Fund raiser

Hi guys!
We’ve (okay, I’ve) been super busy over here! The fund raiser is kind of taking over my life, but in a good way, mostly. It’s kind of overwhelming, but I think it will come together. And I think I needed something to keep me busy this month, even if I am complaining about it a little bit.

So… fund raiser! The bar agreed to let us use their venue, which is cool. They told me they usually get about 400 people on Fridays, but can hold like 800, so that should be great. I have a feeling we will get a huge turn out. We’re still working on the specifics just a little bit, at the moment the plan is to have a nicer event at 6:30 and have drinks, maybe snacks, some scientific talks (nothing too heavy, just interesting stuff), and an auction. Then from nine to midnight we will have raffle drawings and drink specials. We will be selling raffle tickets around town for a couple weeks prior to the event (which means we have to start on Friday!) to try to get people interested. We will be charging a cover for the night event and maybe the evening event (undecided at this point, kind of depends on whether the auction happens or not).

So far local businesses have been really interested in helping out, which is awesome. It’s a small town, but I think people are proud of the aquarium, and really care about improving it so that it won’t get destroyed again. What we are trying to accomplish isn’t that major—some really basic aquarium equipment, better filtration and pipes, as well as some things like a dissection table to improve the research capabilities (which is why SAMPLA took it over in the first place.) The problem is actually finding these things in South Africa, but the good news is things are relatively cheap here. Adam hasn’t set a goal for us yet, but I’m guessing we’re looking for a total of less than $10,000.

I know some of you have expressed an interest in helping out. Being in South Africa makes it a little bit of a challenge to get money, but if you’d like to help, I think we can work it out. Email me at triciacoyne@gmail.com if you’re interested. I know it’s not the most important cause in the world, but it is the sort of thing where a little bit of money can go a really long way in improving the quality of the aquarium.

So that’s my life, I’m still chumming and all that, too, and hopefully working on my paper. Once we get everything rolling, I’m hoping to be able to delegate some more of the work. We are trying to tag a shark this week, so that should be fun, since I haven’t had very much tracking experience. Hopefully it will happen soon, because I’m only here for three more weeks!

Oh ps, someone finally got a picture of me with a shark in it.

(photo by Justin Silbernagel)

Alright, that’s all! Hope you are all doing well!