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Showcasing What The USAPL Is All About!
Priscilla Ribic
USAPL Athlete's Rep
For those of you who attended the 2003 NGB meeting, you will recall Marketing being part of our agenda. Getting our name out, introducing powerlifting, that is 'drug-free' powerlifting to the public, and making sure people know we are out there. We did just that again in 2004 when we were invited back to the Arnold Classic, held in Columbus Ohio March 4th-6th.
Many people ask why the USAPL would have a booth at this particular event. Plain an simple, EXPOSURE. And boy did we get a lot of it!
The three-day event filtered through some 80,000 people from all walks of life. For those that have not been to an event of this magnitude, it is more than an event of bodybuilding and all the perks (or as some may address call it, a freak show). Rather, the Expo is a non-stop with a variety of competitions and events throughout the weekend. Competitions for the young included cheerleading, karate and gymnastics just to name a few. A new attraction this year was the addition of Olympic lifting, which was fun to watch. Also one of the main events of the Arnold is the strongman competition which our USAPL President, Larry Maile was an official judge and VIP. This event took place on the main stage at the Expo with more than 20,000 onlookers and then finished up at the evening show of the Arnold Classic Finals. Although we could not convince Maile to wear a kilt like the other strongman judges, we got a big chuckle when they were announcing the judges and introduced him as the 'head of powerlifting in the US" to the crowd.
We hosted a booth similar to the one that we had the prior year. This year we were a little more prepared with filling the requests of those stopping by the booth. The big items requested were a list of our upcoming meets, the state chairs, information on our drug-testing procedures & rules (we had a condensed version). A great addition to the booth was the video of Men's Nationals and Worlds and Women's Nationals that was played throughout the weekend. It drew in crowds of people and we found ourselves fielding questions about who we were and what we were all about. It was great to see those who visited us last year, stopping by to visit again, purchase USAPL merchandise and tell us how their lifting progress has gone in the past year.
Another great part of the Arnold is that it attracts powerlifters of all the federations. Many stopped by the booth and chatted for a while (I think many were Disa fans!). The camaraderie among the lifters is great. Although the sport is splintered in many fractions, the lifters are down to earth, and although different viewpoints, are very supportive of our effort.
A special thanks to the volunteers who helped work the booth throughout the weekend, including, Disa Hatfield and Ivan Ribic for doing the main work on setting up and organizing the booth presentation, Ohio State Chair Greg Page and his beautiful daughter, Nectar, Frank Palmer, Ralph Young and Steve Petrencak, who filtered in and out of the booth and brought us food and to Mike O'Donnell and Jessica Watkins who came in on Sunday and helped pack the booth back to the National Office.
Upcoming Events/ USAPL Booths
There are three scheduled upcoming events where a spot has been designated for a USAPL booth. They are: Bench America, St Louis Fitness Festival and Palm Beach Fitness Festival. For anyone wanting to volunteer for these particular booths or any others and would like assistance on putting together a booth, please feel free to contact me at priscilla@littlepowerhouse.com and I would be glad to work with you. A 'booth kit' so-to-speak has already been established detailing the supplies, merchandise, etc that you will need. So now we just need some volunteers to take over and showcase the USAPL around the country.
And YES, Arnold was there, Ivan even got to shake his hand.
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