Karyn’s Corner
Part 2 — The Greyhound Blitz
On or before SA Grey’s first anniversary, there was a change of board members. Vice President Susan Fox resigned, and Gordon Bennett transitioned from board member at large to vice president. Diana Hansen became the communications director and Mary Ann Neisz was appointed board member at large. Previously I mentioned that Joan and Paul Athey and Dale Peterson wrote the bylaws. Did you know there were nine drafts before the bylaws were formalized?
Fun fact: Three ex-military members were on the Board: John Clark, Gordon Bennett and Don Blascak. SA Greys became a well-executed, finely tuned operation.
Since SA Greys was the new kid on the block, the communications committee devised an out-of-the-box scheme where in April 2013, a couple of months past our first anniversary, we would hold several events, the Greyhound Blitz, during National Adopt a Greyhound Month. When Diana Hansen presented the idea during a board meeting, invisible flaming daggers shot out of the board’s eyes as they became dizzy from all the suggestions. Director Don Blascak was responsible for all the outreach and had a 20-point checklist that had to be filled out for every event. He was a bit overwhelmed but jumped on the blitz bandwagon, which had its own graphic.
The Arizona Daily
Star wrote a two-page spread about SA Greys, which appeared in the Sunday edition and adopter Cindy Hall was interviewed.
Here was the events schedule:
March 28 — Advisory Board Chair Mary Freeman appeared on the Bill Buckmaster radio show where she spoke about SA Greys and the Greyhound Blitz.
March 30 — Invited to participate in “A Very Special Horse Event” hosted by our friends at Equine Voices Rescue & Sanctuary.
April 6 — Meet & Greet at Antigone Books and walk Historic Fourth Avenue Business District from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Dogs wore donation visits. Silver Sea Jewelry, owned by a greyhound adopter, provided dog biscuits and sold greyhound earrings. Pictured above are David Grasse and Winston at the Fourth Avenue Meet & Greet.
April 7 — Greyt Vines Fundraiser at CataVinos Wine Shoppe. Guests enjoyed wine tasting, snacks and a raffle from 4 to 6 p.m.
April 13 — “Fast Planes & Fast Dogs” at Pima Air and Space Museum from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
April 19 — Rainbow Remembrance, a non-denominational ceremony to remember our beloved hounds who crossed the Rainbow Bridge, was held at Reid Park from 7 to 9 p.m. Location: Ramada #17
April 21 — The 19th Annual Tucson Earth Day Festival & Parade — Community event at Reid Park from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Greyhounds and their adopters marched in the “All Species” parade.
April 24 — Greyt Bites — Twenty percent of your California Pizza Kitchen meal tab benefited the greyhounds when a specific flyer was presented from noon to closing.
April 24 — Royal Kia of Tucson at 4343 E. Speedway Blvd. — Meet & Greet from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Jett the greyhound pranced around the service lounge meeting everyone and kissing babies. Let’s Roo for Royal!
Plus: Meet & Greet events were also regularly scheduled at Petco and PetSmart. April was an exhausting month but so worth it.
If you missed Part 1, you can read it here. This is a multi-part series and if you want to share your memories, please email communications@sagreys.org and I will contact you.
Karyn Zoldan volunteers on the communications and marketing teams.