Winter Show Nov. 17 – 20, 2005 – Show Report

Winter Show Nov. 17 - 20, 2005 - Show Report

Well, we managed to pull it off, and I believe everyone agrees that it was a great show. What started out as our typical show ended up with a show double our usual size, due to the support of the Mountain Pacific Racing Homer Society hosting their annual racing show with us, and with exhibitors from Alberta supporting our show due to the cancellation of the CPFA Classic in Edmonton.

Last minute changes to our show to expand it from our usual two day show to the three day format, allowed fanciers from Alberta to show with us, as most had a 12 hour drive to get here. We are grateful to John Taupert and Rocky Coslovich for transporting all the birds, and also grateful to all our members and exhibitors for changing their schedules to allow us to have a three day show. This meant most exhibitors had to take an extra day off work in order to be here for coop-in on Thursday, with the judging set for Friday and Saturday. This also meant our judges had to re-arrange their schedules, in order to attend our 3 day show. Needless to say, there were a lot of phone calls and emails, but with everyone working together, we were successful and putting on our show this year. We had a total of 493 fancy pigeons, 112 flying pigeons and 176 rare pigeons, totaling 781 pigeons which were provided by 40 exhibitors. The Mountain Pacific Racing Homer Society had 250 racing homers in their show, so were extremely pleased to have close to 1100 birds in our building this year.

It was nice to see fanciers travel to our show, even though they were not participating. We had fanciers come from Vancouver Island and Washington State just to see our show. Again this year we also had Bob Jones at our show, promoting the CPFA bands. Nice seeing everyone, and hopefully we can encourage those who did not show with us this year to participate next year, as we always have fun.

Once again our judges did an excellent job, as Roger Hansen handled all the flying birds, while Roger and Orrie Moore worked together on the fancy and rare breeds. The judging was completed over 2 days, with the awards being handed out at our banquet Saturday evening. I would like to personally thank both judges for an excellent job, and for arriving a day early to accommodate our show.

Once again this year we hosted an exhibitors’ reception Friday evening. This event was sponsored by Ken Chatwin and his partners, from Compass Cladding. I know that everyone enjoyed this event, as the wine, cheese and especially Ken’s famous smoked salmon, was quickly consumed. Thanks to Compass Cladding for sponsoring this event!

We had another great raffle this year, due to the contributions of all our members. We rely on this as a fund raiser for our show, as I think most clubs due as well. We were pleased with the support of prizes and the response from exhibitors with their frantic buying of raffle tickets. There were some hot items this year, and hopefully, everyone got something they wanted.

The success of this show was due in part to the efforts put forward by the board of directors. However, there are 2 directors that made this show a lot easier to function. If it were not for the support of Ken Chatwin in organizing the show setup, layout and tear-down, we would have had some difficulty trying to manage this show. I know that Ken had great fun with his forklift, which saved a few sore backs loading and unloading our equipment from our trailer. This show would also not be a success if it was not due to the financial and fund raising support of our president, Ernie Silveri. It is with Ernie’s support and contacts, that we are able to host a show of this caliber, and only charge one per bird for an entry fee!

In closing, I would like to congratulate all the show winners, especially our Super Grand Champion Pigeon winner, George Van Vliet. I thank all those who helped with the show, and thank our sponsors, Compass Cladding for arranging the exhibitor’s reception, as well as Otter Co-op and Mountain Pacific Feeds for providing feed for our show. I look forward to seeing everyone again at our 2006 Winter Show.

Keith Biggs, Show Secretary