family day fun

[Paul Conway]

Several weeks ago the Pennsylvania State Fox and Coyote Hunters Association (formerly the Pennsylvania State Fox hunters Assoc. LOL) held thier second annual Foxhunters family day. Unfortunately my 4 year old went out of town with mom to visit his grandmother who just had a pacemaker and defibulator put in. What a day my little guy missed and I'll be sure to get him and Mom to next years barring anything similar occurring.
Anyway here's how the day went. We booked the training pen for the day giving us the pen to members only with a two hound limit per member. We also had access to the pavillion and kitchen. about 150-200 folks showed up. The day including running of your two hounds was free for members. 6am cast my two hounds about 75-100 hounds total give or take. then helped set up, check memberships, sign up new members and take care of raffle tickets, club clothing sales, etc. along with a bunch of other folks. Food arrived about 9am, cooking started around 11am. hotdogs, hamburgs salads, water mellon, too many deserts to mention. etc. etc. raffles were a beautiful white running walker pup and a barbaque grill. Kids had a blast playing with the puppies (two were brought, winner of raffle had there pick and another fella bought the other pup.) lunch around 12noon, followed by a children's horn blowing contest- traditional and with reed. Holy moses was that fun watching. First second and third got great medallions. We also had a tracking collar contest in two age brackets. The kids times were signed in and they were given four collar frequencies that were hidden in the pen. They needed to find two of the collars and remove one of the stubbs placed with them and report back to me with stubbs from two staions to get a stop time. Top three in both age classes got medallions. Also through the morning there was a childrens photo contest- top three judged by experienced judges (Myself and two other non-biased folks that were corralled into judging). Finally there was a childrens bench training and show. About 30 hounds were entered. After a 15-20 minute explaination and demonstration about the rhyme and reason to showing a hound The children paraded thier hounds in a circle as the judges observed and placed 10 onto show tables. The others eventually sat and the ten chosen were judged against each other eventaully getting hound trophies for 1 through 10th place. The others recieved medallions. Then the puppy and bbq grill were raffled and I'm now grilling in Style!!! not bad for 20 bucks. Finally a fellow had some plott mix hounds and they were auctioned off for the clubs benfit bringing an additional 150 bucks to the club. I haven't gotten specifics, but it seems like the whole day cost us around 500-700 bucks after raffle money etc. were counted. Money well spent. The kids ages 2 or 3 through 17 had a total blast. What a positive, interest keeping, fun day for the kids revolving around running hounds. Good food, great fellowship, and terrific, positive experience for the whole family. Paul Conway

[Libby]

sounds like a good time. going to have to lift the tracking collar contest idea! our club participates (does a lot of the grunt work) in an annual kid's day. there are many different clubs that set up booths with educational activities geared to encouraging kids to participate in the outdoors...ducks, dogs, search and rescue, survival, etc...

it is wonderful to hear what folks are doing to keep the sports going. sounds like ya'll had a real successful day. good work!