Monday, June 9, 2008

Stormvale Demo June 7th 2008

Stormvale put on a Demo this past Saturday as part of the Genesee County Autism Support Walk. I am not sure if my count is accurate but I believe 16 people attended from the Shire. Activities included Belly Dancing, Fighting, Metalworking, Henna Tatooing and showing off fancy Garb!!! At various times the Belly Dancing and Fighting had crowds of interested people asking about the activities. Several people sought out further information from Gerard about the group so hopefully some of them may end up attending a local meeting.

A rundown of the demo (forgive me if I get any names or activities wrong!! I will correct them as people let me know):
ATTENDING
Joseph, Suzanna, Thorormir and 2 daughters (don’t remember the SCA name), Ervon, Eron, Gerard, Breanna, Katy, Nikki, Silvia, Two Belly Dancers who I did not get the names of and myself. At some point I had counted 16 people but as I write this on Monday I cannot remember who the last person was. It was hot enough that perhaps it was a mirage!!!

The fighting was brutal. It was so humid that I was already tired by the time the armor was on. Thorormir and Ervon also armored up and we ran several sets of fighting with a good deal of rest in between. I had to slow down and take it a little easier (due to heat) towards the end and the bouts tended to be 3-4 sets of sparing with a rest called. I will have to work on my conditioning as it is not what it should be.

In my opinion, this seemed like a nice venue and worked better than a parade type of demo. The setting allowed people to spend some time and ask questions if they had an interest instead of just seeing some people marching around in a parade and wondering who they were. If may be worth looking for more activities like this for recruiting members.

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