Front Cover Summer 2019

THE 2019 DDTCA NATIONAL IS HISTORY!

Hopefully, We Showed You A Dandie Time!

Team 2019’s Final Report!!

By Donna Francis, Sandra Pretari Hickson, Betty-Anne Stenmark and Sandy Wolfskill

cuted their construction. It is amazing how a stuffed toy dog

The 2019 National marked the second time the

DDTCA has

can turn into a Dandie Dinmont Terrier, complete with beer

ventured out to the Purina Farms Event Center in Grays Sum-

mug, of course. True to form, all were sold at the Saturday

mit, Missouri. The Center has been open for a few years and

dinner, including four which emigrated to Canada! A special

the staff are very supportive of specialty clubs using their fa-

thanks to BJ Pumfrey for creating the fantastic raffle quilt

cilities. From the gift bags, to prizes for each specialty event,

which, fittingly, was won by Rebecca Murray from, where

to the meeting room for the Judges’ Education Committee pro-

else, Canada!

gram, they could not have been more helpful to our attendees

and exhibitors.

There are a million decisions which have to be made along the

road to a well-run National, and the rest of the team – Sandra

The facility itself is great and has air conditioning, which, in

Pretari-Hickson and Betty-Anne Stenmark were ready with

Missouri, is a necessity! The flooring is nonslip and rings were

comments and suggestions whenever Donna or I had ideas to

a very reasonable size. Their bathing facilities for dogs are a

toss around or plans to make. (The only reason we didn’t look

huge plus! Plenty of room for grooming and as a specialty

up anything in the club’s specialty manual was because San-

club, we were fortunate enough to have reserved grooming in

dra and I wrote it.)

the main show area. All these positives represent good reasons

to make the trek back to Purina in 2020.

Coordinating with a cluster is interesting, but we had no issues

It’s an old saying, but very true, “It takes a village to put on

with the clubs and their specialty representative. We had a

the National,” and our village had a great team making it hap-

limited choice of judges for the non-specialty days, but because

pen. Donna Francis and her band of recruits, including Diane

they did hire Elliott Weiss for the weekend, we incurred no

Hanowitz, Jerry Francis, and our hairdresser, Sue, all helped

costs other than a judge’s gift for the pleasure of having Elliott

with the centerpieces that Donna designed, sourced and exe-

judge the National.

22