NPFF 2005 in Review

The 22^nd National Paddling film festival this past weekend was a tremendous success (no comma) for the festival, filmmakers, and American Whitewater.  This year the event was at a new location at the newly renovated Lexington Convention Center, which worked out perfectly.

American Whitewater unveiled its new membership recruiting tool this past weekend, the Kokatat man purse full of swag.  Typically at an event like NPFF, AW has about 30 people who will sign up for membership.  We decided to stretch our goal to 50 new memberships because of our new bag of swag.  When I walked into set up for the festival at 9:30AM, people were already there looking for the bags (the festival didn’t even start to noon).  At 10:30 AM, we had a line of people waiting to sign up for AW and at 12:45 I reached into the box and handed the last of the fifty bags to a new AW member. 

Now we were feeling pretty good about ourselves because fifty memberships in one day is a good number for American Whitewater.  We were out of swag…so we thought we were pretty well done for the day, but that was just the beginning.  Due to the generosity of Jackson Kayaks we had another tool at our disposal.  Anyone who was at the event and joined, donated money, or renewed their AW membership would be entered into a drawing for a Jackson Kayak of their choice. 

Not only did the Jackson’s provide us with a boat, but they provided us with a sales team as well.  Dane, Emily, Kristine, and EJ each were working the floor talking up AW and dragging people to the table to join AW.  Overall it was a smashing success – AW had over 110 people join at the film festival, including several Ender Club members, and one lifetime membership.  As if the 110 memberships weren’t enough we had Lotus Design’s raising funds also, selling t-shirts and posters to support AW.  Thanks so much to Christie Dobson, Dixie Maree Prickett, and Clay Wright and everyone at Lotus for the support!

From Kent Ford talking about Condoms and Paddling to Twitch V dazzling the crowd with its premiere, NPFF was a great time.  Everyone enjoyed the films, parties, and the crowds.   

Another great job by the folks in the Bluegrass Wildwater Association who put the festival together and a special thanks to Dave Margavage who coordinates the whole festival and supports AW in a big way each year.  

Special thanks to: Teva, LVM, DeLorme, Jackson Kayaks, Kokatat, Lotus, Designs, NRS, Paddler Magazine, Kayak Session, Canoe & Kayak Magazine, Dagger, Yakima, IR, and Clif Bar.