who let the dogs out?!

i volunteered to man the PAWS (Philippine Animal Welfare Society) Booth yesterday for the Furry Tales event. Through this event, PAWS hopes to increase awareness on the plight of our friends and also raise funds for PARC (PAWS Animal Rehabilitation Center) located at Katipunan, near Ateneo.

it was only recently that i joined PAWS. i am not really an animal lover but i still believe that animals should be treated with respect since we they are part of our ecosystem and because they are creatures of God. it was fun meeting new people and helping out.

i took extra effort to wake up early and get to the venue by 9am. unfortunately, Megamall is still closed. i only had one contact in PAWS and he wasn't replying to my messages. good thing McDo is always a good place to hangout and i bought with me a book to keep me company in times like this.

i got in by 10am and approached a member of the Powerbooks team (they co-sponsor the event). he helped me find my way. anyway, i was introduced to the other volunteers manning the booth during the morning shift.

Sam, is a fellow first time volunteer for PAWS. she has a dog. we both love taking pictures. she even had an entry in the photo exhibit which she showed to me along with her boyfriend's entry. Anna, who looks like my age is actually turning 32 this December! i couldn't stop myself from asking if she uses Dove. hehe. apparently, she works for Avon. Sam and I thought that this was probably the reason for her youthful glow. she has 2 dogs staying at her mom's since she's moved into a condo. Lhen is Libby's helper. She has experience in sales and is quite shy.

we were going to take care of selling the PAWS merchandise. we arranged the items to make it more appealing and also inserted flyers in the bags so that every customer gets information as to how they are supporting our cause through their purchases.

sales were slow during the morning. the lady in the adjacent booth selling dog clothes and accessories was sharing that morning mall people are not really dog lovers. she observed this "phenomena" while participating in exhibits and bazaars. new learning for me!

determined to sell more stuff, we decided that maybe we should buy and wear the merchandise first for people to take notice. we each brought a shirt and changed into them. although the foot traffic increased, people were still not buying. i tried to observe what we were doing wrong.

well, we looked kinda glum. we were all sitting inside the booth and looking really bored. so i decided to stand up and stay outside the booth and approach those who seemed interested. i think another factor to consider was people were kind of hesitant to really take a closer look and ask about the activities. we had free face painting and an art contest for the kids but the people from the other booth were not promoting it actively so i decided to take matters into my own hands. i am not leaving without making any sale!

i started approaching people passing by and talking to kids. eventually we got enough people to sign up for the face painting and art contest for people to take notice. slowly, people started approaching our booth! anna, decided to come out and also approach people to hand out flyers to those looking at the exhibit. a number of people started asking about PAWS and pet adoption. i was very happy even if i had to ask for help answering their queries since i haven't really been to PARC and i only started being aware of the issues concerning animals recently.

too bad i wasn't able to stay the whole day. our IDs serve as backstage passes too. i would have had the opportunity to get upclose and personal with local celebrities. at least there are more activities lined up for the following months.

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i took pictures of the exhibit entries i liked best. if only i had a pet, i would have also joined the contest...