An update on the 2021 Evening Gala Event

May 1, 2021 was the day for the DPCA’s Top Twenty competition year to begin. All three venues of conformation, obedience and agility will again have statistics maintained, and the year will culminate in the club’s traditional competitions which will be held at the 2022 national specialty.

It was a long year, and with the DPCA canceling all of the 2021 Top 20 events, this left a lot of breeders, owners and handlers wondering why they should continue to compete. We at the Doberman Network came forward and offered to track the statistics for conformation and host an event for those who would go on to qualify. While we understand that several people were not able to attend dog shows to the same level as others, we stand strong in our opinion that those who were able to compete should have the option to get gussied up and present their dogs on a stage for all to appreciate.

We truly have been fortunate to have several members of the Doberman community come forward with generous donations of time and money to help put on an event. Over the last six months, we have talked with a lot of people, and we have brainstormed to come up with what we believe will be a fun and unique evening where some of the best Dobermans in the country will be on display.

With the cancellation of last year’s national, we also recognize that there are branches of the club, specifically rescue, that was hit hard by the inability to have our greatest fundraising events. Therefore, we will be incorporating a wonderful fundraising event into our competition, and all funds raised with be donated to rescue. In past years, the magazine has donated time and energy to helping raise funds for the junior’s program. This year, we turn those efforts to rescue.

We are trying very hard to host our event in conjunction with the 2021 DPCA National at the MeadowView host hotel in Kingsport, Tennessee. With something planned nearly every evening of the week, we are limited to holding the event on Saturday October 9th. Also, due to the club’s contract with the hotel, we must receive permission from the DPCA board to hold our event. We have prepared a thorough outline of what we would like to do and submitted it to the board for discussion at their June meeting. Once approval is granted, we will roll out the details of our plans and get to work!

Should the board deny our proposal and request, we do have a couple of other ideas, but it makes the most sense to hold the 2021 Evening Gala event during a time and at a location where we can maximize the number of participants and attendees. We hope to have an update within a month.