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Logo Design by Brian Rubenacker and Lili Chin Saturday, October 9, 2010 Temecula, California
The Tea Party Was a Blast! Thank You to all who attended!
This year Boston Buddies decided to take the Annual Boston Tea Party Fundraiser on a road trip. We had outgrown the original venue and parking had always been a bit difficult so we searched for a venue that would give us the space we wanted with plenty of close parking – oh and it also had to be affordable – this is a fundraiser after all! We think we found a great spot in the beautiful park-like grounds of Opto 22 in Temecula.
The Venue - Lots of Grass, Trees and Shade A great group of 38 volunteers arrived bright and early on Saturday, October 9, to get set up for the event! Much of the heavy lifting had been done the previous day by the employees of Opto 22 so we could get right to work setting up tables and chairs, firing up the BBQ, laying out the Contest Arena, setting out the Tea Party T-Shirts, unveiling the 2011 Rescue Calendar, putting the wonderful silent auction and raffle items on display, loading up the Welcome Tent with Goodie Bags and setting up the Walk of Fame. Crates and Ex-Pens were assembled for the Boston Buddies and Boston Brigade foster dogs that would be arriving shortly in transport caravans with additional volunteers.
BBQ Tent
Little Pantry Los Angeles Tent
TShirts, Hats, Calendars By 11:00 a.m., the venue was ready for the arrival of over 205 Boston Terriers and their people and Michael Johnson, the fabulous DJ from TimmyD Productions, welcomed the arriving crowd with some great music. As they passed through the Welcome Tent attendees received their reusable Boston Buddies logo grocery tote bag filled with all sorts of delicious cookies and food samples from Kahoots, Country Pet, Nature’s Select and PetSmart, an Opt to Adopt purple rescue awareness bracelet, tea light candles from Eretha’s Candles, Luna’s My Dog Stickers and Note Cards from Loft Play.
Each dog in attendance was given a bandana with the fabulous Brian Rubenacker/Lili Chin Tea Party logo design on it.
Next up was a stop in front of the Boston Buddies Wall of Fame to have a photo taken and then it was on to the Tea Party!
First stop for many was staking out a spot for their picnic blanket and chairs under one of the many shade trees available throughout the venue. Then it was off to explore all that was offered. The Silent Auction tents were busy with both “window shoppers” and bidders alike! There were so many wonderful offerings this year – everything from a custom tattoo by Dennis Halbritter at High Voltage Tattoo, an original oil painting of your dog by Brian Rubenacker, apparel (for both doggies and people), Luna Tote Bags and Tees, vintage books, coin banks and art prints, fabulous jewelry ensembles, fashion handbags and several gorgeous baskets filled with all sorts of wonderful items. All of us at Boston Buddies are so grateful to the fabulous supporters whose generous bids provide the funds needed to facilitate the fostering, proper medical care, and behavior training the pups need while they are awaiting their special forever homes.
Thanks to so many generous donations, each year our Tea Party Silent Auction is filled with a truly amazing array of coveted merchandise for bidders!
Tattoo Done by Dennis Halbritter at High Voltage Tattoo for Silent Auction High Bidder The buzz in the venue reached high pitch during the arrival of Chopper the Biker Dog. Chopper came riding into the park on his custom Harley Davidson motorcycle alongside his #1 pal, Mark Shaffer. Chopper took several rides around the venue during the day when he was not in his tent meeting his adoring crowd. You always knew when Chopper was out for a ride because there was a parade of admirers following alongside! Boston Buddies was honored to have one of the greatest ambassadors of our favorite breed in attendance.
Several Buddies and their families rushed over to see Allie Kemp in the Photography Booth for their official, pre-scheduled photo sessions, and although Allie was fully booked pre-Tea Party, she was able to take some last minute sittings and give information about her captivating photography. Post Tea Party Allie also put together special Boston Buddies exclusive holiday cards for those lucky families who had their photos taken at the event!
Card Photography and Design by Allie Kemp Photography © This year we listened to your requests and were pleased to be able to take credit card payment for items and donations at the Tea Party. Our T-Shirt and Calendar booth where the credit card machine was located was hopping all day long! In the booth we had both Tea Party logo and Come Play logo shirts available, as well as Boston Buddies embroidered ball caps and white window stickers. And of course, the 2011 Rescue Calendar was first available for sale at the Tea Party – and boy did we sell a lot of them! All these items are a great way to remember Rescue and the fun day, and the sales go a long way in supporting our rescue efforts.
For More Info on Ordering and To Sell ALL the Pages of the Calendar We also had the BBQ fired up and were frankly overwhelmed at the great response – despite some additional runs to the store during the event we actually ran out of all the food we bought for the day! Little Pantry Los Angeles was also there offering Cucumber Mint Limeade, Rosemary Lemonade, Fruit Skewers with Coconut Cream and lots of other delicious treats for people and pups alike! We had so many of the Boston Buddies and Boston Brigade rescue dogs at the Tea Party this year! We are pleased to report that Sophie Ann, Sheldon and Mugsy all went to their forever homes from the Tea Party! And like in years past, a very special history of Boston Buddies was displayed in collages depicting the dogs rescued over the past five years.
The Raffle Table was a hit once again with chances sold to win one of five great prizes: a fabulous basket of goodies from Yorba Regional Animal Hospital, another huge basket from VPI Pet Insurance, a fragrant and beautiful soy Candle Basket from Eretha’s Candles, a gift basket full of treats for our furry friends or an autographed copy of Marley & Me.
Drs. Dunbar and Johnson along with two of the fabulous vet techs from Yorba Regional Animal Hospital were on hand in our Ask the Vet booth. Yorba Regional is Boston Buddies vet of choice in Orange County. It is a top notch state of the art facility staffed by highly skilled and respected vets. Yorba also has a fabulous boarding facility with personnel staffing the facility 24/7. Unlike many other boarding facilities, there is always at least one vet on duty at Yorba Regional no matter what time of day or night.
Yorba Regional Doctors and Staff Linda Troup with Touch N Paws was there demonstrating the amazing power of TTouch, a training system that uses bodywork and non-habitual movement to influence the behavior and health of your dog. Linda showed us the various touches and wraps that can help in cases of car sicknesses, conditions associated with aging, excessive barking and chewing, leash pulling, jumping up, aggressive behavior, extreme fear and shyness, resistance to grooming, social fears and sound sensitivity and in providing supportive and comfort care during illness, injury and to hospice patients.
New this year was a contest to see which human was sporting the best Boston Tattoo. The past few Tea Parties we had noticed a plethora of body art featuring our favorite breed so we thought it would be fun to include a new contest. We had several contestants, many with multiple Boston tattoos! It was a tough decision as we thought all the tattoos were fantastic, but Melissa and her tattoo of Daisy and Duke (drawn by Lili Chin no less!) was declared the winner.
As the winner Melissa went home with an autographed copy of Kat Von D’s book High Voltage Tattoo
Everyone, (including Kathy, Rachael and Karen, who presided over the antics), so enjoys watching the dogs enter and compete in the Contest Arena.
This year the competition was stiff for: Biggest Boston: #1 – Frank the Tank Smallest Boston: #1 - Samantha Longest Sit: A Tie for First Place! No one was giving up even when we rolled a ball in front of them and squeaked a toy! #1 - Stitch and Primo Oldest Boston: #1 – Casey (13 ½ years old!) #2 – Delilah (13 years old!) #3 – Molly (12-13 years old!) Shortest tail: #1 - Cookie
#1 - Pica Looks Most Like Owner: #1 - Vernon
Biggest Ears: #1 – Mushu #2 - Oliver And the highlight of the contests is always the Costume Parade! Again this year, it was really hard to choose: #1 – The Three Amigos We need photos of the Three Amigos - if you have one please email it to us! #2 – Nala the Bulldog
#3 – Banana Split
Everyone who enters this event is a Winner in our book! All of us at Boston Buddies extend our sincere gratitude to the donors, sponsors, volunteers and attendees who made this event our most successful Boston Tea Party fundraiser ever! See you all next year!
To see photos of the day visit our Facebook page - we have two albums of photos there!
You can also visit Martin Finchim’s album of photos he took at the event - Click Here Brady Darvin also has an album on Picasa - Click Here
Lili Chin also posted some photos on Flickr - Click Here
5th Annual Tea Party Sponsors Allie Kemp Photography Brian Rubenacker Charlie Manning Bookkeeping Country Pet - Murrieta Eretha’s Candles Kahoots Pet Store – Murrieta Lili Chin Doggie Drawings Little Pantry Los Angeles Mark Shaffer and Chopper the Biker Dog Nature’s Select - Inland Valley Opto 22 PetSmart – Temecula Scott Hoag Sales, Inc. TimmyD Productions Touch N Paws Yorba Regional Animal Hospital
5th Annual Tea Party Donors Alisha McGraw Ann Ansman Betty Burkhart Bradford/Rowley Portraiture Brian Rubenacker Chris Fleming Christa Faust Dale Anne Eucker Deb and Clarkie Kenyon/Terrier Trousers Dennis Halbritter Ericka Griffiths Hailey Montgomery/Pink Pup Design Hereta Cervantes/Eretha’s Candles Humane Society of the United States Jennifer Sanchez/Jewelry Blossoms on Etsy Jerry Asiao/Luna’s My Dog Karen Engman Kathy Engberg Katie Anthony Kay Peters Lili Chin Loft Play Mary Fleming Sakura Minamida/vivaelrambo Stitchy Witchy Designs The Mermaid’s Song/Judithanne Westrope Vince and Gina Polito VPI Pet Insurance Yorba Regional Animal Hospital |
