AlpacaConnect

For the past two New Year Eve celebrations, several alpacas from Alpaca Angels of The Highlands, LLC have gone to meet the public by participating in parades as well as 'walk abouts" in various towns and events. The animals have won the hearts of many New Year celebrants who ask for more information, such as how to get to the farm in the near future. CNN gives coverage to many New Year's Eve events and covered our first major "alpaca concert" in Delray Beach, Florida, in 2007 where thousands of people hummed "Alde Lang Syne" with eight alpacas in the famous tennis stadium of the All-American town. This year, CNN has a "Team Ireport" staff reporter that called me to do an interview, and created two areas for viewers to write in regarding the alpacas' events this year. One is on the blog sight of the "Team Ireport," about A Furry New Year and the other is in the Ireports section of three days ago, called "Annual Alpaca New Year's Eve Walk," which had over 9,000 hits. You too can add to the story there, by creating a screen name when you log in with your email address and password. Of course alpaca people also give the story a FIVE STAR rating...and then write about how well alpacas can behave in public and on the farms. It's a golden opportunity for alpaca owners to log in and share our experiences globally, for a few days at the start of what needs to be a great year for us all. If you will take a few moments to go to cnn.com and find these ireports, likely you'll be glad you did. Have a "Happy New Year" indeed!

Since 1959 the United Nations has designated International years in order to draw attention to major issues and to encourage international action to address concerns which have global importance and ramifications. This year, the UN has named 2009 as it's International Year for Natural Fibers. <!--break-->The goals of the UN are: * raise awareness and stimulate demand for natural fibres; * promote the efficiency and sustainability of the natural fibres industries; * encourage appropriate policy responses from governments to the problems faced by natural fibre industries; * foster an effective and enduring international partnership among the various natural fibres industries. "Since the 1960s, the use of synthetic fibres has increased, and natural fibres have lost a lot of their market share. The main objective of the International Year of Natural Fibres is to raise the profile of these fibres, to emphasise their value to consumers while helping to sustain the incomes of the farmers. Promoting measures to improve the efficiency and sustainability of production is also an important aspect of the Year." - Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations We couldn't be more excited about the possibilities for growth in the U.S. Alpaca Fiber Industry this upcoming year as more and more Alpaca Farms embrace the Fiber side of their businesses. For more information on this International Effort, you can visit their site at...www.naturalfibres2009.org/en/index.html