The Alaska Marine Conservation Council, Alaska Youth for Environmental Action and Renewable Resources Foundation are searching for more salmon loving people and organizations to help get a BIG, positive message out there about how fabulous wild, Alaska salmon and Bristol Bay are at this year's Fur Rondy parade. Last year was the first annual Celebrate Wild Salmon & Bristol Bay float in the parade and this year we need your help to do it bigger and better. We found the parade was a fantastic way to reach a very large crowd (thousands of people attend the parade) in a positive way with little time and financial investment. It's one of those events that creates good karma amongst the conservation community and the public and helps demonstrate our common values. Last year the crowd cheered like crazy for us and we were definitely a favorite. 

This year the parade is Saturday, February 25th at 10:30 am (line up begins around 9 am) 

Here's the kind of support we need from sponsors- 

•   Volunteers- we need people to help make costumes and signs pre-parade and need people to march the day of the parade 

•   Help getting the word out- we need organizations and individuals to help recruit volunteers through newsletters, email, social networking and word of mouth

•   Materials- we need organizations to help provide materials (or $$ donations) for making crafts and artistic folks to design items for the float; we also need cool vehicles, trailers for float, boats to pull etc to make our float spectacular

•   Food/drink donations- we need food and drinks for our salmon bbq for particpants to follow at the RRF office and candy/goodies to toss out to parade goers--WE NEED WILD SALMON!

•   Attend the post- parade salmon BBQ at the RRF office located at 605 West 2^nd Ave., downtown Anchorage.  Warm up after the parade and mingle with fellow salmon-lovers!

If you can help in the above areas in a considerable manner you will be considered a sponsor and allowed to march with your organization's banner in parade. If you have questions about what that means, just ask. But basically it means you will put some time, efforts, and resources into making this a great event in a manner that shows! 

Here are a few more rules of engagement: 

- no negative messages are allowed (i.e. "No Drilling in Bristol Bay")- only positive messages ("Keep Bristol Bay Wild & Healthy!" or "Protect Our Salmon Stronghold!")  

- no campaign-specific messages are allowed (no mention of coal, mining, drilling etc)

- fish farming and frankenfish messages are allowed as they are overwhelmingly popular with the Alaska public! 

- healthy habitat, clean water, wild salmon etc. messages are encouraged 

Please contact Amy Snider at amy@akmarine.org or at 277-5357 as soon as possible but no later than January 23rd by to confirm your interest or with questions. 

For your viewing pleasure, pictures from last year's parade can be seen at: 

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37416&id=117182494987208&saved#!/album.php?aid=37416&id=117182494987208