Quote Originally Posted by Sita View Post
Check out this page for a few pictures: http://www.mccarthyboas.com/Dumeril.html

Tom lives up in NW Indiana and does a lot of community outreach in the area. I regret I never got to meet him in person while I lived up there, but I've seen him around other forums and he does know his stuff. I don't recall seeing him on this forum, but he might be here under a different screen name. He might be able to help you in terms of guidance for the public events and such.
Thanks very much for the link. Those are some gorgeous boas.

Luckily, the public thing has been running for quite a while with our society, so we're pretty established in the community. Kind of neat, really! Lots of public support for the most part. It's great to hear that there are others out there that are working with public events still and raising educations and awareness. I remember being a kid and absolutely loving these kinds of events. It really fueled the passion for reptiles, as well as other animals too. So I really want to pass that along, now that I'm technically a 'responsible adult'

We did two school events last year, our Spring and Fall show, two weekend demos at one of the worlds largest mall, the pet expo, a family expo and something else (I wasn't able to go). Not to mention attending reptile-specific shows to promote the non-profit society. Super fun.

All the more reason I really want to start working with some of the more 'impressive' animals. Dumerils really fit the bill. They're big, hefty, but not unmanagable for young adults and some children (with direct supervision, of course), they're beautiful, calm and generally great snakes to work with. Kids really react to the big snakes, and I find even people who are nervous about snakes are calmer around the slower-moving giants than the quick, heady little corns.

Those Dums in those photos look totally managable. This is actually pretty encouraging.