The Mid-Florida Golden Retriever Club is hosting the 2021 Golden Retriever Club of America National Specialty in October of 2021 and needs help from all members of the club.

Many members have already signed up for various committees and activities related to the 2021 and have already been involved in meetings and planning. But more volunteer positions remain unfilled, both for advance planning and for jobs the week of the event.

Volunteer coordinators Dot and Allison Hively are maintaining an active list of volunteers and jobs. Anyone wishing to volunteer can contact them via email – even if you don’t know what area you’d like to help with, they can tell you what is available and sign you up.

Dot and Allison can be reached via email at 2021goldenvolunteers@gmail.com

The National Specialty will include more than a week of competition, social events, clinics, seminars, shopping and more. The majority of the event will be held at the beautiful new World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Fla.

Thanks to the very generous gestures of the Cuyahoga Valley Golden Retriever Club and the Golden Retriever Club of America, the Mid-Florida Golden Retriever Club will get to host a GRCA National Specialty after all: the 2021 GRCA National has been moved to Florida and will be held at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Fla.

The MFGRC was originally slated to host the 2020 GRCA National Specialty in October but the event was canceled last week due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, the CVGRC, which was to host the 2021 event, agreed to move its event to 2022, with approval from the GRCA, so that the MFGRC could finish what it started and host the National in 2021.

“We cannot thank the members of the Cuyahoga Valley Golden Retriever Club and the GRCA enough for allowing us to move our event to 2021,” said Pat Kopco, co-chair of the National Committee for the MFGRC. “We had done so much work and preparation to get ready to host the National this year and to have all of that go by the wayside would have been heartbreaking.

“Now we’ll have 18 months to finish preparations and bring the GRCA National back with a big Florida welcome.”

Anyone who has already paid for grooming or vending space, RV parking or trophy sponsorship for the canceled 2020 event will have the option of receiving a refund or applying their funds to the 2021 event. Full details will be posted soon.

The 2021 GRCA National will take place over the last week of October, with the schedule to be announced in the coming weeks.

The Mid-Florida Golden Retriever Club was notified today (April 15) that the World Equestrian Center, which was to be the site for the club’s hosting of the 2020 Golden Retriever Club of America National Specialty, has canceled all its events until March of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Therefore, there will be no GRCA National Specialty this year.

The MFGRC board will be holding a special meeting to determine next steps. We ask that everyone please be patient and we will provide further information as soon as we can.

Thanks to everyone who has worked on preparations for the 2020 National and thanks to Golden exhibitors and friends around the country (and world) who were planning to come.