Gloucester Sidewalk Bazaar - Snakes Exhibit  8-4-2017 and 8-5-2017

We dazzled 'em at the Sidewalk Bazaar for two days in our beautiful hometown Gloucester on Main Street in front of the Bananas Store. We had a lovely native snake display and a whole group of other snakes from around the world to share with our visitors. The crowd ebbed and flowed for two days and thousands of people visited our exhibit - including some camp kids. We had a guest appearance with a Massachusetts dignitary... see if you can identify him below. He even posed in a photograph with Rick in front of our display. A bunch of our supporters gave donations and bought t-shirts, hats, field guides and bumper stickers. It was super fun and we're glad we could provide such a great spread to the public.

We had quite a few ZEN moments where the child or adult was mesmerized and just couldn't leave. We love it... A grandmother came to our exhibit about three different times with a very active boy of about 7 years old. She told me it was the first time she had ever seen her grandchild settle down and focus... ever! He kept asking her to come back to our exhibit. She was amazed that our snakes got his attention and kept it in a soulful way. Why? We know there is something special about being around and holding our snakes. 

Thanks to our Friday volunteers... Joan Hawes, Kayla Saltonstall, Marisa Neves, Marion Healey, Colleen Anderson, Anna DiPerna, Wilhelmina Rolf Thaemert, Victoria Rolf, Nick Taormina, Keith Bertone, Mason Camille and Karen Camille. We even had some groupies who had so much fun holding snakes they decided they didn't want to leave and became on-the-spot volunteers - and one Skate Board Dude even helped tear down the whole works at the end of the day.

Thanks to our Saturday volunteers... Genevieve Healey, Susan Hedman, Anna DiPerna, Marion Healey, Mason Camille, Ron and Karen Camille, Colleen Anderson, Victoria Rolf, Nick Taormina, Keith Bertone, Steve McCrory and the Skate Board Dude who we actually discovered is Daniel Gattineri.

What an awesome group of youth and citizens we have helping spread the word about wildlife. I commend the young people, especially, for dedicating themselves so fully to helping others learn about our snakes and nature. Thanks Marion, Mason and Daniel for spending two full days enlightening the public!

Photographs by Victoria Rolf and Keith Bertone (noted below).