Page 190 - ShowSight - August 2019
P. 190

                Lines from Linda
BY LINDA AYERS TURNER KNORR
  TAPPING OUR RESOURCES —
YOUTHFUL BLESI
t goes without say- ing that the future of our sport lies in the hands of
the youth we develop and inspire today. The past two weeks brought joy and excitement to me and my Greenville Kennel Club as we took advantage of unexpected opportunities to engage our stars of tomorrow.
As our club planned for our 80th Anniver- sary Dog Show, special planning was in place
to make sure our Pee Wee event would be something the children would “always remember”. President Jeanette Stribling ordered spe- cial bags covered with whimsical artwork of dogs including presents inside, Show Chair Chris Harner added lots of goodies gifted to the kids by our sponsor Purina and Barbara Ohmann and Christine Weisse topped off the gifts with treasures from our American Ken- nel Club. When the gift bags and beautiful rosette ribbons were presented to each of the 22 participants by our beautiful Judge Vicki Seiler-Cushman, each youngster was beaming!
Some of the children were participating in Pee Wees for their second or third time. They can hardly wait to have birthdays that will step them up to Juniors!
GKC Show Chair Kris Harner and President Jeanette Stribling welcome Ashley McCarter, Clemson University Cooperative Extension Laurens County 4-H Youth Development Agent and 4-H Members to their first AKC Dog Show
Photo Courtesy of Bryan McNabb Photography
Since the Pee Wee class was added to AKC events in early 2016, 2,900 youngsters have participated in 388 events. Most shows average 7.5 entries. (Wouldn’t you love to see that half a kid?) The numbers are growing every weekend! Our Greenville event had 22 signed up and unfortunately we had to turn some latecomers away.
The week before our shows I received a call from Ashley McCart- er, Clemson University Cooperative Extension Laurens County Youth and Development Agent for 4-H. Ashley had gotten in touch with me at the suggestion of someone at the American Kennel Club. She called to invite me to judge the Dog Show for their upcoming 4-H events at the Laurens County Fairgrounds. She explained that she expected to have about 240 livestock animals exhibited by the 4-H club members and about 18 dogs for the Conformation, Obe- dience and Rally events. My excited response was “YES, but I would also like to engage my Greenville Kennel Club members. It has long been my dream to find 4-H members to work with in our area!”
Through Ashley McCarter I envision endless opportunities. You can only imagine the joy among our Kennel club members when they learned about the call. The National Cattleman’s Association is the sponsor of the fairgrounds competitions. They provide prizes and the ribbons. Now the Greenville Kennel Club members will be able to have a table to display all things about the AKC and our many events. Since I am a Conformation judge, I invited our GKC Obedience Chair Thecla Tyner to judge Obedience and Rally.
Our GKC Program Chairman Debbi Kaplan even re-arranged her planned speakers so that we could invite Ashley McCarter to present a program on 4-H at our next Greenville Kennel Club meet- ing. It will be the week before the fairgrounds show, so all of our members will be even more excited about our new collaboration.
Courtesy of Cary Manaton Photography Judge Vicki Seiler-Cushman with Pee Wees
SINGS
      Courtesy of Cary Manaton Photography
Pee Wees show off ribbons to proud parents.
188 • ShowSight Magazine, auguSt 2019















































































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