DC Rally Report

[WhiteLight]

Just to chime in for the DC Rally Crew. Most of us got there between 930-1100 and we unpacked our plethora of things to give out. Included were 4 bags of pens, magnets, business cards, beads, and flyers.

As more and more people started to come, we spread out down the walkway catching people as they walked. Most of the people we caught were very nice and quite a few stopped and listened to us explain about the show, what it was about, and what happened. The beads were a hot item and people were stopping to get them. The guys who had the beads had a stipulation..if you took the beads, you had to take a flyer and listen.

The pens, magnets, and business cards were another hot seller and many people took them, read them as they walked, and hung onto them for later. Always good to give something that they can use and are handy household items.

Lots of our hander outers had great spiels that stopped a ton of people. The FS soundtrack got people's attention and drew them over to us.

One of our crew was even able to stop one of DC's finest only to find out he was a fan and would be watching in Jan! Great moment.

In the end, we had about 80 people come and all of them helped in one way or another. We had a ton of fun and are going to be doing more events in the future.

Many thanks to our coordinaters and everyone who came out!

[Deinaira]

Here's my "official" rally report that I'll be posting (in probably a modified form) at our website:

The Washington, DC rally (affectionately termed "Finally, a Non-Political Rally") was a definite success. We had 73 participants ranging in age from about 6 months to, well, it's not polite to ask (including a few teenagers in Sci Fi's targeted demographic). Participants came from as far away as Norfolk and Richmond, Virginia, and from Pennsylvania. One rallyer had just moved up from Atlanta.

Our location on the National Mall by the Air & Space Museum was very useful as we shared the area with the Solar Decathalon, a competition of various university teams to build completely solar-powered houses. Certainly, between the Aviation/Space themes in the museum and the science interest of the decathalon, many visitors to that area of the Mall were interested in science fiction or at least in intelligent television progamming.

Our group spent 4 hours in 90-degree weather getting to know one another and spreading the word to as many people as we could. We handed out about 500 pens that stated: Save Farscape / www.savefarscape.com / Find out what the buzz is about / January 2003 on the Sci Fi channel. We also distributed hundreds of magnets created by our rally participants, Mardi Gras beads (which were a great hit with young women and children), flyers and brochures. Also, thanks to the generous work of one of our members, we were able to offer 50 Save Farscape t-shirts to rally participants for "bargain basement" prices. We finished the day with a raffle (which included two autographed items generously donated by rally participants) and a group picture in front of the Capitol. We were lucky enough to have a videographer there to interview participants and get some general footage which will hopefully be used by the national coverage and locally on our own Fox network (should be on today, Sunday, if it gets on at all).

We certainly had our share of interesting encounters during the day. One member drove by and screamed "Farscape Rocks", which got us all in a great mood and caused quite an uproar. This same rallyer later found a U.S. Park Police officer who was a Scaper and loudly informed us all, leading to another round of cheering. One older couple who happened upon our group related the tale that the husband loved the show and the wife hated it, so he would rub her feet for the entire hour just so she would let him watch it. Now that's dedication! We met many people who had never heard of the show, many who sounded interested but don't receive Sci Fi (in DC and in many of the suburbs you must have digital cable), and a few who were fans or at least casual viewers who had not heard of the cancellation.

All in all, it was a wonderful day and we definitely have a basis for future events and everyone seemed interested in participating in future rallies and other events.

Pictures of the event can be seen at www.dcscapers.com/photos (http://www.dcscapers.com/photos)