]

sounds wonderful, i want to come! keep us posted:love

[oceanbaby]

You should have a cloth diaper info booth. Have people lend all their different ones so people can check out all the different options. I sure would have loved to see all these in one place. Maybe even a cloth diaper fashion show!

[mamabuttercup]

hi
That sounds so fun! I want to come! I would contact local natural foods stores. When I worked at a natural foods store I worked in the Health and Beauty section and we always got tons of free samples. You can get lots of reps to donate products and samples, especially kids soaps and sunblock etc! They could alsohave info on non- gmo, and of course organic!
Also talk to local vegetarian resaraunts to serve organic snacks/ lunch or just give out samples, etc.
Good Luck! I have worked at Earthday/ Peace events so I am just brainstorming!
Another thing that could help you museum is a silent auction. Talk to local artists and stores to donate items and people can bid on them throughout the day and at the end you raise quite a bit of money!
Again Good Luck:thumb
Keep us posted I would love to attend and spread the word through Chico, CA:)
peace,
mamabc

[tinawoman]

but we're not giving up! if we have to postpone, we will...but we're not ready for that yet either. the grant might not actually work now so we are working on looking into corporate sponsorship and getting as much stuff and services donated as possible...working on a tight time frame, though...so we're working hard! meeting a couple times a week to work on this!

anyway, if anyone knows of any companies they can recommend to hit up for donations, especially monetary, please let us know!

we are able to do this entire event, bare bones, for under $5000, so we're not looking for a huge amount...and actually could probably do it for closer to $2000...just depends on how bare we want the bones! lol! anyway, anyone who knows anyone please let me know at epponine@fresnofamily.com cuz we are all new to this and are a bunch of mommies doing most of this on our own...getting help where we can! already gotten great ideas from this and other message boards! thanks!! keep the ideas coming!




tina

[tinawoman]

FRESNO BABY FEST AND SPRING SLING
2003

we thought it was catchy!

we decided not to make it entirely a natural baby fest because the main thing we want is to educate those who do not know things like how good it is for babies to be worn...and if we do a "natural baby fest" it will end up bringing in mostly people who already know this stuff! :hippie

so of course we will have lots of that kind of stuff (we already have lots of people interested in doing info and vending booths with things like slings, cloth diapers, doulas, midwives, etc...), but also more things that will attract mainstreamers as well (babies first, WIC, headstart, discovery toys, etc...)...mix it all up together to keep the crowd a good mix! educate those who will educated and maybe help some families learn some new things! take what they like and leave the rest! very non-threatening since that's the best way to get a message through.




TINA

[Andrea0408]

Hello ladies!

My name is Andrea, and I am a new member...but I cant tell you how excited I am to read that there are a few of you from Fresno...I myself am in Sanger, (and cant wait to move away!) The event sounds GREAT, and I will plan on attending..sounds like you have some great ideas!

If you dont mind me asking, where is your AP group?

[veganmamma]

Why don't you have booths and charge? I would (will) pay to set up a booth. You can have rules about selling and advertising. Like obviously, no Infamil booth, or sellers can only sell such and such. KWIM?
Lauren

[tinawoman]

thankyou to all who've posted or emailed me so far...things are coming along nicely here and we have been taking your ideas and running with them!

we have decided on these fees, so far...they're not set in stone yet, so don't quote me on it...it may still change...but what we have thought of so far is:

$35/booth for wahms (work at home moms, only employing themselves and a family member like husband or mother, etc)

$75/booth for businesses with 3-5 employees

$100/booth for businesses with 5 or more employees and also for food vendors

we have a large area with shade trees for vendors...near what we are hoping will be our entertainment stage (if we can get the funds for that)...but we are expecting that area to be taken up quickly, so we are going to do it on a first come, first serve basis...meaning that people who pay first get priority. if you have your own shade (umbrella, canopy, etc...) we are thinking of giving a discounted rate for an area in the sun. we are hoping this will encourage those who can provide their own shade to bring their own so those who don't have access to it will get the tree shade spots.

we are going to look into getting our event a bank account this week and also a paypal account...and we are going to do a fundraiser soon that will be a big yard sale/rummage sale type thing where people will donate items for sale and all proceeds go to the event...also we will be doing auctions to raise money for this as well...if you are interested in getting involved in the auction, helping us out by either donating items for sale or bidding on items...please let me know at epponine@fresnofamily.com any help we can get would be wonderful! we need as much support as possible to get this event to happen! even if you can't come, maybe you can help us out this way. that would be wonderful!

oh and i've started an info webpage on my website about this event... www.fresnofamily.com/babyfest.html its only just in the beginning stages so there's not much there yet. check back from time to time to see updates.

again, any interest in our event, please let me know, because i am passing along the info to the appropriate mommies (we have a committee working on this) and the more interest we hear, the more excited we get about doing this and it gives us the drive to work harder! thanks!! you can post here or email me directly at epponine@fresnofamily.com



tina
mommy to maeven, 2yrs 4mos

[Spookygirl]

Andrea, our group is in Fresno! You can e-mail Tina directly on how to join, since she's in charge :) Look forward to meeting you all!

[Andrea0408]

Thanks! I got your email today Tina...hopefully I will be able to make it this week..If not, next week...I cannot even begin to tell you how exciting this is for me.

[tinawoman]

this event is getting so big and popular that we felt we didn't have enough time to do it well in time for may, so we're in the process of changing the date to fall or next spring...so we have time to get the funding we need without killing ourselves and neglecting our families. and so we can do it well.

stay tuned for more info and email me at epponine@fresnofamily.com for more info and if interested in being a vendor, because we are still full speed ahead with this.


tina

[tinawoman]

we have decided on 2 possible dates for this hooplah...

sat nov 8, 2003 or sat may 1, 2004

we need help deciding which date would be more popular. even if you are unable to come, can you let us know which date you would be more likely to go to? remembering that we are in fresno, CA, so if you are familiar with the central valley, you know how the weather is here.

is there a way to post a poll? if so, i'll just do that...but if not, please respond to this email and tell me which date you think would be better...we need your help!


tina
mommy to maeven, 2yrs 4mos
www.fresnofamily.com

[tinawoman]

we are only taking votes for a week. so from today til mar 30th we are taking votes for which date would be better for our babyfest... nov 8, 2003 or may 1, 2004

thanks in advance for helping us out! we just couldn't decide!!


tina

[veganmamma]

I vote May- Sephie will be almost 1 in Nov, this way she's only 6 mos and not mobile. So May is easier for us.
L

[tinawoman]

in 2004. this may is way too soon. we have lots to do still.

[veganmamma]

LOL then November!!

[tinawoman]

bump bump bumpity bump!! keep this info up there so people can reference it for the poll!!

[tinawoman]

we'd like your vote! please post below here which date you think is better....this coming november or a year from this may? there are so many factors involved, weather being the biggest...its already in the 80s here, and its still march! so may will probably be 80s or 90s, but not much chance of rain...where november will be cooler, maybe 60s or 70s (our summer doesn't really end until mid-october, with sept being one of our hottest months with many days over 100 typically! so november is our first "cool" month), but more chance of rain.

we need your thoughts!! tell us which day you would be more likely to attend even if you aren't actually coming...don't have to be local to vote, we are just taking a public consensus type poll to help us choose!

thanks for you input! i'm tallying up the votes tonite, so this is the last chance for you to cast your vote! thankyou!!


tina

[tinawoman]

the votes were tallied from a couple different places & the final word is that this will now be 5/1/04.

this should give us lots of time to get the funding we need and make sure its done well.


tina

[megtell]

I'm new but this sounds SOOOOOOOOOO awesome!! I would love to have a booth with my AP gifts--I'll e-mail you soon.I'm in Sacramento, but have family in Fresno and could stay with them.

Sounds AWESOME!

[CMTorie]

OMG...I live in Madera! I keep hearing from on-line friends about these expo's...but we don't seem to have any around here. I am so excited. I think May is better anyhow, cause November a lot of people will be thinking of Christmas/Hannukah/Thanksgiving. Bad time of year to go 'buy' things. And...if sells are low...then your vendors won't want to come back.

I would love more info...I will e-mail you!