silverphoenix Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 I'm the info booth chair for the Houston Gem and Mineral Society (Houston, TX) this year and we're having a shortage of fossils for this year's show in November. We both have a silent auction to raise money for the club and our educational activities, and we would like to do some sort of small fossil give-away for the kids at the show (I remember how excited I got about paleo when I received a crinoid stem when I was maybe 8). The HGMS is a non-profit org, so anything donated is eligible to be tax-deductible. Does anyone have any duplicates or just gobs of small common fossils or other geology related items that they wouldn't mind donating? Or know anyone that has anything they wouldn't mind donating for a tax write-off? Please PM or post here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sacha Posted October 1, 2014 Share Posted October 1, 2014 Chase, for the kids give away, would you want something like meg frags, deer antler sections, glyptodont, giant armadillo and tortoise osteoderms and horse teeth? If you want them, I'll send you a medium flat rate with what I've got. I've got a bunch of echinoids too! I'll add a few polished corals for the silent auction. The fossils are all Peace River and the coral will be Withlacoochee River. I still have your address, so give me the OK and I'll get them in the mail Thursday. PS I put all your points and scrapers in a riker and have them displayed in my office. Really nice and different from my florida artifacts (which I don't really have). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herb Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 give me an address and I'll help you out. "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen No trees were killed in this posting......however, many innocent electrons were diverted from where they originally intended to go. " I think, therefore I collect fossils." _ Me "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."__S. Holmes "can't we all just get along?" Jack Nicholson from Mars Attacks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rejd Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 While I can't help you out it is nice to see other members jumping in to send you fossils. Nice work! A fossil hunter needs sharp eyes and a keen search image, a mental template that subconsciously evaluates everything he sees in his search for telltale clues. -Richard E. Leakey http://prehistoricalberta.lefora.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpevahouse Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 I have plenty of extra exogya and belemnites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverphoenix Posted October 2, 2014 Author Share Posted October 2, 2014 Thank y'all for helping out! I sent PM's to both of you with a mailing address. We're hoping for this to be a really good year; I just took inventory for this year though and noticed it was 90% lapidary and hardly any fossils...so I thought I'd post on here to see and y'all have been great! So far as giveaway stuff, anything helps! Preferably stuff that is plentiful and common since we have a LOT of kids to come through the show (between the scouts, school field trips, home school children, and others). I'm donating a bunch of crinoid stems and stone city shell fossils to give away for instance and bags of matrix for the silent auctions to raise money for the org. The small, common stuff is given out and nicer/larger things are sold in our hourly silent auctions during the show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thair Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Send me your mailing address and I will try to put some give away stuff together Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReeseF Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Chase, I have a few fish/ammonites that would probably work well for the silent auction that I would be happy to send your way Reese Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverphoenix Posted October 3, 2014 Author Share Posted October 3, 2014 Thank y'all for your generosity; I'll be mailing out a HGMS receipt to everyone who sends items in so you can take a deduction on your taxes. Looks like this is going to be a fantastic year!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverphoenix Posted October 10, 2014 Author Share Posted October 10, 2014 I just got back from Oklahoma and wow was there some packages! I am amazed by how generous everyone has been to our club and I can't wait to bring all these fossils to the HGMS this Saturday evening when I go to the pre-show party. This will be our best year yet at the info booth and it's thanks to all of you. I can't wait to see how excited the kids will be to get such cool fossils at the show this year! I think we had something like 5 or 6 thousand kids through this last year, so this is going to make a huge impact. We're still accepting donations up until the show on November 7th-9th. Thanks! Chase Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shellseeker Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 I donated almost all extras from my recent sorting to the National Fossil Day festivities last Saturday at South Florida Museum. Most of it went into the kids dig and I spent hours, just identifying what the kids had found -- The dig was packed all day and it was a joyful experience generated by kids enthusiasm. They loved the mammoth and mastodon and meg fragments but seemed equally happy with turtle spurs and sting ray teeth and broken barbs. Sometimes I get spoiled with the quantity and quality of fossil finds. It is good to get back to the wonder of those 1st discoveries when a broken horse tooth was thrilling. The White Queen ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old dead things Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 Have you asked the dealers at your show for donations? Every show I have ever done, the show committee asks for 1) a donation for door prizes 2) items for the silent auctions. About half the time whomever wins my door prize comes to our tables and thanks us which is always nice and donating something is just what we do as dealers, but there is always the other side of the coin, as one year we donated a $60 fossil fish for a door prize and ended up with a gross of -$3 for the day. I would also think that the Houston club members should be doing the donating as it is their show. Just my two cents worth. Jim Old Dead Things Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverphoenix Posted October 10, 2014 Author Share Posted October 10, 2014 We do always ask for donations from our dealers and usually they are willing to donate a couple items. It's never anything we can give away to the kids though and those items usually only include a few fossils. Many of our members have donated, but it's mainly lapidary items such as slabs and jewelry...so far, I'm the only one who has donated fossils surprisingly, but I'm working on that... I'd like to swing the focus more towards fossils and minerals in the coming years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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