Hello hybrid owners and those interested in hybrids. It is time for another ChicagoPriusGroup public outreach event: The 6th annual Renewable Energy Fair produced by the Illinois Renewable Energy Association (http://www.illinoisrenew.org/events/fair.htm). This will be the ChicagoPriusGroup's 3rd year participating. The Fair will be on Saturday, August 11 from 9:00AM-6:00PM and Sunday, August 12 from 9:00AM-5:00PM. The Fair will be held at the Ogle County Fairgrounds, 1440 N. Limekiln Rd., Oregon, IL. 61061.

This year's Fair will have over 100 booths (http://www.illinoisrenew.org/events/booths%20&%20exhibits.htm) and 60 workshops (http://www.illinoisrenew.org/events/2007_workshops.htm) all free with Fair admission. Even entertainment (http://www.illinoisrenew.org/events/food%20&%20entertainment.htm). The theme this year is Local Sustainability.

We are looking for hybrid owners to come out and display your vehicles with us. We are typically given a good spot overlooking the parking lot on a small hill with room for 5-6 vehicles spread out or 10 bunched together a bit, but there is actually more space we could "muscle" into. You do not need to have your car open, some of us will be doing that. There will be no test drives given by our group.

And now the good and bad news. The good news is that all vehicles registered on the list we give the Fair will be admitted FREE. The bad is this, you have to park with the group, stay at least 4 hours and help talk to people for at least 90 minutes. We understand this is quite a drive for many, but it is worthwhile if you have an interest in renewable energy or talking about hybrids. And we certainly can't ask you to stand by your vehicle all day with so much to learn, but you also need to help give something back by teaching the public about hybrids. You don't have to know the technical "ins and outs" of everything; others in the group will take care of that. Just let everyone know how you enjoy your hybrid. If you would be willing to stay the whole day please try to get there as close to 9:00AM as possible.

If you are willing to participate please E-mail your vehicle's make / model / vehicle color / license plate number / state of registration / day(s) and times participating to events@chicagopriusgroup.com. You can E-mail as late as Thursday, August 9. If you can't make it after you E-mail we understand things come up, but if you don't E-mail you'll have to pay at the gate each day. Hope to see you there.

Saturday we had 6 Prius exhibited, 1 Classic and 5 Gen II. We had a few members who came independently and stayed a bit and helped out. There was even a new Camry Hybrid owner we talked to, who then drove his Camry to the foot of the small hill we were upon and opened the hood to help us show a different hybrid. Once again we were placed by the bio/veggie diesel crowd, but we got the most foot trafic. This was one of the Fairs biggest turnouts on Saturday in its' history, so we talked to a lot of people. Almost half the people we talked to already had a Prius, at one time we could see about 25 Prius in the parking area as well as a few Insights, Civics and Escapes.

Sunday was a less crowded day and so we only had 3 Gen II Prius. Again a fair amount of traffic by our location.

Since we had the Classic battery on display a lot of questions arose about the batteries. Many people still have some misconceptions about longevity and replacement. Some people even thought the batteries were LI-ion by now. And of course the PHEV conversions came up, with not many people understanding that Toyota is testing PHEV now.

A special thank-you to "Neicy" of PriusChat who was there for both days hardly taking any breaks and doing a great job of talking to people. Of course whats also special is that she came from Massachusetts just for this event, a big THANK YOU.

Wayne