COVID-19 Update from FSRC President Barry Gunning

To Our Members:

I wanted to bring everyone up to date on our Spring Hunt Test, which had been rescheduled for June 13 and 14. Unfortunately, Governor Carney has extended the state of emergency from May 15, to May 31, with the possibility of a further extension beyond that date. In addition, the rule prohibiting gatherings of more than 10 people will most likely extend beyond May 31, regardless if the state of emergency is rescinded. So what does all this mean? It means that the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife won't issue a permit for us to hold the Hunt Test. I spoke with them Friday, May 8, and they said no permits would be issued until after the restriction on gatherings of more than 10 is lifted. Therefore we regret we will not be holding a Spring Hunt Test this year. Since we are unable to hold the Spring Hunt Test, we plan on holding a Master Only Hunt Test on September 16 and 17 in addition to our normal Fall Hunt Test scheduled for September 19 and 20. We will make an announcement regarding this as soon as we get all the necessary approvals.

As of this writing, no firm decision has been made regarding the Judges Seminar scheduled for June 6, and our normal club training day scheduled for June 18. As soon as we have any further information will will send it via email, and post it on our website and Facebook page. I hope everyone is healthy and staying safe as we continue to deal with the COVID19 situation, and hopefully we will be able to get back to some sort or normalcy soon!

Barry Gunning President, FSRC

Will Kernodle Presents FSRC's First President's Award

FSRC Will Kernodle had to get creative about how to make a presentation of the club’s first President’s Award when so many of us are under “Stay at Home” orders during this COVID-19 crisis. Though we don’t have the ability to come together to honor this recipient, we all know that we owe her a great debt of gratitude for everything she does for our club. Please take a minute to view Will’s video below.

Congratulations to Teresa Tebbens - Recipient of the President’s Award!

Greetings from Barry Gunning, new FSRC President

Hi everyone.  

First and foremost I hope all of you are safe and healthy while you quarantine and self isolate during this very difficult time in our history.  We are being challenged in ways I don't think any of us could have imagined just a few months ago.

Earlier this week the club officers and board of directors met via Facebook Messenger and discussed the matter of annual elections.  As most of you know, our annual meeting scheduled for March 2020 was cancelled due to the ongoing COVID19 situation and the election which was scheduled to be held during the meeting didn't happen.  Surprisingly, our Bylaws do not address what is to be done if a global pandemic prevents us from having a meeting for an unknown period of time, preventing us from holding required elections.  Since there was only one nominee for each officer and board member position, a decision was made that the current President, Will Kernodle, would cast a vote for each nominee thus completing the election and allowing us to move forward in conducting Club business.

The new FSRC Club Officers:

President:  Barry Gunning
Vice-President:  Amy Wernecke
Secretary:  Teresa Tebbens
Tresurer:  Linda Surmacz

Board Members:

Clark Abbott
Kim Frederick
Wil Kernodle
Megan McCaffrey

I want to personally thank Wil for all his hard work as President the past two years. I promise I will do my best to continue moving the club forward and I'm sure I'll be able to count on Wil to help me in my new position as Club President!  I'd also like to thank outgoing board member, Auggie Argabright, for all of his hard work and dedication in making this a great club!

You can rest assured that the First State Retriever Club Officers and Board Members will continue to conduct club business throughout the current COVID19 situation and will do our best to keep all of you, our dedicated club members, informed on the status of upcoming training days, Hunt Tests, Field Trials and other items of interest to our members.  

Finally, I'd like to say I'm looking forward to serving as the President of the FSRC, and I thank you all in advance, as I know I will enjoy the great support and hard work I've seen from all of you in the past.  I know we are facing a lot of uncertainty in the near future, and I hope all of you can stay safe and healthy, and hopefully we can all get back to being active in the sport we love very soon!

Barry Gunning
President FSRC

April 2020 Hunt Test News

Dear friends, With all of the precautions that we all are taking to slow the spread of COVID-19, the FSRC board of directors met this afternoon via messenger and have decided to not hold our spring hunt test in April. We will be trying to reschedule it in June pending AKC approval. 

Please stay healthy and safe. Watch both the Facebook page and our web page for updates on the new date and future events.

Letter from FSRC President - Will Kernodle

FSRC is Holding our First AKC Handler/Judges Hunt Test Seminar on June 6, 2020

Learn more about judging, handling and scoring dogs in hunt test at all levels. An AKC representative will be giving this interactive seminar on June 6, 2020.

This link will take you to the AKC page for retriever hunt test seminars.

To sign up for this seminar visit our events page.

January Training Day Cancelled Due to Weather

News Flash!

First State has cancelled our January Training Day because the weather forecast is calling for snow and sleet. Our treasurer, Teresa, will refund all training fees paid. Stay safe all!

FSRC Christmas Drive to Support the Home of the Brave Foundation

Pubic service has become an important part of our club identity. In our second year of organized holiday giving, our members have had an enormous impact on the lives of some of our Delaware neighbors. Our recent canned food drive produced over 1500 non-perishable items to stock the food pantry of the Laurel State Services Center. Thank you to everyone who was a part of this effort!

Now, in December, we’d like to support another great local organization, the Home of the Brave Foundation.

Home of the Brave’s motto ........ Helping veterans successfully transition into permanent housing and personal independence.

This organization is helping our veterans, both men and women, get back on their feet by giving them a safe place to live, nutritious meals, and guidance where needed to navigate the veterans affairs services that they are eligible to use.

Some of the veterans might be there for up to two years as they find employment and save money for housing.

They are a very special group of heroes that deserve our support and a helping hand. Please join FSRC in our fund raising initiative to make this Christmas a most memorable one and to show our love for our veterans.

We’ll be donating our December training fees to this great organization. If you can’t make it to the training day and would still like to donate, you can do so below. If you’ve paid your training fees (see the events calendar) and you’d like to contribute more to the Home of the Brave Foundation, please use the “Donate” button.

Thanks for your sharing spirits and for being part of our FSRC family.

FSRC Holiday Food Drive

Join the First State Retriever Club in giving back to the community for the Holidays. Our club is collecting canned goods and non-perishable food items through our November 16th training day.

If you cannot join us that day to deliver your goods, but would still like to help, please feel free to donate money by clicking the Donate button below and we will do the shopping for you. Our goal is to reach 2000 items. Help us make a difference in the community. Thank you all, and have a blessed holiday season.

FSRC President, Will Kernodle

July Training Day Cancelled

The Mid-Atlantic region is expecting dangerously high temperatures this coming weekend when we are scheduled to hold our monthly training day. For the safety of the dogs, we are cancelling the July training day.

Workers for our Spring Hunt Test

Our Spring Hunt Test is this Friday - Saturday (April 19 & 20). We’d like to send a huge shout out to those who’ve already raised their hands to work at the test.

Below is a link to the current worker list. If your name is not on the list, please sign up at the trailer first thing Friday morning at 7:15 AM.  There are still positions to be filled throughout the farm and substitutes to fill in when others need to run.  Please let Teresa Tebbens know that you are available to work.  Teresa can be reached in advance at ttebbens2014@gmail.com.

WORKERS LIST

News from our 2019 Annual Meeting

At our annual meeting, we elected our 2019 Officers and laid out some ambitious plans for the coming year.

• President - Will Kernodle

• Vice President - Barry Gunning

• Secretary - Linda Surmacz

• Treasurer - Teresa Tebbens

• New Board members elect - Kim Frederick, Clark Abbott

The 2019 Officers and board of directors would like to thank our outgoing officers and board members for their contributions to the advancement of the First State Retriever Club.

• Outgoing Vice President - Joe Romanczak

• Outgoing Board member - Bob Louie

• Outgoing Board member - Mike Ostrom

Plans for 2019

• Spring hunt test - April 19-20 at Johnson farm

• Evan Graham seminar - August 16-17

• Club meeting and Training Day August 18th

• Field Trial - August 15th Hank McNeil Farm, Winslow, NJ

• Fall Hunt Test - September 20-22 at Johnson Farm

A Holiday Message from our President

Hello and Happy Holidays to each and every one of you.  

As many of you know, a few members of the First State Retriever Club, Teresa Tebbens (treasurer), Linda Surmacz (secretary), Nicole Brooks (member), Amy Kernodle, State Representative Tim Dukes and I delivered a Thanksgiving box of food, including a turkey and many sides to the family of Ms. Ginger Thompson of Laurel, DE. Ginger is the sole provider for her two grandchildren, one of which has autism.  Ms. Ginger is also battling her own illness, the devil’s very own cancer.  This day was nothing short of touching to all of our hearts and we wish we could have brought this happiness back to each and everyone of our members, friends, family and neighbors who gave.  

We followed that up by bringing more Thanksgiving joy as we proceeded to the Laurel Service Center to support our community as a whole. We were able to surprise the center director, Ella Collins, with a beautiful gift of over 1000 food items donated by our club members, sister retriever clubs and friends of our members.  I can guarantee you we made several families' Thanksgiving a good one.  

Today, we are launching our Christmas challenge.  Ms. Ginger’s story just stays with all of us who were there.  We all felt we had to do more for this family.  Your Board of Directors voted unanimously to support this family for Christmas and we need your help.  So, as many of you have already seen, we have launched a fund raiser on our website.  https://firststateretrieverclub.com/events/  Please give generously from your hearts. This money is going straight to this family for gifts and whatever else they need for Christmas and beyond.  We will run this fund raiser through our training day and then we will deliver this precious gift of love and joy to this wonderful family.

We are not done.  We are also doing a secret Santa exchange at our December training day.  Please bring a $10.00 wrapped gift with you.  Let’s plan on some fun.  

I will close with this little message from the bible, "a generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed", Proverbs 11:25.

God Bless each of you and have a safe and very Merry Christmas.

Sincerely, Will Kernodle - FSRC President

Calling all Junior Handlers!

The members of the First State Retriever Club have a passion for retriever sports and we know that we have a responsibility to nurture that love in young people. Our training days are family events and we love watching the love of our sport grow in the hearts of our young people. For our Fall Hunt Test in September, our club is going the extra mile to encourage Junior Handlers to compete in our Junior test. The Junior Test will be held on 9/29 and 9/30. We've announced a $25 refund on the entry of any Junior Handler who is under 18 years of age on the day of the test. After making that announcement, we received a generous offer from an individual to cover an additional $25 of the entry fee for the first four Junior Handlers to enter the Junior test. That's a guaranteed discount of $25 and the possibility of an additional $25 discount. Handlers will pay the full entry fee on Entry Express and then our treasurer, Teresa Tebbens, will provide the refunds to the handlers on the day of the test.

FYI - Junior Handlers will be required to handle the dog on the line without assistance from an adult.

Full details of the test are available on Entry Express.

March Meeting News

FSRC Welcomes New Officers, Directors, and Members

Left to right: Joe Romanczak (Vice President), Linda Surmacz (Secretary), Auggie Albright (Director), Wil Kernodle (President), Mike Ohstrom (Director), and Amy Wernecke (Director).

Look at this happy group! At our March annual meeting in which we held elections, these good people either joined the Board of First State or they changed roles. Congrats on their election to these new positions and thanks for volunteering your time for our club. And, thank you to Teresa Tebbens (Treasurer) and Bob Louie (Director) for agreeing to continue in their positions for the coming year. We want to give special thanks to outgoing leaders Mark Frederick (President), Rich Gardner (Vice-President), Joyce Shaw (Director) and Bob Tebbens (Director) for their service to the club. Our young club is successful thanks to the hard work of all the people named above.

We're also excited to add plenty of new members to our growing club. We've just approved 19 new members (9 individual memberships and 5 household memberships). This group includes everyone from complete beginners to people with decades of experience in our sport.

All of us will be working hard to put on our Spring Hunt Test in April. And, we'll soon announce training days for May, June, and July.

If you are not a member of FSRC yet, visit our membership page. You can now apply online and pay your membership dues via PayPal or Credit Card. We're making it easier for you to join our community of devoted hunters, trainers, competitors, and dog lovers...truly the nicest people you'll ever meet! What are you waiting for? (Note: new applicants need to provide the name of a member in good standing who is willing to sponsor your membership. If you don't know any members, come out to one of our events to get acquainted with this fine group.)

Exciting Updates to the FSRC Website

Is your printer always on the fritz? Is it no longer as easy as it once was to find your checkbook, envelopes, and stamps? Times have changed and we now do so much more online. FSRC has made an effort to provide some of the conveniences of modern times on our website.

Now you can submit an online application to join our club! And, you can also pay your dues and training fees online via Paypal or Credit Card! This will help to streamline collection of money for the club and provide you with documentation that you have made a payment to FSRC.

You can find information about submitting an application and paying your dues on our Membership page.

And, you can register and pay for training days on our Events page.

For those of you who still prefer to download, print, and mail your application and dues, you can still do so. And, you can still pay your training fees the morning of our training days.

FSRC has come a long way in just three short years! If you have any questions or comments about these new changes, you are welcome to share them at firststateretrieverclub@gmail.com.

Calling all Volunteers for First State's Spring Hunt Test

Workers needed for the First State Spring Hunt Test April 20-22.
Beat the rush and volunteer now! 
Many hands are needed to run a successful 3 day event.

Looking for an Equipment Manager, Bird Steward, Hospitality co-ordinator as well as a small army of workers over the 3 days to share the load.

This is my first chairing venture for the Club and I still feel like a newcomer in DE, so please help me out and sign up so I can get to know everyone who loves this Hunt Test sport as much as I do.

Contact me by phone or email, so I can add you to my list and coordinate assignments.

Thank you,
Laura Weinmann

603-545-4128

mattlauraw@hotmail.com

Register Now for June 17th Training Day

Just a reminder that we are offering a training day, next weekend on June 17th at the Johnson Farm in Greenwood, Delaware.

Live fliers are available at a cost of $20 if you register by Friday at 4 p.m. No additional training fee is required if you purchase a flier.

If you are not reserving a live flier, training fees are $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers. What a bargain for a valuable day of training with great people who will support you!

Click HERE to register.

Happy training all!

No Training Day in May

The First State Retriever Club will NOT be holding a training day in the month of May. We just wrapped up a successful Junior/Senior/Master Test in late April and our members are committed to various public service opportunities since then. Several of our members offered retriever demonstrations at the Delmarva Outdoors Expo.

And, the Susquehanna Retriever Club is holding it's Spring test at the Johnson Farm on May 19th-20th (our usual training weekend). We're asking all our members to volunteer to help at the Susquehanna test as the support of their club has been instrumental in helping us get our club up and running. If you are willing to volunteer at the Susquehanna test, please contact Christian Ricker at Christian@BoldBayRetrievers.com. Every good test is made up of a team of good volunteers!

When the Weather Forecast is for the Birds, We Train!

The weather report was for a coming Nor'Easter complete with 40 MPH winds and heavy rains. Sounds like a good day to stay inside next to a warm cozy fire. But not for members of FSRC!

That was exactly the report for Sunday afternoon and yet 20 handlers and 50 dogs showed up for our January training day.  First of all, I am so thankful that the weather held out (started raining on the last dog) and that we were able to have a very successful training day.  We had some members of DelBay Retriever Club join as well and we were able to donate $200 to the Canal mowing fund.  The set-up crew was there by 0830 and we were running dogs by 0930, right on time.  We had anticipated this being a bumper training session, but oh no! Members showed up and started unloading training birds so that we were able to use birds for training.  Cars, trucks, mini vans, they just kept coming with dogs and handlers of all levels.  It became very apparent very quickly that we needed to split into two groups, one for young dogs and another for more advanced dogs.  No problem!  A group grabbed equipment and birds, headed down the hill and lickety-split, we had two sessions going!

It is truly amazing to see a group of people who are so dedicated to one another and the dogs that we so dearly love.  There were many of our club members who worked very hard to make this day a success, some even working multiple sessions in the field!  To you we are very grateful.  Our set up crew, who also became our take down crew, did a great job showing up early and staying late.  We had members step up and marshall for each set up, people to run the line, holding blinds were kept full, bird throwers did a great job throwing but also helping dogs that needed just that little bit of help, etc., etc.  Phone numbers were exchanged by members and non-members alike with offers to help with that force fetching, pile work, you name it.  That’s what this club is all about!  Well done gang.

I would be remiss in this blog if I did not remind all of our club moto, “We work.”  For those who did, thank you! For those who didn’t, only one question, “why not?”  For those who are brand new and don’t know how yet, jump in we’ll teach ya!

Looking forward to February’s training day in Port Deposit.  I encourage all members to make a special effort to attend as this will be our final nominating day for club officers and planning for the spring hunt test.

This month's training report submitted by Mark Frederick.