The Mid-Florida Golden Retriever Club held its annual Obedience and Rally Trial Aug. 11-12 at the Obedience Club of Daytona and as trial chairman, I’d like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the club members and others who contributed to the success of the event.

First of all, we couldn’t do it without the help and dedication of Ralph and Maria Orlando, who in addition to being members of the MFGRC are also very active and strong members of the OCOD. Ralph set up the building and kept things running smoothly with it all weekend, while Maria’s skills as a photographer were on display as she was everywhere and posted about 150 images from the trial on Facebook. Both also pitched in whenever needed and took care of many details and little things that are so important during a trial.

Our club treasurer Dee Thibodeaux was there all weekend and helped in many areas. Her experience with Obedience trials was also a very good resource for me and I called on her more than once for opinions and advice during the preparation for the event.

Many club members volunteered their time to work as stewards and we received lots of positive comments from the judges and exhibitors about how good our stewards were. They included Robin Bowen, Debbie Finch, Charlie and Susan Hicks and Chris Jeffrey who worked as table stewards and ring/gate stewards Art and Josie Becker, Marilyn Booher, Sabrina Cornelius, Johnann Goines, Robin Hughes, Chris Huppert, Cheryl Taylor and Laura Wright. Also thanks to Jordan Benner and Dalia Ruffato, who will soon be club members, for their help as stewards, as well as Jordan’s mother Jill Benner.

In addition, I want to thank Jeannie Adams, who is not a member of our club but graciously volunteered to help Chris Jeffrey in the Rally ring on Sunday. Also thanks to OCOD members Susan Armstrong, Pat Dean, Claire Israelson and Brandy Schmid who worked not only as stewards but also as mentors for our club members who had never stewarded before.   

During the weeks and months leading up to the trial, club members Connie Adams, John Blair and Michele Panetta helped promote the trial in their respective areas of the state and their efforts paid off as we had a very good entry with exhibitors coming from many parts of Florida as well as other states.

Our trial secretary Adrienne Swanick did a great job leading up to and during the trial. It’s a lot of work and sometimes thankless but she’s very good at what she does.    

And last but definitely not least, my wife Barbara Hall was a tremendous help to me behind-the-scenes, doing so many little things that I can’t list them all. Ironing and sorting ribbons, checking in stewards, getting lunches for the judges and keeping the candy bowls around the venue stocked were just some of her contributions. Thanks to her and to everyone.

We’ll do it all again next year – our trial will again be in Daytona Beach and the dates will be Aug. 10-11. Looking forward to it.

Thanks,
Andy Hall
MFGRC Club Secretary
Obedience/Rally Chair