Eye Sign Seminar and Turkey Feast Raises over $1000 For Pickle
Lake.
The Pickle Lake fundraiser was held at the Ivy Hall on 07 May
2006. In attendance were members from as far away as Bathurst New
Brunswick (Andy Skrobot our celebrity judge and official photographer)
and Chris and Connie Steacy from the Ottawa Valley Combine. 20 to 30
members also represented the host Up North Combine.
Before during and after lunch, Mike van der Jagt was busy judging
eye sign entries and Andy Skrobot was busy snapping eye photos,
processing and printing them. Dave Rodgers was super busy in the kitchen
and the meal measured up to the usual level of excellence when Dave is
involved. There was enough turkey (smoked and roasted), potatoes, baby
carrots pie and ice cream to feed two armies. The delicious taste and
quantity available made it impossible not to over eat.
After the feast and the picture taking, the three eye sign judges
retired to chambers with a full set of 8 ½ by 11 full color high quality
eye sign photos of each entry to select the winner. The overall quality
of the entries was very high and several were worthy of a first place
finish. Congratulation goes to Drake Richardson as the overall winner.
His entry was one of the finest yellow eyes that I have ever seen. The
other results were:
2nd Lou Petrozza 3rd Frank Eichhorn 4th Richard Hoyle with a 2006 youngster 5th Garry Balkwill
Honourable mentions went to Bill Sheridan, Rick Morris, John
Pfiffer, Connie Steacy, Chris Steacy and Rob Marshall. (see all eye
photos below)
Garry Balkwill won the main raffle prize, a $150 value of Chisholm
Trail health products donated by Chisholm Trail and Connie Steacy. Also
raffled were two bags of feed donated by Edward’s Farms of Innisfil ON,
your Baden and Moore’s dealer. Thanks Dave.
Others deserving thanks include Tony Paszterko who donated an
outstanding Frank Tasker youngsters that was auctioned for a very tidy
sum, Bill Sheridan for working the door and his usual tireless efforts
behind the scenes, Varmint Control for sponsoring the photography
expenses and last but far from least Mike van Kempen for the turkeys.
Thanks to a little hard work and the generosity of our sponsors,
the Canadian Shield Marathon Classic from Pickle Lake is in rock solid
financial shape. In fact, not only is this year’s race fully funded, I
can already guarantee another race in 2007.
Everyone in attendance enjoyed a great pigeon experience and a
high end dining treat. Thanks to one of the world’s foremost eye sign
photography specialists, Andy Skrobot, show entries received a full size
glossy colour eye picture of their entry on the spot. Judging the eye
sign show by picture was a unique and very interesting experience. It
made it very easy to discuss the eye qualities and explain our picks.
All in all it was a very enjoyable, educational and rewarding day.
Now, off to the races. On display
at this event was a gold plated sterling silver ring that is an exact
replica of the Marathon Classic prize.
Will you win the solid gold real McCoy on July 1st?
Mike van der Jagt
