Mississippi Wildlife Extravaganza - Part Two: The Down Fall Of The 2019 Ganza

Mississippi Wildlife Federation was dragged into new drama in 2019 by it’s new Mississippi Wildlife Extravaganza Event Coordination / Executive Director Lindsey Lemmon when Lemmon denied a vendor the right to attend and rent a booth to the 2019 event.

Victoria Darden is a farmer who was one of many farmers that have been affected by the recent flooding and wanted to rent a booth and discuss the back water flooding issues and what she felt was the solution and that was in her opinion some type of back water pumps and that Mississippi Wildlife Federations refusal to support the project.

After Dardens denial she went on a personal campaign to slander the Mississippi Wildlife Federal and the event (Ganza) and reached out to supporters to help her with no regards for the hundreds of vendors that would be affected by her actions. She and her followers went after anyone that opposed the project, mainly the Mississippi Wildlife Federation and the Ganza Expo and all their Vendors, like we have anything to do with their Mississippi project! I am an out of state vendor coming to Ganza once a year to sell my wears to make money for my family and she cause economic impact for me and 300 other vendors. She and her band of Terrorists set up a Boycott page, they got a copy of the vendor list and specifically target each and every one of the vendors Cyber Bullying them until over 50+ of the 300 backed out. Not only did they go after vendors, they went after their main sponsors like Central Mississippi Chevy Chevrolet & Will Primos & Primos Hunting among others. My business was personally contacted several times as was several others I know in Mississippi to back out. My wife who was not even a vendor was also personally contacted as well as her business. Funny thing that we found out when we checked in is that 10 of the 50 from that Boycott page were just showboating, trying to look good as 10 of those people stating they were not coming were not even on the list to come anyway. They were just trying to look good for others on the page. I used to work in the Emergency Management Field and also Flood Plane Management and I worked almost a year and half in Missouri during the Mid-West Floods during America’s worst floods in History and I was part of the clean up and helping the farmers in the Mid-West don’t people better not tell me I don’t understand and I cannot relate. I helped with the recovery of 856 bodies when a levee broke and flooded 30,000 acres of farm land and guess who was part of that management team and recovery efforts??? So, don’t message me and tell me I don’t understand!!!! I understand more Flood Plane Management than most and it entails just adding a bunch of pumps to one area of land as the water still has to go somewhere. From our own investigation MWF never stated they opposed the Backwater Pumps on principle alone, they just wanted to make sure it didn’t harm the environment or damage the current wetlands and wanted more information as did the core of engineers.

Nevertheless, people from all over Mississippi have come out to support Darden and her cause not knowing the full story as they made sure so much of the information was so misleading it could not be truly understood and this has caused what could be unrecoverable damage to the Ganza and Lemmon’s reputation and the Mississippi Wildlife Federation and you cost vendors thousands of dollars in lost revenue. What is even worse is that this campaign has cause severe damage to all the vendors, many of whom are small family owned business who depend on expo’s like Ganza to get them thru the Winter months to survive and / or just to stay afloat in general. In the end Darden and team con’ed 50+ vendors into backing out , told them not to come only for they own team to come any way and set up at the Ganza. They were offered a free booth from the Ganza organizers, supposedly threw it in their face only to still get another booth from an agriculture commissioner and come anyway (pity). Set up in the back of the building. They set up an ezle and may one or two people stood up to talk to people as they walked by while all the others sat in lawn chairs on their asses gasping in the glory of their success of sabotaging the Ganza and ruining the lives of the vendors and how much it cost us vendors..

Here is what started all the Attacks on the Ganza and ultimately lead to the sabotage on the Ganza Event. Read More Here: https://www.vicksburgnews.com/mississippi-wildlife-federation-denies-flood-victim-a-booth-at-its-event/?fbclid=IwAR0yBCb4PpNJXwZuXmE979VhCAWiHw7qncHjFq0yX9Hv7EH2dqXGBgYNJBg Darden’s followers also contacted the main stream news media to come out to do daily news articles on the event which cause even more damage to the event causing a slant to the image to the event which could have unrecoverable damage to the event for future years to come. This shined an unfavorable light on the show as the media often does on events either positive or negatively and this time it was 100% negative. So, not only has this caused damage to MWF, but it has affected Vendors their family and their livelihoods as well for years to come for everyone. Speaking on behalf on myself and my company, this has caused me in sales for my family and compared to sales from last year I purchased extra inventory and my wife made extra stock for her part and we are out thousands so I will not have money to pay rent and bills for the next several months all because Darden had an issue with Lemmon and MWF over her not a getting a little booth that she ended up getting in the end anyway. She or someone created a Facebook Boycott page con’ed people to back out for which they tricked people with their biased views and then had the audacity to show up like nothing ever happened. Most of the time all I ever saw was one person from Dardens group standing talking to people while other sitting on lawn chairs basking in the victory of ruining people lives and ruining the Ganza Event! I can say that many vendors are talking about hiring personally lawyers to sue and file class action law suits against Darden and anyone connected with the harassments. Whether or not this happen is like the Darden Boycott page; all talk!!!! Several people discussed contacting the Attorney General of The State of Mississippi and even another Major Law Enforcement Authority has been contacted (I cannot state whom at this time) I know for a fact has been contacted!!! At 2pm on Sunday, August 4th, 2019 Vendors for the Ganza vendors were packing up to leave and all of this is at the fault of Victoria Darden and her band of Terrorist who targeted the Ganza for their own personal gains while Ganza itself could not have done nothing to personally do about their pumps all they did was cause unrepeatable damage to the vendors of Ganza and like I mentioned before some vendors may have been ruined for life and this is not the fault of Ganza but solely rest on the shoulders of Victoria Darden and her followers Will there be a 2020 Ganza?

Will Mississippi Wildlife Extravaganza return for 2020? It is hard to say what will unfold for the MWF and if they can turn their image around after the damage done by Victoria Darner and her team of Cyber Bully Terrorist. In a recent phone call with MWF, EveryDay Preppers had with MWF Staff this past week, MWF are still in talks about how to move forward and if so, how to help the vendors that showed up for the 2019 show and what course would be best to help them since they were the ones that helped make the show what it was and they are also the ones that also lost the most too. While others vendors may have backed out on the Ganza, many vendors had the professionalism to stick in there with it and had additional cost of lodging, food and other cost of the event. Darden and band of Terrorist, cost us so much we didn’t cover fuel & travel expense, much less table cost and I will not even go into inventory cost!!! According the vendors of the 2019 show we spoke too, I cannot remember one vendor that said they would return, I know the one’s that came to my booth questioning me all stated they will not return unless major changes take place; one being that they felt all of this could have been avoided if Lemmon had allowed Darden was allowed in and they place the blame on Lemmon and feel Lemmon is as fault and want Lemmon gone, two being the hiring of a professional event organizer who can turn the event around and figure out how to repair the damage image of MWF done by Darden and her 2019 Campaign, three bring in some new high profile attractions / activities and do not ever depend on any vendor i.e. like the one’s that pulled-out of the 2019 Ganza Event. I would also make sure that any vendor that stay you offer major discounts / even half price booth rentals just to prove and show how much you appreciate those whom stayed!!!.

This is just the beginning as MWF just cannot fathom how many vendors have expressed they will pull out of the 2020 show if major things do not change!!! [if !supportLineBreakNewLine] [endif]

I would suggest if MWF is going to revamp the way they do things, they do show the vendors that did come to the 2019 show some special consideration in one being ½ booth rentals as they really do not have a concept what we all lost during the 2019 show and even ½ off would come close to a drop in the bucket to what we actually deserve; we should get our booths free, but I am trying to be kind in my analysis. I know there is talk of a live concert but in the opinion of many vendors this is a horrific idea as while this could be a draw for the MWF and the event, it would do nothing to help the vendors and this is why we are there. Allow me to explain; people would come out to the show but during the time of the concert no one would be shopping. Bringing in more non-profits also would not do anything to help the current vendors. Making the show more about Hunting and Fishing and expanding more about this could be exciting. Please do not make it into an Expo like Alabama where you bring in Back Massagers, Hot & Cold Packs and Foot Fungus things. At one show in North Alabama they had six people selling Salsa, 4 people selling spices, 4 people selling ten’s units and back massagers. This turned into a flea markets and less of a Hunting and Fishing Expo. They actually had someone there selling Guns, which is highly inappropriate for this type show! If Mississippi Wildlife Extravaganza is going to revive and survive they need to bring in a true event coordinator, with a proven track record of success and bring in activities to attract the people. Anyone vendor and / or sponsor that backed out should not be allowed back in 2020 / 2021 no matter how much money that throw at you It should not be about money, it should be about morals and standards and this is your image you are protecting and if MWF doesn’t start looking after this now, how are they going to be assured this is not going to happen again with these same vendors, sponsors??? Stay Tunes for more as we plan to bring you new updates on the 2020 Ganza when it gets closer and we see what happens. We were never approached to return for 2020 Ganza as were many others never approached by Lindsey Lemmon and the MWF Management Team. We were actually given packets to fill out regarding how we thought the event went but never told who or where to turn them in. [if !supportLineBreakNewLine] [endif]

More To Come in 2020