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Victoria-Park.com
The Forest City Of
Black Squirrels |
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| The Ideal Souvenir |
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| Black Squirrel Campaign Update |
November 4, 2007 |
The Black Squirrel music video was put on YouTube for the world to see.
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London's
Goodwill Ambassadors
The Black Squirrels of
Victoria Park are pleased to release their music video.
(over 3 years in the making)
If you love London's Black Squirrels like we do, please put
"The Black Squirrels Of London" video on your website.
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The Black Squirrels of London, Ontario CANADA on Video.ca |
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March 27, 2007 The LFP published that on Monday, March 26, 2007 City Council voted 17 to 2 against the black squirrel campaign. On March 21, Board of Control voted to sent the proposal to Tourism London, and a City Hall employee told us it would NOT be on the agenda for the meeting Monday night. We cannot say too much about the meeting, since we were unaware that Council would be voting on this issue and therefore we were not present. How often do things like this happen at City Hall?
The Victoria-Park.com website will continue to promote the Black Squirrel of London as the official mascot of this website and as the official UNOFFICIAL Mascot of London. Help keep this issue alive by contacting your councillor and members of Board of Control.
Any interested business owners who would like to partner to help promote the Black Squirrel of London and boost their business through tourism please use our contact form.
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The report was presented to Board of Control on March 21, 2007. The matter was passed on to Tourism London. Controller Gord Hume hates squirrels while Controller Gina Barber loves them and feeds them.
Mr. Hume missed the point of our presentation - individuals do not have to like squirrels in order to use them to promote tourism. Kent, Ohio and Exeter, Ontario have clued into that fact.
Cable 13 - First Local (Crystal Pinarello) did a great report on the news, Achannel did an interview but never aired the story (do they hate squirrels?).
Your Village News from lovely Lambeth was there and we look forward to the next issue. Mike Stubbs from CJBK did a radio interview and had his own call-in vote. 15 people supported the idea, 1 turned it down and 2 were undecided. |
Thanks go out to all those people who supported our efforts. Thanks to the City Clerks office for helping us get our report to Board of Control. If you have an idea or complaint, do what we did, present it to the city. |
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 Town Crier - Bill Paul of Laff Guards shows his support for the Black Squirrel Mascot Campaign |
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The Famous Chicken, also known commonly as The San Diego Chicken
Hi Ric,
Thanks for your interest. Yes, I'm from London and love Victoria Park. I'll be happy to help out with a photo for your Adopt the Black Squirrel Campaign…
Best regards,
Ted Giannoulas
www.famouschicken.com
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| Why Adopt the Black Squirrel as London's Mascot? |
- 10 London, Ontario Black Squirrels were exported to Kent State University in 1961. Today they own the campus and the squirrels have been spotted in places such as: Warren, Cleveland, Barberton, Akron, and Canton.
- Ontario Black squirrels have been exported to the United States 4 times - in 1902, 1906 and twice in 1961.
- Black squirrels represent 1 out of 10,000 squirrels in North America. By North American standards this makes them rare. Being rare, some people will associate this with luck - the Victoria-Park.com creator has made the news because of this belief many times
- Black Squirrels are found throughout Ontario
- Most Americans have never seen a Black Squirrel
- The Black Squirrels in Victoria Park are the friendliest squirrels around and all have distinct personalities
- Japanese tourists flock to Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto to photograph the Black Squirrels there. In Japan, squirrels are found only in the country and not in the cities. Japanese flock to Prince Edward Island to see the Anne of Green Gables estate. Why not put London and Victoria Park on their travel list by promoting "The Black Squirrels of London?" This could bring in millions for London's economy - food, lodging, souvenirs, etc.
- Many children, seniors and baby boomers are fans of Black Squirrels
- The Black Squirrels in Victoria Park are live tourist attractions with no admission
- Squirrels are the natural gardeners of the animal world; they have helped populate trees across North America
- London could partner with Exeter, Ontario and their white squirrels to promote the campaign: "Come See Ontario in Black and White." Visitors could stay in London and make a day trip to Exeter.
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| "Come See Ontario in Black and White" |
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- We could also link a tourist campaign with other squirrel towns and have a Squirrel Passport which tourists could get validated in order to win prizes in a contest. Other Black and White Squirrel towns can be found on Roadside America ~ White Squirrel Wars & Black Squirrel Squabbles
- Bell Canada is having great success with the two beavers, Frank and Gordon (other rodents)
- Walt Disney built an empire out of a rodent he called "Mickey"
- Telus is currently using rabbits (rodents) and monkeys in their advertising. They have used other animals in the past such as pigs, lizards, butterflies, etc.
- Adopting the Black Squirrel will give London a friendly image
- Trees and squirrels go together. Why has no one done this before?
- London could hold and annual Black Squirrel Festival, similar to what Kent, Ohio already does.
- London could produce/purchase two Black Squirrel costumes, one to represent "Albert" (male squirrel named for Prince Albert) and the other (perhaps with pink bows) to represent "Vicky" (female squirrel named for Queen Victoria). These could be used at various city functions and many annual parades. This would be a big hit with children! The town of Exeter / www.WhiteSquirrels.ca has a white squirrel mascot called " White Wonder." It's represented by an 8 foot white squirrel costume, which is used in many annual events. Their mascot even made a road trip to London once to check out the many squirrels in Victoria Park, pick up some litter, and even appeared on Speaker's Corner, dancing to the White Wonder song by Peter Snell. The Black Squirrels of London song was composed by the same musician
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 More support for the Black Squirrel Mascot Campaign
Muldoon's Pizza ~ Voted London's BEST Pizza Restaurant by the staff at Victoria-Park.com
925 Wonderland Road South, London, ON N6K 3R5 - Tel 519-471-0607
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- Storybook Gardens has a statue of a seal (long since passed away) as an attraction. They are doing a great job using a cartoon of Slippery in their advertising. If London adopts the black squirrel - a creature that is alive and will be reproducing - this would have a larger appeal as tourists can see live animals. Zoos are popular because they allow people to see live exotic animals. If they only showed photos of animals, people would not visit
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FREE MP3 of The Black Squirrels Of London |
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Show Your Support for this Idea! |
To date, the amount of private funds invested in the Victoria-Park.com website, pins, souvenirs and marketing is more than what the average Londoner earns in a year. The total value of time invested would increase this investment 3 to 5 times! Purchasing a Victoria-Park.com pin or the Lucky Squirrel Scratcher Coin helps cover the cost of running this website and also feeds many squirrels, groundhogs, birds, etc. The Victoria-Park.com website traffic has more than doubled in the past year! In the months of July & August, we had over 18,000 unique visitors and over 90,000 pages viewed. All this is being done with ZERO TAX DOLLARS! |
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Kent, Ohio - Artist / Photographer / Web Designer - 
