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MEETING NEWS
RABUN COUNTY RIDING CLUB NEWSLETTER
September 9, 2002
ST. JUDE RIDE – SEPTEMBER 28TH -
(see detailed information below)
The benefit ride for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital is coming up quick so please make plans to
participate. Hopefully there will be someone with enough sponsors to rival Robin York’s sponsors. She sure
has the St. Jude spirit! Remember, St. Jude gives participants gift items based on the level of their
sponsor’s donations. If you haven’t had a chance to get sponsors, you can still participate in a good cause
by paying the minimum donation amount of $20 for the first family rider/driver and $5 for each additional rider.
Yep! That’s right, there are going to be wagons too. The rides/drive will start out from the Warwoman
Campground on Saturday, September 28th as follows: 9 A.M. the all day riders will leave, 9:30 A.M. the
wagons will pull out and 10 A.M. the half-day riders will be leaving. Camping is available on a first come,
first served basis. Day parking for the ride is FREE.
Sissi Dockins, Violet Thompson and Pam Thompson have done a great job organizing some good times for all volunteers. Riders and drivers
can register Friday night between 6 and 10 P.M.. There will also be registration on the morning of the ride from 7 until 9 A.M.. When you
register to ride/drive, you will also receive a FREE raffle ticket from Stacy Woodall of Woodall’s Feed and Seed. In addition to his raffle
drawing for FREE feed, Stacy will have a tack trailer on site.
Also, the club will be selling $1.00 raffle tickets. Colleen DeSimone has
graciously donated a beautiful Leather Western Saddle. The net proceeds from the saddle raffle will be for the benefit of the Rabun County
Riding Club. The saddle will be on display at Tricia Stockton's store -
THE SOUL PLACE - located on north main street in downtown Clayton. For those that don’t win the saddle, you will have three
more chances to become a winner. Dana Adams has gotten three Foxfire Books donated to the club by the Foxfire Museum. Raffle tickets are available from club members now and they will also be available at the time of registration. You may also purchase raffle tickets at Clayton Paint
& Decorating or Timpson Creek.
The feed, saddle and book raffles will all take place at the Saturday night band concert. You (or a friend) do
need to be present at the concert to win the feed or the books. If you are lucky enough to win the saddle and you are not present at the dance, someone will give you a call to make
arrangements for you to pick it up. If you haven’t had a chance to participate in the ride/drive, please drop by the concert and put a donation in
the jug. It’s for a great cause! Of course, as long as you are there, stick around for all the fun.
Prior to the band concert, those that have armbands from participating in the ride or wagon drive will be treated to a covered dish supper for the *riders that participate in the St. Jude Ride on Saturday* - Rabun County Riding Club will donate the meat, Stacy Woodall will be donating the
drinks, and everyone is to bring along a covered dish to donate to the meal. Mark and Ray Nix, along with Sissi Dockins’ help, have agreed to spend Saturday at the campground making us all real hungry with the inviting
smell of barbecue. Stacy Woodall has generously agreed for Woodall’s Feed & Seed to provide all the soft drinks for this covered dish. Please
be sure to stop by Woodall’s Feed and Seed to say thanks. The covered dish will be a great opportunity for all participants to share their tall
tales and favorite recipes.
There needs to be a lot of recognition for all the sponsors that have been so generous. The club suggests participants wear a T-shirt or have a
poster with the names of business sponsors. Robin came up with the poster idea for her horse trailer since they don’t make T-shirts large
enough for all her sponsors. The club is planning on obtaining some type of public “Thank You” advertising, but it would be great to share the
list of your sponsors with other participants on the same day as the ride/drive.
We still need volunteers to man the registration table for this event. We are scheduling two-hour shifts with two volunteers at each shift.
Please call Sissi Dockins at 782-7652 if you need information or you would like to help out with the St. Jude benefit.
GMSCA-RABUN RIDING CLUB's OPEN HORSE SHOW - October 19th - 10:00am
We will be hosting our first Georgia Mountain Association of Saddle Clubs (GMAC) Horse Show. This is going to be a large event with a
professional judge and money prizes. Points are accumulated for the annual GMAC show. The paint horse association, PAC, also recognizes
points from this show. From 10 A.M. until around 2 P.M. there will be pleasure classes. At 2:00 P.M. the speed events start and they continue
until well into the night.
Entry fees for each event is $6.00. $1.00 goes to the GMAC. The remaining $5.00 is split 40-60 between the club and the winning participants.
60% (based on the $5.00) of the fees in each class are divided as follows: 30% to the first place winner, 20% to the second place winner and
10% to the third place winner.
We are in desperate need of a volunteer from our club to act as ring steward during the pleasure classes. The ring steward acts as a liaison
person between the professional judge in the ring and the announcer’s booth. The steward would also need to deliver ribbons to the ring.
Please call Valerie Addicott at 782-0268 if you are willing to assist in the ring. She will also take any volunteers she can get for other show
positions. Please give her a call – many hands make for light work.
We are also in need of more volunteers to work the concession stand, as well as volunteers to donate baked
goodies to the stand. This stand has the potential to bring big bucks into the club’s account. If you are able to volunteer or donate, please call Cecil Thompson at 782-5618.
We also need to send delegates to the other GMAC horse shows. The next show, November 16, will be in White County.
Thanks to Valerie Addicott, the club has a new, easier to remember website address:
www.rabunridingclub.com. On this site, one can reference the GMAC show calendar, read the newsletters and get club updates. Please check out the GMAC show calendar.
ELECTIONS
Valerie Addicott updated us on the GMSCA upcoming annual state show. The
GMSCA wanted two members from each club to attend the state show as
delegates. Most members attending this meeting felt that this would be
unnecessary because none of our members participated in any of the shows
last year. We only joined the GMSCA recently.
The upcoming October 19 show that our club will be hosting for the GMSCA
will require much preparation. Such things as a 100-foot runnout, a
10-foot ring buffer, and a 20-foot ring vehicle buffer are required by the
GMSCA show rules. Kim Willis agreed to measure the arena’s runnout and
arena size to see if we could move the timer into the arena area to
achieve the required 100-foot distance. We are also expected to provide the following items for some of the 67 classes: 3 white paste
board barrels, 6 foot poles with a 1 ½ inch inside diameter and 5 – 21
inch high orange cones which need to have 15 inch square bases. The club
may have access to some of these items, but if you happen to have any of
the above, please call Valerie Addicott at 782-0268. All GMSCA shows are
to have one delegate from each club in the ring during timed events. This requirement allows us to have input into any protests that
may occur.
Good news comes from the recreation department. The water and electric
service to the arena has been restored. Also, parking at the show will be
easier than anticipated because it will still be basketball season, not
football. This means that people attending the show will have access to
all the lower parking levels without competition from other sports’
fans.
We will need many volunteers for the GMSCA show on October 19th. In
addition to the usual show help, we will need people for some “new”
positions like: parking directors, concession stand workers, cooks,
coggins verification clerks, bakers to contribute “goodies” and many
other jobs. The concession stand can be a real “rainmaker” for the
club’s bank account. TO VOLUNTEER, PLEASE EMAIL THE CLUB USING THE EMAIL ADDRESS FROM OUR WEB
PAGE: www.rabunridingclub.com OR CALL VALERIE ADDICOTT AT
782-0268 ST. JUDE TRAIL RIDE
September 28 is quickly taking shape thanks to the efforts of Sissy
Dockins and Violet Thompson. Sissy has reserved 18 creekside campsites at
the Warwoman Campground. Anyone interested in camping may arrive on
Friday, September 27 and leave on September 29 for a camping fee of
$30.00. That is just $15.00 per night for a site with electric and
NON-potable water. If you want to try some primitive camping, the fee is $13.00 a night. There will also be free day parking behind the barn area
for those interested in just riding. Please note that everything is on a
first come, first served basis, so make plans to arrive early.
Aside from getting sponsors (form information is included at the end of
this article), you may opt to pay the minimum donation amount of $20.00
for the first rider and a $5 donation for each other rider in your family
(kids under 12 ride for free). Just think, if each of the 21 members that
attended this meeting got a couple of friends and they each got enough
sponsors to cover a donation of $100 we could be responsible for contributing over $6000.00 to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Wouldn’t that be awesome! St. Jude does award prizes to riders based on
the total amount of sponsors’ donations they collect.
Besides all the warm fuzzy feelings we get from participating in this
wonderful event, we can all have a foot-stomping good time by attending
the band concerts. There will be a band performing under the pavilion at
Warwoman Campground on Friday and Saturday nights. Even if you can’t
make the ride, you are invited to attend the dance and make a contribution
to the St. Jude Hospital via the donation jug that will be at the dance. There may be even more happenings planned - so stay in touch!
Registration for the ride will take place from 6 PM until 9:30 PM on
Friday night or you may register BEFORE 8 AM on Saturday morning.
When you register, you will be asked if you prefer the all day ride or the
half-day ride. Color-coded arm bands will be given out for the ride of
your choice. Please note that if you decide on the all day ride, be sure
to pack a trail lunch. Of course, we suggest that you pack a trail snack
for the half-day ride.
Sponsor forms are or will soon be available at feed stores and Clayton
Paint & Decorating. We are trying to get the sponsor forms posted to
our website, so check in at www.rabunridingclub.com to see if we succeed.
If you need more information, please call Sissy Dockins at 782-7652.
NEWS OF INTEREST - ELECTION TIME
It is that time again! We need people that are willing to serve on the board. The actual elections will take place in November with service to
start in January ’03. December is the annual Christmas Party. Prior to the November elections, we need a person willing to call the current
board members and ask if they are willing to continue serving. This volunteer also needs to call club members and ask if they are willing to run
for the board. This is all according to the by-laws of the club. In the meantime, if you are willing to donate your time to serve on the board of
the club, please call Betty McDonald at 782-0904. Between the St. Jude Benefit and the GMAC show, the Rabun County Riding Club is starting
to make a difference. Our membership is growing and with that, our ability to benefit the horse community as well as other worthy causes.
We need members willing to serve on the board to continue this momentum.
DOOR PRIZE WINNER
Congratulations to Lorie Brophy for winning this month’s door prize. Pam Thompson donated the
silk Gene Autry reproduction bandanna for the prize drawing. Thank you Pam. Next
Month Georgia Pottery (www.georgiapottery.com) will be donating the door
prize so make sure to attend and bring a friend!
NEXT MEETING
Mark your calendars now for our next meeting. It will be October 8, 2002, the courthouse 7:30pm
in the courthouse downtown. This should be an informative meeting
as we will be finalizing our plans for the St. Jude Children’s Research
Hospital ride. Please don’t forget to pick up a sponsor sheet and start
gathering your sponsors right away
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