Here is some articles of us actually in the news!

Area's First Anime Fest Draws Sizeable Crowd
Port Saint Lucie News, B-1 Front Page, June 18th, 2006
By: Racheal Joyner

PORT SAINT LUCIE - Fifty dollar for gas, $200 per night at a hotel and $60 to get into the door.

Tiffany Cooper was tired of spending all that money to travel to anime conventions in Orlando every year. So she decided to have one right here in her own backyward -- Port St. Lucie.

" By the time (the anime convention in Orlando) was done, I was broke. " Cooper said. " I wanted to bring the experience back home. "

And that's exactly what this 19 year old Port St. Lucie resident did. With the help of friends Danny Ferbert and Joey Commorato, and 18 volunteers, she organized the first anime convention ever to come to the Treasure Coast. It took almost two years of planning, more than $2,000 -- most of which they paid of of their own pockets -- and a whole lot of hard work to make Cooper's dream a reality.

Houkocon 2006, Cooper's two day anime convention, attracted more than 300 people from all around Florida and a few out of state attendees. Cooper said they had 70 pre-registrations and sold out a hotel in St. Lucie West.

" I'm shocked because when we got our registration numbers I was like, 'wow,'" Cooper said. " I really didn't think it was going to be this big. "

All Friday and Saturday in the Port Saint Lucie Community Center, kids, teens, and young adults played video games, watched their favorite anime shows and sported costumes of their favorite characters. Youths sported pink and green hair, some carried swords, and others dressed as pirates with eye patches and knee high lace up boots.

" We had everyone you could imagine, " Coopre said. " The ages ranged from 2 to 42, with the majority of teenagers and young adults. "

" These local events bring in the kids that would never travel to Orlando," said Jason Bailey, who hosts an anime festival in West Palm Beach. " Most big conventions are up there even though most of the people live in Fort Pierce and south. "

And for Cooper, that was the idea: to bring the anime conference to all those who can't afford to travel north.

When Port St. Lucie High School student Cynthia Kebeck found out about the anime convention, she started psreading the word to everyone at school. For Kebeck and many of her classmates, who have traveled to Orlando and Tampa for anime conventions, a convention righ tin Port St. Lucie was great news.

" For all of us it's like five minutes away," said Ashley Piver, a 17 year old Port Saint Lucie High School student. " My hotel room is my bedroom. "

Cooper did the bulk of the work for the convention, designing the convention guide books and T-shirts, making the name tags, meeting with the community center, buying the prizes.

" I spent my 19th birthday (Wednesday) running all around the county trying to prepare," Cooper said.

But for Cooper, who's been into anime since she was a little girl, the cost was worth it to bring something to the people of her home town could enjoy.

" It's kind of like I never gew out of watching cartoons," she said.

Cooper, who will attend Indian River Community College to study video and film production, plans to organize another anime convention next year, which she says will be bigger than this year's conference.

" We wanted to start off small because this was our first year, but it ended up bigger than we expected," she said. " Next year will be even better because now I actually know what I am doing."