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Ienie Minie Fair Hilvarenbeek,Originally we were going to be present at this fair for 2 days.However Saturday we were burdened with the sorrowful task of paying our final respects to our board member Boukje de Jong-de Vries. She has to our great sorrow passed away at the much too young age of 33 years, after having battled illness for almost 2 years. As such we have dedicated Sunday to her memory. Sunday was a lovely day, lots of sun and not unsurprising a lot of people. The location was idyllic, standing on the terrain of visitor centre “De Flierefluiter” in Hilvarenbeek. The meadow was filled with about 30 stalls selling antiquities, art, jewellery, handmade bags, toys, clothing, decorations for home and garden etc. At the entry there was a terrace allowing people to sit back and relax enjoying a coffee and perhaps even some pie. A minstrel provided the musical entertainment. The Dutch Parrot Foundation had been allowed to place a large stand in the garden of the visitor centre. As usual we have collected autographs for our petition to stop the hand rearing of and trade in baby parrots. We have been able to convince several people on how the way they treat their parrot should be changed, and even a breeder has been provided with information to make him reconsider the way he breeds parrots. Some people, who were previously unaware of the existence of The Dutch Parrot Foundation, have made donations to the foundation and have signed our petition. Next to that we have talked to many a person who did not know how much pain and suffering is plaguing parrots in The Netherlands. The pile of prizes intended for the Noterij© has been stocked up again. Our volunteers Dirk and Roger will have to walk around with blue thumbs for a while though since not everyone is very experienced at wielding a hammer to crack nuts. They will however wear this as a badge of honour given for their service and dedication to the foundation. Next to that one of our youngest volunteers came up with the cunning plan to take her parrot buggy along with a Senegal parrot named Ka and a Caique named Loeki for a stroll over the fairgrounds. This has allowed her to gain some donations from the audience wandering the area. All in all this was a pretty nice Sunday, though the amount of visitors was less than we expected. This was probably due to having to compete with several other large fairs in the area. We had come with a small army of volunteers 13 man strong and this certainly helped us clear the site at the end of the day. Ienie Minie Fair 2012 |
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