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Freshwater Program I am starting...

3K views 22 replies 4 participants last post by  AaronCombs 
#1 ·
I have been talking with several people about a program I am working on.

The outline is to provide less fortunate families who couldn't afford pets, with a freshwater aquarium/fish/supplies and knowledge on how to care for everything.

I was wondering would anyone here or the website owners like to participate in this program with me.

Everything that we give out to these families would be donated to us or in case of fish, bred.
Fish species we would use would be the more common, hardy fish, for the most part.
I wont keep goldfish so unless someone donates what they want, owell...

Anyways I am in need of things like informational packets and stuff like that.

The local newpaper (Lexington Herald Leader) which is distributed throughout Kentucky wants to do a story on this program... (yeah i live in ky, lol)


I have already had several donations of substrate, decor, 25+ swordtails including several that are prego, and more.


I would like to purchase a website domain name / cheap hosting plan however I don't have the funds for that right now so that will have to wait. Same with the legalzoom documents i am going to setup.


Anyways please give me your thoughts and concerns.
YES I am aware less fortunate people need to worry about other things like food and all that, that is why we would do this at no cost to them. Plus in Ky they have more programs for all of that than I can list.







Aaron Combs


PS If I have posted this in the incorrect area please move it. I posted in Freshwater Aquariums because we will only be dealing with freshwater tank / fish.
 
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#2 ·
In my opinion, if you were looking for both a supporter and a website, perhaps you could work something out with a local fish store or a rocky's or home depot or something, and they could both sponsor the web hosting fees(since with go daddy and such hosting fees are very low now) and donate something, either a fish store perhaps donating several tanks a month(even just 10 or 20g), or rocky's or home depot or something donating playsand for use as substrate or something.

And if they were sponsoring the web hosting fees, they could have a banner on the page "Supported in part by _____" etc.

But thats just me,
 
#4 ·
Don't know whats around the ky area, but it seems like at the very least if you could get a homedepot or lowes or something, the 50lb bags of playsand are extremely inexpensive, so if they donated a bag or two you would just need to wash it and have plenty for many tanks, but a lfs or even walmart would possibly be better if they could donat 10g or bigger tanks, and especially a pet store could advertise and get the press since it would all be pet related, and then everyone kind of wins.
 
#5 ·
I know the LFS owner decently... his shop is one of 3 that are in the county... however the other two went out of business lol... so now he's the only one left. We have nearly everything here haha... Lexington is a larger city 250k + people... I have friends that are managers at Home Depot in lexington, but I will be calling around.

I volunteer through habitat for humanity do I already have several connections throughout the city/region.
 
#6 ·
Well, the more sponsors and ties the better, it sounds like it would be a really great program, and if you could get more parties involved it would be that much more beneficial.

Maybe the lfs could donate one or several tanks a month, home depot some sand, work out the hosting costs and price for pamphlets, and so on and so forth.

The more you push, the more they may consider helping! And with the advertising they would get from sponsoring it ends up being worth it for them in the long run anyway!
 
#8 ·
You could try hosting the site on blogspot. That's free and you can do a fair amount of customization.

Another idea: poke around local Boy Scout troops and market this idea. Troops need community service opportunities but also Eagle Scout candidates need Eagle Project ideas and this seems like something they could help with! Eagle Scout candidates can be quite resourceful when it comes to getting donors for this kind of thing as well as coming up with the manpower to make it happen.
 
#9 ·
you know what you have a point... and shocking as it is.... i was a boy scout, just was lazy and didn't do my eagle scout project. Called the scout office, no answer, left a message.


I am going to write up a pamphlet today at school so I can give it to businesses when I go in.
 
#10 ·
So I have wrote up the flyer.

Boy Scouts emailed me back, they had some questions.
I did some research, they have a merit badge called "Pets"... which I can use as a ploy to get started with them. I would actually be able to teach it, in return I would be able to have scouts help me do other stuff like picking up donations, sorting, or w/e.

Anyways I also contacted my old employer, they love me lol... it's a daycare. Most of the parents are well off.. and are business owners ... hehe... so we'll see how that goes.

Now as for home depot and those I will try to swing by some stores today and pass out the flyer.


I'll keep you all posted. If you have any other suggestions or comments please let me know.
Oh and if you'd be interested in helping create a pamplet for reciepiants say so, so I can include you.
 
#13 · (Edited)
i was thinking of contacting them lol however I was unsure how to word it... however you have a good idea so I'm going to start getting something written up for them.


Oh yeah the Daycare (my previous employer from like 6+ years ago)... totally printed the flyer and posted it up for the parents to read.
 
#16 ·
Hmm... true... I'm using it for now, until I can get an actual website. but it gives me the means to post news until i get one up and running.

lol.. however I just got a job so now ... i'm not jobless... so once money starts flowing again I might just pay out of pocket for it.
 
#20 ·
Glad to see that set up, I joined it, but I doubt I can help much from MA, another thought, you might post on craigslist or in local papers for people donating any plant trimmings, snail population cut backs, all the routine maintanence stuff that could potentially be used for helping out new aquarists!
 
#21 ·
I've been posting on CL for awhile, getting donations and all that setup. I have more pickups scheduled right now, guppies are on the list. A women has an overpopulated tank lol.
 
#22 ·
Awesome!

One persons overstocking can become another persons inhabitants!


If someone were to donate several tanks 55g or up you could maybe even breed large numbers of some things like guppies, tetras etc.

Who knows, if the breeding goes well enough and it's within law, maybe you could sell some of the fish, with all of the proceeds going to the donations, kind of like the OLPC deal, for every laptop you buy, one is donated to a child in need.


Or if you could get a decent number of smaller tanks, maybe breed betta, since they're such a hardy, easy to keep fish even for beginners.
 
#23 ·
I have 5+ tanks running right now, most are going to be used for this program.

I've been trying to get ppl from CL to donate tanks, however no luck. I'm waiting to hear from some businesses on that topic.
 
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