Thanks for those kind words Stuart.
As many of you probably know - the show was effectively cancelled at 10am on Friday 6th July, when the Worstead Hall Committee informed us that we couldn't use their field.
Fortunately we had cultivated a "what if" scenario; but this didn't guarantee that the show would go on, as the organisers of the North Walsham Carnival only got the go-ahead for their Carnival about one hour after we were informed about Worstead.
Although the NW Carnival organisers did (very kindly) give us the go-ahead, it was not without certain conditions and deadlines. It was unfortunate that we had to drop the Scratby Donkeys (as the Council did not want them in the Park), and that we had two stallholders pull out.
Kitty & I had to do a new risk assesment, contact the St. John Ambulance Brigade, get a photocopy of both the Assesment and our Club Public Liability Insurance, and basically get all that out there to the NW organisers in the space of four hours!
Well, we done it, but that wasn't quite the end of the problem.
Within a space of 18 hours we had to contact all our members, the stallholders. The messageboard & website had to be updated, newspapers and radio stations had to be contacted, and a leaflet explaining the situation had to be designed and 300 copies printed.
The chairs, generator and rosettes had to be collected, and on the Saturday, there was a team of us out there at Memorial Park, mapping out where the arenas and dog agility were going.
It was remarkable that this show did go forward, but it wouldn't have been possible for the help I received from club members.
I would sincerely like to thank the following people in particular, without whom the show would have been impossible:
Mick - Who spent a lot of time helping to asses the site and driving around picking up chairs, the generator, bales of straw, and then taking them back at the end of the show.
Stuart - Who managed to get the programme to me, and (more importantly) get the website updated at short notice - and after suffering enormous problems with his ISP (ie-he couldn't get on!)
Julian - Who dropped everything to be out there at the Park on Saturday, to assist with the planning of the site. He was there, first thing on Sunday, putting the Scurry up, and then sacrificed all the morning by being at the gates of Worstead, explaining to people what had happened, and redirecting them to the new venue.
Sara - Who managed to contact most of the members to inform them of what was happening. I simply didn't have time to do that.
SJ - Who provided us with the PA system, and always seemed to be on hand when we needed someone to help.
Rhoda & Sheree - Who worked so hard making last-minute changes to all the programmes, and doing all the raffle ticket folding.
Tanya - For providing a beautiful trophy for the Scurry event (The HighIsland Trophy), and for making up goody-bags for the category winners. She also managed to acquire some great prizes for the raffle.
Cameron - For being on hand to provide valuable assistance - especially with putting up those awful Chinese made gazebos!
Amanda - Who made those lovely doggy beds. Amanda personally donated £41.50 towards Kerry Greyhounds - the profits from the bedding she'd made.
Heather & Avril - For manning a tombola stall for Kerry Greyhounds.
Thanks to everyone else - for helping out.
By working as a team we managed to pull this event off - against overwhelming odds!
WELL DONE GUYS!
