From Dave Kelch, Ohio Sea Grant:

The Cleveland Mid-America Boating and Fishing Show, was held at the Cleveland I-X Center from January 15-24, 2010. Over 75,000 individuals attend this event from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana and other states within the region.

Information on safe disposal of unwanted medicines was part of our exhibit this year, and included IISG’s poster, brochures, and pills boxes. We printed 600 copies of the brochure, and ran out of them on Saturday, January 23. The pillboxes were also all given out by the 23rd. We estimate that, during the course of the show, at least 5000 individuals visited our display, learning more about issues and concerns facing the Great Lakes.

We know that at least 600 people became more educated about disposal of unwanted medicines due to the brochures and pill boxes, which were distributed during the show.

We had many individuals asking about disposal of unwanted medicines. We did not physically count each contact made, yet we know it was into the hundreds of one-on-one discussions.

We have another large event upcoming February 11-14, 2010, the Cleveland Sport, Vacation and Travel Show, to be held at the Great Lakes Expo Center on Babbitt Road in Euclid, Ohio, outside of Cleveland. We expect over 50,000 people at this four-day event, as it is one of the most popular in the area. In addition to displaying our other projects, we will be distributing information on disposal of unwanted medicines.