Since last week when we asked our gracious supporters to help us get to the H.H. Backer trade show in October, we have received a total of $1,295 in donations! That is not chump change people; it is truly impressive! And a testament to just how many of you believe in the importance of helping pets with heart disease. To those of you who have donated, thank you from the bottom of our great big hearts!

While we are well on our way, a booth in the new exhibitor area costs $1835, which means we still have $540 left to raise.

The Big Hearts Fund has about 110 active followers and supporters. That means, if everyone who has not already donated gives just $5, we will make it to the trade show!!! We need to get our booth by the end of June, which means we have just two weeks to reach our goal.

Need a little extra incentive besides a warm, fuzzy feeling and our love forever? The first 5 people to donate just $5 will receive a free heartbeat collar of your choice! (Those of you who already donated, you will be receiving one, too!).

PLEASE, HELP US GET THERE! (Incase you missed it, here is why getting to the trade show with our products is so important to the success of our mission.)

Now that we have the bowl stands in hand, we need to sell them so that we can start our financial assistance program for owners and pets-in-need!

Fortunately, the largest pet products trade show in the country, the H.H. Backer trade show, takes place right here in Chicago October 14 – 16! You guys, this is HUGE. The Big Hearts Fund needs to attend, and here is why:

• Pet product vendors from ALL OVER THE UNITED STATES will be present, meaning we have the potential to sell our products not just in Chicago and on our website, but in stores everywhere. This is absolutely essential if we hope to raise enough funds through sales to support our charity!

• The Big Hearts Fund will gain NATIONAL EXPOSURE for pets with heart disease in just one weekend, with the most influential people in the pet community in the entire United States.

We here at BHF feel very strongly that we cannot miss this incredible opportunity for growth. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it is essential to our success as an organization to attend this trade show. Everyone who is anyone is the pet product community will be there.

We desperately need your help to get there. The cost of a booth at the show is $1800. After funding product development and our general operations, we have our few remaining funds allocated to helping pet-owners-in-need pay for the necessary veterinary care of their pets with heart disease, as we attempt to kick off our financial assistance program. You know, the entire reason our organization even exists in the first place.

We cannot attend the H.H. Backer show without your support! I repeat: we will miss this incredible opportunity without your help. Every little bit helps. The most successful fundraising happens when lots of people give just a little bit. (ooh-ooh, just a little bit, just a little bit!)

Please contribute to our trade show fund so that we can make a difference for pets with heart disease all over the United States!

Yesterday we picked up our beautifully laser-cut and formed bowl stands from Prince Industries and transported them to Britt Industries for painting!

All I can say is, I wish we had found Prince first. They are organized, efficient, do quality work, and above all they do what they say they will do. It took us a year to finally get a product we are satisfied with, but I’m so glad we did. Starting the manufacturing process over again, though frustrating, has allowed us to make minor tweaks to the original design, helping us bring you a higher quality product. The bowl stands will be IN YOUR HANDS if you have pre-ordered, and FOR SALE ONLINE in the month of June!

Here’s the story: the bowl stands that were made in December did not meet our quality standards for a number of reasons, as illustrated below:

Holes cut for the bowls were too large. Which when in use, cheapened our beautiful concept by creating an obnoxious rattle-trap.

The adhesive used for the silicon was not permanent.

The edge quality wasn’t to our specifications. See those little “tabs” in the radius of the cut-out? This is left over from the punching process. Our manufacturer did not clean up the edges to our specifications before painting.

The manufacturer says there is nothing they can do about this, as the punching process in this gage of metal creates this rough edge finish. Which is frustrating, because it didn’t look this way on our original prototype.

We are doing several things right now to fix these problems and ensure that the product we release into the market meets our quality standards, ultimately because we care a whole lot about YOUR satisfaction with our product.

1) We have gotten quotes from laser cutting and water-jet cutting manufacturers to fix the edge finish problem. Due to cost, it is likely we will be choosing the laser cutting process. Tolerances on the V.2 design are tighter on the bowl holes, eliminating the “rattle-trap” effect.

2) We have located a permanent adhesive for the silicon! This adhesive, paired with a lower durometer (softer) and thinner silicon, has fixed the peeling problem. Versions of the bowl stands with these modifications are in testing as we speak with some of our resident doggie testers!

Meet Rolf! Happy new companion to Lisa & Don Lehman.

Rolf is enjoying testing the blue bowl stand with grey silicon. So far, the silicon is sticking, and Rolf is satisfied.

And here again is Charlie, cute little guy belonging to Big Hearts Fund Vice President Melissa Scaglione and her fiance Peter. Charlie is testing the white bowl stand with red/orange silicon.

And here is Charlie, sharing with his friend Romy the Westie!

We promise to keep you updated as work on these progresses. We need all the help we can get! To make a donation to help us speed up the manufacturing process (we are also trying to begin accepting applications for aid!) please visit our donations page, or shoot me an e-mail: christy@bigheartsfund.org.

The bowl stands are here… kind of. You can pre-order yours today, as they are due to start shipping in early January. We missed the mark for Christmas due to some manufacturing glitches… but in product development, this happens on a regular basis. Especially with first run products.

Here are all three sizes and both colors, in the flesh! We are very happy with the way the color and finish turned out.

As you can see if you look closely, the silicon pads at the base are coming un-peeled on the inside edges. We are working with our manufacturer to fix this problem and they have sworn to find us an adhesive that is actually permanent. The problem with the current adhesive is that it apparently does not stick to paint as well as it sticks to raw metal. *sigh. The joys of learning-as-you-go. Things always take longer than expected, especially when you really want to make a deadline.

Rest assured, we will ship Lucy Bowl Stands when they are nothing less than perfect. In January. Order now before we sell out – free shipping through the holiday season!