Growing up, I always wanted to be a journalist. I worked for our local newspaper, writing sports columns for the high school and recreational teams, and then did a bit of work in radio. My ultimate goal was to be a TV sports broadcaster, however when I attended several seminars and met with people in the industry, I quickly had a change of heart. When I enrolled in university I had no idea what career path I wanted to pursue, so after two years studying romance languages I transferred to the Faculty of Recreation and Physical Education. I literally flipped through the pages of the university course catalog, looking for a program where I could transfer the most credits from my first two years. I transferred to Recreation Administration with a concentration in Special Event Planning. I can’t help but smile at how things come full circle in life.

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Planning and organizing the Doberman Network Top 20 Gala was a process that took us up, down and around the mountain. We are grateful to the DPCA Board of Directors for granting us the opportunity to host this event to showcase the top conformation dogs from what would have been the 2021 competition year. 

The staff at the hotel and convention center was absolutely fabulous. They provided us with everything we needed on extremely short notice, and they even came to support the event and see what all the hubbub was about. 

That evening, as the room began filling with people, I was overwhelmed with emotion. Seeing the support from our fancy brought me to tears, but watching the finalists truly enjoy themselves during the event was priceless. There were celebrations from handlers and owners as their numbers were called to move to the next round. People all around the ring were laughing and dancing and actually watching the teams compete. As one person said to me after all was said and done, “You know how I know everyone loved the Gala? I did not see a single person on their phone all night long.”

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I would like to thank everyone who donated to the event, and a few special thanks to all of our judges and of course the volunteers who pitched in at the witching hour: Eric & Lynda Glofka for running around getting decorations; the Claggett family for setting up the decorations and live streaming the event; Doug Rapport for helping set up and take down; Judi Lustig for taking care of so many little things; Elizabeth Barrett for her work on the bios; Jim Warych for ring stewarding and Christine Tartar for being our statistician and also her excellent work on the beautiful ribbons that everyone LOVED.