Erie, PA Fundraiser! FBRN volunteers Jenn and Chris hosted a rescue table at the Erie, Pa., Kennel Club Dog Show in January. They raised $380 for the cause by selling raffle tickets for a basket of wines, chocolates, and a gift certificate to a local Italian eatery using their best sales tools, brindle babes Truffles and Hannah. Jenn and Chris "spoke French" for eight hours straight, educating show visitors about rescue and surprising many with the fact that yes, there are homeless Frenchies out there. Many thanks to FBRN's vendor-neighbor: www.VincentStrangioStore.com, who donated $1 from each shirt sold on the first day of the show to FBRN, AND gave Chris and Jenn two Frenchie t-shirts to sell at the FBRN table.
LMS RAISED $200 for FBRN!! This donation is from the LMS Group (Last Man Standing), football pool that is now down to less than 50 people for the $250,000 prize money. They donate $250,000 to about 50 charities and the winner gets the other half. This is a wonderful group of "Animals" themselves and often go by this nickname. The Zookeeper is in charge all monies and maintains supervision over all animals involved in the group. So I would personally like to give special thanks to him for not forgetting FBRN and helping those frenchies in need.
Once again FBRN Volunteer Patty and her family pulled off another great Longaberger basket bingo! Thanks so much to them for their fun idea to raise much needed money for the FBRN foster dogs!
AnKle Soup Book Signing Several FBRN volunteers recently attended a booksigning event for the delightful children's picture book, Ankle Soup, held at Pylones in the Grand Central Terminal Shops/ New York City. Ankle Soup, written by Maureen Sullivan and illustrated by Alison Josephs, is about a French bulldog named Carlos and his journey through Grand Central Terminal in New York City on Thanksgiving Day. Those who attended the event had the pleasure of meeting Maureen, Alison and Carlos, the handsome subject of Ankle Soup. Carlos charmed the crowd, along with his friend Miss Dari, another frenchie owned by one of our FBRN volunteers. It was an exciting evening which drew quite a rush hour crowd. Our volunteers were quite busy throughout the evening answering questions about French bulldogs, educating the public about rescue and spreading the word about FBRN. Many FBRN flyers were handed out and one went home inside each copy of Ankle Soup that was purchased that evening.
	Maureen and Alison, both frenchie lovers and FBRN supporters, generously donated ten signed copies of Ankle Soup which were sold on our website to raise funds for FBRN. If you'd like to view Maureen Sullivan reading Ankle Soup, you can go to www.anklesoup.com and look for the podcastGO link at the bottom of the page.

WALKTOBERFEST

On September 22nd, 2007 the Berks County Humane Society held their 30th annual Walktoberfest for the animals at Shearers Barbecue Ranch in Sinking Springs, PA. In addition to Walktoberfest, vendors showed a variety of clothing, and physical therapists, groomers and trainers demonstrated their trade. A beer and wine garden and musicians entertained the guests. Crista Tam and her Frenchie Secret, and Marilyn Traeger and her Frenchie Newman manned the FBRN booth and did a brisk business educating the public about FBRN! Newman and Secret lured the crowd with their ever-changing costumes and bag of tricks. They raised $132.00 and signed up new volunteers. Fun was had by all!

FBRN at Puppy Mill Awareness Day 2007

Several FBRN volunteers (both human and frenchie) recently made the trip to the Puppy Mill Awareness Day, 2007 in Intercourse, Pennsylvania. This was FBRN's second year participating in the event, which was created to raise public awareness of the cruel and deplorable conditions within puppy mills. FBRN has been working closely with the Puppy Mill Awareness Day Organization to spread the word that we will find a way to stop the practice of "manufacturing" dogs for profit. This was an exceptionally special year, with a candlelight vigil on the steps of the Capitol (in Harrisburg) and with the largest crowd ever. The march through the streets of Intercourse was both exciting and inspiring! Tourists were snapping pictures as the protestors marched through the busiest tourist sections. Hopefully when they got home they shared those vacation pictures with people who did not know about Pennsylvania's dirty secret!

FBRN's participation in the Puppy Mill Awareness Day Organization was enhanced this year by two of FBRN's most committed members (Jan Frymyer and Shelby Carland) joining The Awareness Day Organization as official volunteers. Both Jan and Shelby have extensive experience with mill dogs and devote an enormous amount of time to rescue. As a rescue organization FBRN is incredibly fortunate to have the amazing volunteers that we have! French bulldogs are becoming more common in puppy mills due to their price tag. Millers will simply breed them to be larger so they can free-whelp, or cross-breed them with Boston terriers to create puppies that look like pied Frenchies. If we, as FBRN volunteers, could all commit to tell 5 people whom we are not acquainted with about puppy mills before the end of the year, our organization could reach over 1,500 people. There is strength in numbers and we have them! Maybe half of those people will tell someone else.....and half of those people will tell someone else...you get the picture. In our fight to protect the frogs, we are saving thousands of other dogs as well!

It was truly a wonderful experience to spend time with FBRN volunteers. Debbie Goodling visited with FBRN foster dog Samson (the handsome devil!) and Marilyn Traeger brought her frenchie Newman along. Yvonne Carbaugh came to help with her rat terrier Patsy. At one point we were all in a hotel suite with 7 frenchies having cocktails (the humans, not the frenchies!) They were all exhausted, and snoring could be heard from many different corners of the suite. There were frogs everywhere! Might I add that our booth was by far the best at the event, thanks to Jan! There was a steady crowd of visitors the entire day.

I would also like to point out that it was a frenchie that first "walked over the face" of Joyce Stoltzfus, the notorious Lancaster puppy-miller, at the candlelight vigil. I believe it was frenchie Philippe Frymyer (in all his brindle glory) who took the first steps. "Frogs are not going to take this anymore!", I heard him chant. For those of you who are not familiar with it, the face was created from digital footprints of the dogs that have been saved from the Stoltzfus mill. It was displayed at the "Puppies Are Biodegradable" art exhibit in Philadelphia, with a copy made for Awareness Day. We all signed the names of puppy mill dogs over Joyce's face, and displayed the final exhibit the next day as a backdrop for our guest speakers. I should also add that frenchies Newman Traeger, Luigi Frymyer and Willow Carland went along on the protest walk. It is a long walk for any frenchie, but the frogs stood strong for what they believed in (with a bit of help here and there.)

I will let the pictures tell the rest of story! -FBRN Volunteer Kim Alboum

Thank you to everyone who participated in Awareness Day 2007!