Asbury Park's first presence at the NYC Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered Pride March was a smashing success! Our float was a fabulous beach scene. We had a spirited group of about 15 straight and gay Asbury supporters. As promised, the rain held off for the duration of the March. We blew up 500 beach balls branded with the logos of some of our sponsors, and they were the hit of the parade. As Michael Brim said, "You'd have thought we werethrowing out gold nuggets!" Next year we're going to get at least twice as many (and an ELECTRIC pump!)
We also walked along the route handing out "Greetings from Asbury Park" postcards, with info on the back about Roadtrip, gay bowling, links, etc. We also handed out Roadtrip postcards and AP brochures. As the float went by, and as people saw that what we were handing out was Asbury Park stuff, their faces lit up. We heard comments like, "Oh, Asbury Park, I hear great things are happening there", and "I used to go there as a kid", and "we used to go to the Odyssey all the time", etc. People know and love AP when they're reminded of it. It has great brand recognition. With the beach balls and postcards and flyers, we must have handed out over 2000 pieces of AP information (we ran out; we'll get more next year). There were an estimated 500,000 people along the route to see the float and us having a BLAST! We couldn't BUY this kind of publicity. Thanks all our sponsors, including the Asbury Park UEZ, APMF, and private donors, and especially a HUGE thanks to Metro Homes (The Esperanza) for gamely donating the big bucks that made our float possible. Sara Ann Towery totally appreciated the vision of the idea and, along with Michael Brim, successfully enrolled the support of the APUEZ. Sara Ann also charmed the donation out of Metro Homes for our float! A number of private parties dug into their wallets to help us out (and we went a little over budget, if anyone wants to help us out of the hole). Joe Zarro went on a last minute quest to find us an affordable sound system. (We aborted at the last minute due to iffy weather--Joe's $10K deposit would have been at risk if the equipment got drenched). And of course, thanks to everyone who hauled their butts to NYC that morning to ride the float and work the crowd! And especially Michael Brim who took on the brunt of the work of implementing this project, from working with the float company, to laying out the postcards and having them printed, to doing a lot of the necessary research, to keeping the finances, to the single handedly putting stickers on 500 beach balls, etc, etc, etc. Here are pics on my web photoalbum: http://public.fotki.com/Brettnyny/asbury_park_at_nyc/ Brett Lowell ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> See what's inside the new Yahoo! Groups email. http://us.click.yahoo.com/2pRQfA/bOaOAA/yQLSAA/Y2tolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
