|
|
|
USAPL and the 2003 Arnold Classic Fitness Expo
2003 marked the debut of the USAPL's presence at the Arnold Classic Fitness Expo. The expo, filled with booths (including supplement companies, such as GNC ProPerformance, clothing lines, fitness magazines, and even the Marines), filtered through some 70,000 people over the three-day event.
With the help and effort of a small committee of USAPL members, the booth was set into motion. The focus was to showcase what the USAPL was all about.
The booth consisted of a variety of USAPL merchandise, including t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats and bags. These were well received by those that visited. Also featured was a raffle drawing for a USAPL Team Jacket. The winner of the jacket was: Kelly Henke of Oakdale, PA. Thank you to all those who entered the raffle.
Items displayed at the booth included the following:
"Powerlifting - A Beginners Guide" Brochure - This guide focuses on the fundamentals of the three lifts, as well as what the USAPL is all about. It directs those to our USA Powerlifting Official Website for more information.
"Sponsorship Program" Brochure - Implemented late 2002, the focus of the Sponsorship Program is to increase the funding of the USAPL through donors. Because of the vast exposure the USAPL received at the Arnold Expo, this was a perfect opportunity to pass out the brochure to potential sponsors.
USAPL-IPF Poster - A colorful visual for the booth. It briefly described the basic lifts and the role the IPF plays in powerlifting.
USAPL Poster #1 - Another colorful visual, capturing the fact we host a drug-free platform from teens through to master lifters. It features Jenn Maile, Brad Gillingham and Shawn Cain.
USAPL Poster #2 - Showing few words can make a powerful statement, "Drug Tested" stand out to leave no question in the mind of the booth visitors.
Additional information was available to the visitors, such as upcoming meets, American Records, the names of the State Chairs, posters for the 2003 USAPL Men's Nationals & 2003 IPF Women's Worlds, as well as information from some of our corporate sponsors.
Manning the USAPL booth was Disa Hatfield, Ivan Ribic and myself. We had other USAPL members stop by who were helping at other vendor booths including: Brad Gillingham - GNC ProPerformance, Liz Willett - Bioplex Nutrition and Rick Fowler - Xtreme Strongman.
The weekend flew by! We had tons of visitors, not only our own members, but also those of other federations, and newcomers into the sport with lots of questions. The following is one of the e-mails received from an individual (Andrew Spurling) who visited our booth and chatted for a while. Without a doubt, a positive response, making the booth well worth the effort.
Priscilla,
Hi, Priscilla. Hope all is well in Spokane! I just wanted to send you a quick note to thank you for your kindness when my brother and I spoke with you at the Arnold Classic on Sunday. As we shared with you then, we are training to enter our first USA Powerlifting sanctioned meet this spring. We appreciated the information you shared with us and for directing us to the website to learn more.
I have tried contacting the Ohio Chairperson, however, the phone number listed on the website is no longer in service. So, I called the Michigan chair, Tod Miller, and left a message for him on his home phone. Hopefully, he will return my call and give us some advice on who we can hook up with in the area that is experienced in competing in USAPL meets. After speaking with you for a while, I wished that you lived in our area! It sounded like you take the sport very seriously and that is the type of person we want to train with!
You fired us up to intensify our training, purchase lifting gear (bench shirt, lift suite, straps, etc), and set a goal of entering the USAPL No Frills Qualifier in Plainwell, MI on April 26. (We live in Toledo, OH and that is the closest event to us in the Spring.)
Thanks again for your inspiration. If you have any training advice for us newcomers, we would greatly appreciate it.
Best wishes for a successful year!
Andrew Spurling
As with anything you do for a first time, it was a learning experience. We have made notes of things to improve upon, but our overall feeling was the booth was a total success. We look forward to doing this again in the future.
Thanks again to all who stopped by to visit and show their support!
Priscilla Ribic
www.littlepowerhouse.com
More Photos can be seen at: http://www.washingtonusapl.com/arnold/
|
|
|
|
