Galactic Gator has learned that all are welcome at Midwest FurFest, and rumor has it that he is planning to buy a Shiny Sponsorship for Midwest FurFest 2023. Agent Grayscale and his team of heroes have saved the day!
What a year it has been. The staff of Midwest FurFest spent an unfathomable number of hours preparing for our 2022 edition, and all of that hard work paid off. We were looking forward to welcoming all of you to Rosemont, and it turns out that your excitement exceeded even our wildest expectations. 13,641 of you joined in the fun this year. We are grateful that you all were vaccinated and masked, helping to keep your fellow attendees and our staff and volunteers as safe as possible.
This year’s charity was The Street Dog Coalition, which provides medical care and other assistance to the pets of people without housing. Although they are a national organization, fundraising was geared primarily toward their Chicago chapter. The generosity shown by our attendees was amazing, including:
Charity Table Jar: $4,480
Credit Card/Venmo Donations: $1,950
Live and Silent Auctions: $10,672
Fursuit Raffle: $3,500
Dealer Donations: $3,500
Programming Event Donations: $1,700
Hyatt Regency O’Hare Donation from Red Bar sales: $727
Donations made at Closing Ceremonies: $4,755
To all of this, our parent corporation, Midwest Furry Fandom, Inc., was happy to add an additional donation of $75,000 for a grand total of $106,284. This is going to make a huge difference in so many lives, both for animals and for humans, over the coming years.
As a reminder our photographers took thousands of photos during the convention. It will take them a few weeks to process them, but keep an eye on flickr.com/furfest, which is where they will be posted as soon as they are ready!
We are already hard at work on Midwest FurFest 2023 and can’t wait to welcome everyone back to the Hyatt Regency O’Hare and Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois, November 30, 2023 – December 3, 2023, to celebrate the unplanned holiday that all Chicago children (and adults) hope for: SNOW DAY!
PS: did you miss out on getting our wonderful convention t-shirt or polo with art by our GOH’s S0larDog and Nao Romero? Good news: they are available for a limited time here! Sale ends on December 31st, so get yours now!"