At the beginning of the summer, Lynne gave me an assignment: find a way to reach out to young people. Somehow Project Purr is full of crazy cat ladies, but is missing the link to the younger generation. Project Purr on Facebook has helped, and this blog is also supposed to help, but really what needs to happen is a strong connection to kids and young adults. After a lot of thought, I came up with getting the high school environmental and community service clubs involved. However, I discovered that contacting them was more difficult than originally thought, and that even the environmentally and community-oriented kids don’t want to think about school during the summer.
One day I went to the Farmer’s Market downtown and realized this was where a large portion of the environmentally and community-oriented young people of Santa Cruz congregated! I got the idea that Project Purr could have a booth there, and then after two more people suggested the same thing, I was convinced. Lynne was very hesitant, but I insisted this would be a great way to reach out to the community.
We ended up going to the downtown Farmer’s Market twice- on August 17th and 24th. Instead of telling about each time individually, I’m going to compare and contrast the two.
Both times it was hot. A wind picked up both times at the end to cool us off a bit, but we were baking in the sun. The first time, Lynne had been concerned that we would be in the sun, but I had incorrectly remembered the area as being shady. The second time we brought an umbrella, and it helped a lot. Our setup included two small tables, three chairs, two tablecloths, a donation jar, lots of handouts, two of my kitty stuffed animals, the garden cat testimonial poster, and the poster with all of the feral cat pictures and the phrase, “we’re not all the same / some of us are less social than others.” On the first time, we also had a trap (with one of the stuffed animals inside) but the second time Lynne forgot it (but it was okay, because we were fine without it).
The first time was very slow, and barely anyone came to talk to us. It was probably because we didn’t have the umbrella, so people didn’t want to stand in the hot sun. The second time was much busier, although still not as busy as I had wanted. Both times Lynne and I both saw a lot of people we knew, including Margaret, Ella and Paddington, and Belle, who all stayed and chatted helped us run the booth for a little bit. I had been thinking that we were going to be able to find a lot of garden cat homes, because garden cats are so environmentally friendly. We ended up only finding one (which admittedly is better than none). A young couple came up and said, “we need some feral cats” and I responded, “you’ve come to the right place!”
I made a quick, simple “Volunteers Needed” sign, and it did actually bring in a couple potential good volunteers. Most of the people signed up for volunteering or donating for the next rummage sale, but some people wanted to trap too! One UCSC student was very interested in getting involved, and I let her know that she could intern.
Some of the conversations with people were very interesting. I had one long conversation with a lady who loved tortoiseshell cats more than anything. (Admittedly, I’m partial to them as well.) I explained what I knew about why only females can be torties and why they come out with completely unique coloring. I talked to a guy who was fantasizing about trapping raccoons, letting them live in an enclosure, and then raising their babies as pets until the babies were old enough to live in the wild (I know it doesn’t make sense, but that’s Santa Cruz for you). One person thought the stuffed kitty in the trap was a live puppy stuck in a cage in the hot sun with no water! That was funny! And of course there were the usual, “my cat just had kittens, what do I do?” and “there’s a litter of feral kittens in the backyard, can you take them?” questions that Project Purr gets every day, all the time during kitten season. One story was particularly interesting- a girl had adopted a cat, and had taken it to the vet to be spayed or neutered, but the vet said that the cat was male and had already been neutered. Then the cat had kittens. Oops!
From both of the Farmer’s Markets, we learned several things: 1) bring an umbrella, 2) remember to check the list of needed things (like the trap), 3) bring pictures of the Project Purr kittens and cats up for adoption (like Princessa), 4) check the handouts when setting up, because sometimes they get buried in the pile, and 5) the more you come to the Farmer’s Market, the more people will know you are there.
I think the Farmer’s Market is a good place for Project Purr to be. There were so many people who came to the booth who had never even heard of Project Purr, so in the end it was great for just getting the word out. We advertised a lot for the rummage sale and let people know about the August and September’s free spay/neuter program. I feel like Project Purr may not need to be there every week- every other week, or once a month may be enough. I also don’t think Lynne or Margaret should be working the Farmer’s Market. There’s so much they could be doing that no one else can do, and there are a lot of willing volunteers that would be thrilled to do this. I hope the Farmer’s Market continues as a way of reaching out to the public!
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