Great News About Our Easter Celebration!

Great news!  Jodi Payson, our Events Coordinator, is ready to provide us with the Easter Celebration wrap-up report!

Cat Tails:  So Jodi, what's the great news?! 

Jodi:  Well, last year (including private donations) we raised about $18,000.  This year, we raised about $19,000 thus far (including private donations) and we are still waiting on checks from our food and snow cone vendor and our air brush tattoo guy!!  

Cat Tails:  Did we have a lot of people in attendance this year?

Jodi:  We sure did!  Last year we had about 946 people in attendance; this year, we believe the number is around 1,153!

Jodi:  In anticipation of a larger crowd this year, we were able to obtain about 350-400 pounds of candy!! As I was passing out the candy I actually heard a dad say, “OH MY GOD!!! Look at all that candy! This is unbelievable!”

Cat Tails:  Tell us about some of the vendors that were on-site for the festivities...

Jodi:  Sure!  Smokin Joes (http://smokinjoesinc.com/) served hot dogs, hot links, hamburgers, chips and drinks. Last year he mentioned selling 43 hamburgers so he brought 80 this year. He sold out of ALL food items, except for a few chips, within two hours. He was unbelievably shocked at the turn out. He actually called me after the event to see what the total amount of people was, because he was so shocked! He promised me that he would bring TWICE the amount of food for our next event to ensure he did run out of food!

Snowie of Texas (http://www.snowietx.com/) served snow cones to all of our visitors. They actually had a flavor called Tiger’s Blood (a mix between strawberry and coconut)!!  It was AMAZING!!! Late last year Steve, the owner, had informed me that he has another event in Deep Ellum and he was going to purchase another snow cone machine just so he could make sure and attend our event. Towards the end of the event I asked how they were doing… his response… “Better than we are doing in Deep Ellum at the art festival… I cannot believe it!” 

Blue Shark Body Art (http://bluesharkbodyart.com/) provided air brush tattoos to all of our guests! Throughout the event I noticed David’s (the owner) line did not go down! There was a consistent wait for his artwork!  At the end of the day I asked him how everything went, and he replied “It was incredible! We were consistently busy all day long. I was amazed at how many people wanted face painting and body art!!!”

Bake Sale was held by the ladies who hosted a bake sale for us in the fall of last year came out and sold Easter cookies! All of the proceeds benefited the tigers and I can testify they were AMAZING!!!! 

Balloon Artist (www.bearrycuteballoons.com) came and made balloons for all of our guests. I think the kids really enjoyed them.   She had an assistant with her, and she donated us her services for free because we had so many children who wanted balloons!

Face Painting, as always, was a HUGE success. We made $607 at this station!!! It is always a struggle to get people volunteers to face paint, but as always we were flooding with little kiddos who couldn’t resist!! Even though we had SEVEN volunteers this year (which is more than we have ever had) there was still a consistent line about 15 people long throughout the entire event!!!! We are going to need 15 volunteers next year!

Games & prize/candy table:  This year we had five games in operation. The lines seemed longer than ever so I am going to work on creating some new games for our next event to reduce the lines and make everyone happy! Even though it was hard work, our volunteers did a great job at making sure everything went smoothly!

The candy table was INSANE!!! We shoveled out handfuls of candy into the kid’s baskets as quickly as generously as possible! Gauging how much candy to give out during the first hunt (so we wouldn’t run out for the 2nd hunt) was difficult. However, I think those individuals that stuck around for the second hunt were very pleased with the amount of candy they received!

Cat Tails:  Wow!  It sounds like you set-up an amazing group of vendors that provided our visitors with lots of treats and fun!  Did you try anything different this year?

Jodi:  Well, this year a volunteer made ten "festive" Easter balls for our cats.  We added some spices and "smellies" (Obsession for Men spray and animal urine) to the balls so the cats would have something interesting to smell.  And it was amazing!  The cats loved tearing apart the balls, looking for their scents located in the middle of the balls.  Needless to say, they didn't last very long!

Cat Tails:  Lucky cats!  Was the bounce house and the craft table new this year too?

Jodi:  No, we like having the bounce house for the kids--folks love their bounce houses!  We also had a craft table where the kids draw on a mural depicting the cats as well as decorated brown paper lunch bags, which we later used to hand out eggs (3 hard boiled and 1 raw) to our cats! The children wrote just saying on the bags like “I love you Cats!” The bags were so adorable!

Cat Tails:  Anything else you'd like to add?

Jodi:  Overall, The event was a HUGE success! I am very pleased with the turn out. The weather was amazing! Hotter than expected! I saw SEVERAL sunburns, myself included!!!! We were lucky enough to have a nice, sunny day for our event. My expectations for next year will only continue to increase as we continue to grow the way we are!

Cat Tails:  Thank you, Jodi for putting on a great event!  No doubt next year will be even bigger and better--all benefiting the cats of In-Sync Exotics!


We hope you enjoy the following presentation of our exotic animals receiving their Easter presents.  Again, thank you so much for your kind donations of enrichment toys!  The animals really love playing with all the new balls, bones, and Kongs--especially with sprays of Obsession for Men and catnip on their toys!

Three volunteers went through all the toys and carefully printed on each item who the gift was from and who was to receive said gift.  You may see some of the gifts labeled in the following pictures.  Unfortunately, the animals licked off all our hard work so the labels didn't last very long!

We would also like to thank the folks who donated the horse treats.  The horses were a little skittish of the crowds, so we had to present your gifts after everyone left!  Horses love the treats!

And finally, we'd like to thank everyone who helped make this event such a success--this was truly a group effort!

And now, it's time to watch the special presentation of the animals receiving their toys.  Enjoy! (Tip:  For better viewing, you may want to expand the screen by clicking on the brackets located on the right side botton of the video)

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