01/30/2025
With our first horse show of 2025 on the heels of our amazing awards banquet, I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank our wonderful members who worked so hard to put the banquet together. I've been on the banquet committee the past eight years and was even hauling the trophies to the venue before I was on the board. lol. Unfortunately this year, I wasn't able to help much or set up due to my husband's cancer treatments, so these amazing ladies jumped in and took over without much guidance. I cannot tell you how grateful I am. Thank you to Angel Johns, our wonderful vice president, who always helps whenever needed and always has the club's best interest at heart. Angel picked up the trophies and hauled them to the venue in her horse trailer for us this year. Thank you to Anja Jacobs, our talented webmaster, who also handles point discrepancies with the office, award orders, spreadsheets, banquet reservations, online silent auction setup, and so much more. She does all the computer stuff that I cannot. Thank you to my other two amazing banquet committee ladies, Amy Chang, who is our dedicated treasurer, and Almira Smith, who is our correspondence secretary. These two ladies took over as the official Banquet Committee Co-Chairs and put in so many hours as well, ordering awards, monitoring the spending, working with the venue, collecting silent auction items, overseeing the setup, helping Anja with whatever she needed, double checking everything, and so, so much more. (Amy is extremely computer savvy too, lucky for me! lol). Thank you to Lauren Ruehman, our barn manager, for helping on the banquet committee and doing the seating chart for us. Thank you to Lisa McCall, our new show secretary, who helped Anja with points and closing out the 2024 season so we could begin ordering awards. Thank you to Jasmine Klacynski, our honorary board member this coming year and board member for so many previous years. Jasmine always shows up to help with whatever we need and always volunteers to work at the banquet. Thanks to horse mom, Jillian Guidry, for preparing the amazing slide shows that played during the banquet and when the rider's received their awards. Jillian's daughter rides at Berry Patch Equestrian. Thank you to Betsy Wynoop, who sorted and labeled the awards prior to arriving at the venue so setup would be much quicker, as well as other tasks. Betsy's daughter rides at The Equestrian Reserve. Thanks to my board members who helped at the banquet. Julie Martin and Patty Sloan have always graciously helped hand out awards at the banquet. And, of course, all the awesome members who show up every year on Sunday morning to help us set up. Donna Romeo and her trainer, Hannah, of The Equestrian Reserve have been especially wonderful to make sure their barn family comes and helps set up every single banquet. If I'm forgetting someone, please forgive me. I just thought these ladies should be recognized for all their countless hours they volunteered to pull off the banquet. We know there were a couple hiccups (only one serving line for the buffet, for one) and that will be addressed going forward. That was an oversight by the venue. We'll talk about the banquet in detail at our next membership meeting on February 5th. Please remember, this was the new banquet committee's first time doing this and we had over 370 people attend. That is a new record! Constructive criticism is always welcome.
I won't be at the first two shows but see'll you on the meeting next Wednesday. Angel and our other board members will be available for anything you may need at the show. 😊
The belt buckles did arrive and Angel will take them to the show office for pick up. Yay!
Now have a great show weekend!
Sincerely, Pamela Almond, RHSC President
Rolling Hills Saddle Club hosts shows February through November at Will Park Equestrian Center, located in Alpharetta, Georgia.
