Monday, October 10, 2011

A Gathering of Champions--Symposium--Part 2


Alaska Dog and Puppy Rescue
Katie Mangelsdorf, author
The morning of the symposium moved along quite nicely. (See previous blog entry). Our indoor vendors were making sales and friends. The silent auction was gathering bids and the Parade of Dogs was garnering it's own attention. Some of our indoor vendors included:
Dave Totten, artist
Dave generously donated original artwork to WDMA for a raffle.
Thanks Dave!

Northern Lights 300 Sled Dog Race


Kimberly McCourtney, Alaska Garden and Pet Supply

William Laughing Bear, Northern Lights Adventures

Frank Sihler, The Better Companion
Mike Dillingham, author, Rivers Books, laughing with WDMA
member Keith Blaha. 
Dream-A-Dream Dog Farm
Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race
At 1 pm the main event began. Janet Sweeney, chairperson for the symposium, presented Bruno Bryner with a lifetime WDMA membership award. Bruno is responsible for trail maintenance and marking on the east side of the Parks Highway near MP 64. He has been a great help to all mushers in the Willow area. Besides the membership, Janet presented him with a supply of marking tape just for use on the trails. Thank you Bruno for all you do!!
Bruno Bryner receives a WDMA lifetime membership certificate
as well as a supply of trail marking tape from Symposium Chairperson,
Janet Sweeney.
Donna Quante, WDMA President, announced an award for past President, Erin McLarnon, who was not present, but out of state traveling. Erin was a WDMA founder and President for five years. Pat Welch painted a pooper scooper gold that people were encouraged to sign.  Michael Stitt made a handsome wood frame for a Penni Cross print that will be given to Erin as a thank you for her service to the club. Vic Stanculescu had a plaque made that said: "With thanks and appreciation to Erin McLarnon, WDMA Founder and President, 2005-2010."

We had singer, Dave Ianson, Ph.D., lead us in the Alaska State Song. What a great voice. Thanks Dave! And then, John Baker took the stage to speak about his 2011 Iditarod win, setting a new race record and just mushing in general. I heard nothing but positive feedback for John's talk. John stayed all afternoon and participated in other panels and observed a couple others. He was a wonderful keynote speaker.
DeeDee Jonrowe surprised everyone with her introduction of
2011 Iditarod Champion John Baker 



John held the audience with rapt attention to his every word. Thank you John!





After John, there were several panels and demonstrations. It was wonderful to see and hear so much information freely given and discussed. It appeared everyone had a great time and learned a lot.

Vern Halter (right) moderated the first panel discussing how to break into the Top 10. (photo:Janet Sweeney)
Top 10 Panelists: Ramey Smyth, DeeDee Jonrowe, Dallas Seavey, John Baker.
While the folks inside discussed how to break into the Top 10, an exciting demonstration was taking place outside.  Matthew Byrnes, SSgt of the US Air Force along with his crew were showing us a real working military dog.
Quite the crowd gathered for this demo. 
The dog is a Belgian Malinois named Dino/K460. His handler
is TSgt. Roberts.
"Get him!!"



Don't mess with this dog! (The man on the ground is TSgt. Lealofi)
When the Air Force was finished, we then heard from the Airport Police. K9 Officer Martin Spinde with Goro and Sgt. Scott Trent with Elvis. They demonstrated how the dogs sniff for drugs.Very impressive dogs with impressive abilities.
Sgt. Scott Trent with Elvis
Elvis gets a treat for being a good dog!
K9 Officer Martin Spindle with Goro.
Good dog!
Back inside the second panel was underway discussing training puppies for success. Quite the interesting topic with mushers not in total agreement. There are many ways to train!
Lynda Barcome (right) moderated the second panel talking about training puppies. Panelists were;
(left-right) Ramey Smyth, DeeDee Jonrowe, Martin Buser. (photo:Janet Sweeney)

While they talked puppies inside, others gathered to hear Egil Ellis and Kelley Griffin talk about the proper fit for harnesses. I'm told even John Baker and Dallas Seavey got into the discussion here and showed their harness preferences. I counted at least 50 people surrounding this demonstration!
Egil Ellis describes the right fit for a harness on Kari Skogen's
10 year old, retired Siberian, Alaskan's Barents of Anadyr..better
known as Deamon.







John Baker was listening.
Egil answers questions.

Kelly talks about the style of harness she prefers.
Kelly makes a point.
Taking the stage were Bernie Willis and Cody Strathe with a lot of technical information about sleds and why you should chose the correct sled for what you want to do with your dogs. It was fascinating.
Bernie Willis and Cody Strathe discuss form and function of various sleds.(photo:Janet Sweeney)
Outside, the last demo of the day was the High Flying Disc Dog Champion Kate, owned and handled by Chanelle Barron. Great dog!


  
The last panel of the day. What a wonderful experience listening to these guys. Almost makes you want  to be a musher! (OK--that's a joke!)
"A Gathering of 2011 Champions"
How lucky were we to have sprint champion Egil Ellis, Quest Champion  Dallas Seavey
and Iditarod Champion John Baker on the same stage???!! Moderator Vern Halter did an excellent job getting
these guys to open and up and tell lots of stories.
We ended the afternoon sessions with a live auction of Dogs on Parade. The silent auctions of wonderful donated items had ended earlier. Some people got some great items at a small cost.  The fabulous wooden dogs, made this year by Dale Evans and painted by local artists: Susan Whiton, Christina Rose, Susie Dillon, Kari Skogen, Pat Welch and Darla Forman with Dianne Maythorne,  always raise money for WDMA projects and everyone has fun with the bidding.

One table of silent auction items--there were five tables all together!



Vic Stanculescu did another fabulous job of auctioning off the dogs. Every dog was a terrific work of art!


We ended the evening with an amazing concert by Pamyua. This is the group who played for John Baker as he crossed the finish line in Nome when he won this years' Iditarod. An amazing group, with fabulous voices. They had the audience up dancing and howling along. A great way to end the day. We want to thank our anonymous donor and the Willow Area Community Organization and Vern Halter:Dream-A-Dream Dog Farm for their generous donations that made the Pamyua concert possible. THANKS!!!
Pamyua in concert. Simply FABULOUS!!
You can hear Pamyua sing, "The Howling Song" at our concert, on you tube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAcldP4V1tE&feature=channel_video_title
This was the prefect song for mushers to sign along--and they did!!We highly recommend you see Pamyua in concert whenever you can. We hope they'll come back to Willow soon.

A special shout out to Janet Sweeney, Chairperson of the WDMA K9 Athlete Symposium for the second year in a row. Well done Janet, well done! Don't know how you're going to top this one!

Janet Sweeney (left), symposium chairperson posing with
 Iditarod  Champion Dick Mackey and Tina Owen
(photo:Cathy Mackey)



Do you have photographs or stories to tell about your symposium experience. Please email them to: djqhusky@mtaonline.net
We'd love to include them here on the blog. This blog is helping to record the  history of WDMA and we appreciate any contributions to that effort.

Unless otherwise noted, all photos on this blog entry are ©2011Husky Productions/Donna Quante.

New photos below have arrived from Pat Welch. Thanks Pat!
Our first event outside.
The bait is hidden around the playground equipment and Claudia's dog is ready to start.
A Klee Kai is starting it's search.
A Klee Kai searching the playground equipment.
The swap meet was a huge success. 


A trailer full of Momentum dog food was also sold.
Scooter dogs making the rounds.
Bruno Bryner accepts lifetime membership award from
symposium chairperson Janet Sweeney.
Bruno says a few words!
WDMA President Donna Quante with Golden Scooper Award for
past President, Erin McLarnon. Scooper was painted by Pat Welch.
Janet holds the Penni Cross print in the Michael Stitt made frame.
DeeDee intros John.
Dogs On Parade.
A packed house for John's address.
John Baker
Grrrdwood Pets--another awesome vendor.
Jamie West ran the registration table all day, while Chris Stitt handled
merchandise. Thanks ladies!!!
Everyone loved the working dogs!












Egil explains his choice of harness.
Kelly had her choice too. 
Dallas Seavey and his harness of choice.


John Baker explains how his lines are different.
John demos his type of harness.
Deamon was a great model husky!
Vic shows off his Nome Kennel Club patch.

Vern, Martin, Christina and Bob--wonder what was so funny???







2 comments:

  1. That is a meeting I should wish we had been able to attend. Your blog presentation made me want to join in the fun that's over. Please, have another one soon. Everything looked interesting, amusing, studious, or fun. It was all there. Great organizing and planning. Bob & I must get to one of the meetings. When is the next one, please? Maureen

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maureen, WDMA monthly meetings are the fourth wednesday of each month a 7 pm in the Willow Community Center.

    ReplyDelete