RALLY REPORT 2008 : Rally held Sunday 24th August 2008

Well, where do I start? What a year I have had, firstly my husband, David, was rushed into hospital seriously ill and, then in, the same week my Mother was also taken into hospital, and finally we lost our old boy Kova. Thus, May and June became a blur to me and it did cross my mind to cancel the Rally this year, but I thought I can't do that.

This was the 6th Rally for Rescue held at Mollcroft and there were times this summer when thought it would not go ahead due to the terrible weather. Most people that come to the Rally know how large our grounds are and to try and get them into some sort of order we do need a little good weather before hand, but unfortunately this year it never seemed to come. The week before the Rally our paddocks, which we use as car parks, had not been cut down so we asked our gardener, Mike, if he could come over and help and he spent the Sunday before the Rally trying to get the paddocks as low as he could. I was so pleased when he had finished, as I though well at least that's one job done now, on to the other hundred jobs needing doing!

I am very lucky, as I have a really good network of family and friends who always seem to be there when you need them. On the Thursday before the Rally weekend Carmen & Leroy arrive and then on the Friday my son, Craig, daughter-in-law, Susan, grandchildren Jade & Aaron and their friends, Jenny & Darren turned up so my little army was slowly being put together. Friday was the day Mark & Trudy Coates were picking up all the tables for me, and believe me they are heavy, so they arrived with 18 tables, which then had to be stored until Sunday. Saturday arrived, bright and sunny and we were all up early getting all the gazebos up, tables in place, it was a hive of activity. Avis & Preston arrived to put the finishing touches to everything and make sure all the paperwork was in order. By 5pm on the Saturday I thought this is great we are so organised Andy Fry and his team of helpers were here doing the PA System for the next day, so I got to and started to feed everyone, not an easy task when you have about 14/15 people to feed, but we all had great evening.

I woke early Sunday morning with a feeling of dread, as it was raining hard and everything we had done the day before was soaked; all the tables, posters everything. Oh well, nothing we could do about it but get on and hope that it didn't put people off coming. Everybody I spoke to kept telling me that it would clear up and guess what, it did by midday the sun was just beginning to break through and I was amazed at how many people had turned up even before the rain stopped.

Our Judge this year was Linda Wells and I have had a lovely letter from her saying what a great pleasure and privilege it had been to Judge our Rescue Samoyeds and how much she enjoyed her day.

It turned out to be a great day and there was about 60/65 dogs here with 56 entering the Classes. We had quite a few other breeds attending this years Rally, which is lovely to see and the Fancy Dress Class was super, with the little children all dressed up and even the adults looking great. The water race went down well again with mad people and dogs running up and down with water splashing everywhere. Unfortunately, I get to see very little of the Rally as I am usually in the kitchen frying onions or some such menial task. I do try and get to walk around and have chat with everyone on the day, but it is so hard to fit it all in, so if I missed seeing you please forgive me.

I did thank Cathy & Alan Care, who managed to get to this years Rally. You may remember that Cathy & Alan cared for Cassie a few years ago, who was in a bad way when we took her on and I had a painting stored of Cassie, which I wanted them to have. They were so pleased and I do thank them for their never-ending help that they give Rescue.

I hope everyone who came to the Rally enjoyed their day and will come again for without their support and the funds raised then Rescue couldn't help some of the unfortunate Samoyeds that find themselves in dire needs.

We raised over £2,300 net. which was £400 above last year, and I would like to thank ALL of the people who made this happen.

I think you will have all missed Betty East's Cake Stall this year, and since putting it on our web page about Betty having a stroke and not being able to make her now famous cakes, or attend this year, we had people kindly baking and donating cakes to sell on our Cake Stall - and believe me they were wonderful cakes, every single slice was sold and the people who baked them were Janice Pow, Denise Woodstock and Jax Machin, so a really big thank you to them.

I have a lot of other people to thank and I list some of them in no particular order:- my husband, David for putting up with my screaming when all doesn't go well and my Mum, bless her, the Judge, Linda Wells, Avis & Preston Haffenden, Carmen & Leroy Jones, Trudy & Mark Coates, Andy Fry, Angela & Terry Danvers-Smith, Lee & Tim, my son Craig and daughter-in-law Susan, Jenny & Darren, Chris & Andy Littlewood, Marianne Giannattasio, Valerie Blewitt, Madelliene Weller, Lee Ross, Olive Hampton, Janice & Grenville Pow for their beautiful handmade cards, Lynn Dutton for donating one of her very special paintings for our Auction.

One of my biggest thanks goes to the WSS Forum (Worldwide Samoyed Smiles) people who always amaze me with their hard work and really good ideas, in fact they alone raised £325 on their Stall and whoever thought of the popcorn, which was such a good idea, because all I could smell was this lovely aroma wafting around - great.

There is one special thanks I would like to make and that is to thank Robin Newhouse for coming and enjoying our Rally: I have been trying to get him to come down for years so a big thanks Robin for giving me a lovely surprise.

My biggest thanks of all goes to everyone that came to the Rally and helped raise such a brilliant amount of money for Rescue.

Take care of all your lovely Sammies and I hope to see you all again next year.

Linda Brasier, Chief Rescue Officer