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In just 34 days, hordes of hungry furries will descend on the city of Pittsburgh. Fortunately, we've put together a Dining Guide to assist you in finding places to eat within easy walking distance while you're at the convention.

We've made some changes and improvements to the Dining Guide this year based on feedback from our attendees:

• This year, the Dining Guide and At-Con Guide are being merged into one publication: The Convention Guide. It's the same easy-to-carry (Digest-size) format as last year's Dining Guide, but packed with information you'll find useful while at the convention.
• Those of you with dietary restrictions will be happy to learn that in addition to noting restaurants that have vegetarian options, we are now making note of restaurants which have gluten-free options.
• We're trying something new this year by crowdsourcing the ratings that appear in the Dining Guide (to either supplement or replace the Yelp ratings). There will be a notes section in your Dining Guide for you to record where you ate during the convention and any other comments. We encourage you to rate the places you ate at. The more information we get, the better we can make the Dining Guide. You can drop off the list at the convention (location TBD... see the Dining Guide for details) before Closing Ceremonies on Sunday, e-mail it to book-2012 (at) anthrocon.org, or if you have a Twitter account, send a tweet to us at @AnthroconDining.
• You can also use these methods to let us know of any inaccuracies you find in the Dining Guide. Although our staff does a lot of research and tries to make the Guide as accurate as possible, things might change between press time and the convention. You can help make the Guide better for everyone by letting us know if a place listed is closed (or the hours are incorrect, prices aren't accurate, additional gluten-free dining locations we missed, &c.).
• Need to ship something home? Make copies? Run out of saline solution for contact lenses? The Dining Guide also has a listing of services sure as copy shops and pharmacies within walking distance.
• Driving to Anthrocon? The Dining Guide map now shows $5 or less event/evening/weekend parking lots.

The figure below shows a sample Dining Guide entry and what information may be included in each listing.

An online version of the Convention Guide should be available sometime next week. As always, your feedback is important to us and we hope to make your Anthrocon experience an enjoyable one! See you in 34 days!

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As you may have heard, Anthrocon's selected charity this year is Hello Bully, a local Pittsburgh 501(c)3 pit bull shelter and rescue.  While cash donations made at the convention are great, the majority of funds are raised via donations of artwork and merchandise to our Charity Auction and Charity Raffle.  We're looking for popular items and unique craftwork that will make people say, "I want that!"

While we must distribute items between the Raffle and Auction based on available space, time, and perceived and past value, here are some examples of donations that went big in past years...

Great examples for the raffle: Crafts based on hot trends (Harry Potter handmade house scarves - $57); Large amounts of candy (5lb Hershey bar, 9.25lb Nestle Crunch bar - $70); Art bought at prior convention art shows ("Wrath" art by Terrie Smith - $83); Giant, brand new plush of popular characters (Large "Bolt" plush - $107); Merchandise based on popular fiction (Dr. Who's sonic screwdriver - $158)

Great examples for the auction: Fursuit costumes and commissions (Horstachio costume & candy - $150); Rare convention memorabilia (Full set of all AC t-shirts since 1997 - $200); Professional sculpture (Dragon statue - $225); Unique opportunities (A speaking part in audio version of Diane Duane's "The Last Meow" - $500); Dorsai fursuit tags (Tag #1000 - $1600)

If you have an item you believe would be appropriate and would like to donate, please contact charity-2012(at)anthrocon.org!

Helpful links:

Charity Auction/Raffle FAQ - http://www.anthrocon.org/charity

Charity Auction/Raffle Rules - http://www.anthrocon.org/rules-charity

Hello Bully - http://hellobully.com/