Furry Picnic

As you may have seen if you have picked up one of our event flyers, we are working for the first time with a local charity; for this exciting new addition to the Furry Picnic, we have chosen the Connecticut Humane Society.

The Connecticut Humane Society in a non-profit (501c3) charity, founded in 1881, located at three sites in CT; Newington, Westport, and Waterford, with a mission statement describing themselves as; “the leading resource in the state for companion animal welfare, enriching the lives of families and communities through adoption services, medical care, education, and prevention of cruelty.”

Not only will we be accepting donations with CHS at the Furry Picnic, but they will also be at the event, educating and sharing about their organization, and selling various merchandise to raise funds and awareness!

So please, enjoy your time chatting with the ambassadors from the charity, give as generously as you can, and remember, 100% of donations to the Connecticut Humane Society goes towards the animals in their care!

We always have encouraged everyone to preregister, and why wouldn’t you! Pre-reg makes it faster to get into the picnic and have fun, gets you a badge, and a custom art print exclusive by Foxy!   The Tigress is back yet again for her 5th appearance! Your early registration helps us with head counts for food, and we really appreciate that, so much, we will hook you up! It’s another way we can say thank you for being a part of the fun!

Folks, awesome folks, we need to talk.

First off, I need to thank every single last one of the great people who have attended and supported and believed in Furry Picnic from its start in 2013.  It’s still amazing how far this event has come, and I can safely say it isn’t over yet; I’ll explain in a moment.

All of you who have helped the event become a huge success, either by lending a hand, or attending all the years, or any year, well, you’re amazing.  I had never expected so much excitement and enjoyment would have come from hosting this event, and making it real for all of us, but I can safely say, it has been a very personally rewarding experience.  From your smiles, your laughter, your energy, and you fondest memories and moments that we all shared in at the Furry Picnic, the spirit of coming together in the name of what you enjoy and love, you have ensured an amazing legacy of living passionately, in being a part of the Furry community – and most of all, being you.

So why is something so awesome being cancelled?

In short, life got real.

Okay, to be specific, the current organizers, my spouse and I, are sacked with a few noteworthy burdens that make hosting event this year impossible.  One is her immigration to the US, and keeping her here.  There’s an notable number of tasks, like organizing paperwork, presenting evidence, and filing applications, and paying fees and expenses that a family needs to pull together, to ensure an immigrant can continue lawful permanent resident of the United States.  The concern of submitting this”football” of paperwork as we’ve nicknamed it, and the expenses associated with this process, in a timely and complete fashion, must take priority for us.  This is a task we had anticipated allocating for before planning this year’s event, but we did not anticipate how the current administration has made many changes and how it has impacted entirety of immigration recently, and the unpredictable nature of how it will be shaped in the future.  Regardless of political opinion, the fact remains that changes have been made, and we do not wish to risk our family being separated by any reasonable, controllable factors that we can be responsible for, namely paperwork, evidence, documentation, and how we much more we will have to prepare and pay for this, in so many ways.

Don’t worry, we’re not paying for it with *your* money – your registration fees will be refunded back to your PayPal accounts over the weekend, as well as making revisions to website and Twitter that will formally announce the cancellation of the event, but you do deserve to know the reasons why we’re forced to cancel.

Additionally, my spouse and I caregivers to an elderly family member, and this task has also kept our family busy – very busy.  In late 2015, we both needed to step down from our roles at other fandom conventions to focus on our dependent family member’s needs.  Since then, her health has deteriorated more.  We anticipated this, but what anyone who is caring for anyone who is a caregiver for a dependent elderly person is how sometimes this happens fast, or suddenly.  Her needs have increased, and the time and effort that is required of us to ensure her health, happiness, and well-being has also increased, again, leaving us just a wee bit tired, and a tad bit occupied.  Still, for the love of family, it’s worth it.

So, is it too late?  Is the Furry Picnic doomed?  Can anyone save this splendid event???

Well, not this year, but yeah, you can 🙂

We expect the Furry Picnic to return in the summer of 2018, and host smaller gathers in Connecticut until then.  The first of these was Christmas day, and we hope to have at least 1 or 2 before next year, and at least Christmas.

The best way to help is just keep being you, the amazing folks, and support the Picnic when it come back.

That, and always have fun – everywhere, all the time.  Be yourself, and don’t let life stop you.  Seriously.

Also, don’t sweat when you have to make a few changes now and then, it’ll ensure that you can keep making change forever.

Let’s do this again soon, it’s been a blast – and we look forward to Furry Picnic again soon.

 

Sincerely,

Kasi Frost, Tiffany Fox

Organizers. Furry Picnic

 

 

Yes folks, it’s back!  We’re locked in at the Wickham Pavillion for the 5th installment of the Furry Picnic on Saturday, June 3rd, 2017!

More details, including hotel and registration, coming in late January/Early Feb!

– FP