Reunion Thanks

Mike Strawbridge (www.bdtc.org.uk) judged the Working Together classes in the morning and hopefully managed to dodge the showers. A huge thank you to Mike and Wendy his steward for giving up their time to judge our budding (and accomplished) working together dogs. Fiona Squibb and Janice Moran kindly volunteered to judge the first two Novelty Classes in the afternoon, and must have had a difficult task choosing the winners from all those lovely dogs. Sarah Blackbourn, assisted by Cindy Lockley her steward, judged the remainder of the Novelty Classes and Dave Kemp (www.vetssomerset.co.uk/) came along to judge the qualifiers for the top prizes. Thank you to all our judges and stewards for supporting our efforts and giving us their valuable time.

Nigel Dracup made his debut as our MC this year and in between the showers managed to keep everything running smoothly. A big thank you Nigel for all your help.

The Tea and Cake stall, a first for us this year, was run by Belinda, Nigel’s wife, and her friend Pauline and it was a huge success, one of the most popular stalls – thank you Belinda for all the hard work you put in on the day and leading up to it. Thank you, too, to everyone who brought cakes along for the stall.

Maggie and Ray ran the Grand Raffle very successfully again this year and also managed to persuade P and O to donate a 4.5 kilo bar of Toblerone for the Auction. Barry and Steph ran Guess the Name of the Dog – a big thank you to them for all their efforts to help fund raising for IRR.

Jane White was in charge of microchipping again this year and she and Malcolm, with various helpers, ran the tombola, again a great success. Malcolm stepped in as our Auctioneer this year when Anne Marie was unable to come over. Thank you Malcolm for doing such a good job and raising so much money.

Nigel and Cindy were on the Books and CD stall again this year, and in the afternoon Cindy was steward in the Novelty Classes. Thank you both for your continuing support. Nigel and Cindy were helped by Terry and Edie, thank you to them as well.

Apart from being in the Healing Tent, Pam Morris assisted in the Prizes tent throughout the day, putting prizes in the bags first thing in the morning and handing out the rosettes to the Judge in the afternoon.

Thank you Pam, for all your help and support.

Sandra Dalmeijer was on the CHC stall and was able to give advice about natural methods of treatment to several people who came to talk to her during the day. Many thanks Sandra.

Tina (www.tinastails.co.uk) and Abbie ran the Pet Shop and their stall was laden with all sorts of goodies for pets – I hope some of you managed to visit them, all the proceeds were donated to IRR.
As well as providing us with part of the Showtime entertainment with an excellent display by Lola’s Travelling Troupe, Lynne Jones ran the Teddy Bear stall, ably assisted by Ian and Liz. A big thank you Lynne for all your help and support up to and during the Reunion. Ian then became our catering manager in the evening and kindly fetched pizzas for everyone.

A big thank you goes to Helen Boyd for her part in the Showtime entertainment with her Heelwork to Music display with Drake her IRR rescue dog and later with Teal her BMD. A very enjoyable experience.
Wendy Waygood organised the Auction and worked really hard to make people aware of the items that were available, thank you Wendy for all your hard work, also a big thank you to Dave (who missed his golf!) and Lauren who was your very able assistant.

Jill Cope, Anne Tuck, and Anita Leggett handled all the entries for the Novelty classes and the Rescue Parades on the day, a big thank you to them for all their help.

Kathryn Crofton spent the day signing copies of her book Circles in the
Sand (www.kathryncrofton.com), thank you again Kathryn.

Chrissie and Chris once again came and spent the day helping us – it was lovely to see you both again, your tireless help and support throughout the day and the year are really appreciated.

Philip Watts (www.petsnpictures.co.uk) spent the day, helped by his daughter Amie and wife Jennie, taking pictures of all the classes, parades and various shots out and about. Thank you Philip for giving us your time and sorting out all the pictures for the web for us, we really appreciate it. All the pictures that Philip took are available to view at Reunion2011Photos

Sandra and Owen made the beautiful rosettes for the Reunion and completely organised the Scurry Run and Tunnel Challenge, setting up the rings and bringing all their own equipment for us to use. Thank you both for all your help, hard work and expertise.

A big thank you to Steve, Pauline’s husband, for the loan and erection of his gazebos and setting out the Working Together and Novelty Class rings. Steve works tirelessly behind the scenes for the IRR Reunion.

Thank you to Terry who not only produced the site plans, designed and printed the calendars, prize cards etc but also ran the Sponsor Dog and IRR Merchandise stall, very ably assisted by Maddy, who kindly donated some of her bespoke cards (www.maddogsandmogs.co.uk) and helped me with the prizes.

Last but not least, a big thank you to our daughter Isabella and Joseph, Emma and Katie our grandchildren who came along for the day, helped Terry run the Sponsor Dog and IRR Merchandise stall, helped me get the prizes together, looked after our 4 dogs, and generally made themselves invaluable throughout the day.

If I have left anyone out, please forgive me – the biggest thank you of all is to everyone who was there and who helped make the day such fun.

Thank you,
Belinda