By Ezra Lee Kohli. Secretary, Ohio-Penn Racing Pigeon Federation

(auacedq@yahoo.com)

ABC CONCOURSE

WINTER SHOW AND AWARDS

AKRON, OHIO. The GAR Club, of Akron,Ohio, sponsored its annual winter show and awards program for the ABC Concourse on Sunday, January, 15^th, 2012, at the Concordia Lutheran Church in Akron, as guests of Reverend Bob Tauscher, a member of the Akron club. Spouses were attendance, and a magnificent pot-luck meal was carried in for all to share. Many thanks go out to Terry Finnerty, Jan Capan, and Pat Quilter for their extraordinary efforts to see that the event was well planned, and that it was a great experience for everyone.

Get-togethers of this sort are a great way for clubs to improve their esprit de corps. As can be seen from the accompanying pictures, you might even say some participants had a wonderful time! It was fun to sit and watch the antics from the sidelines, as there was a lot of poking and laughing going on. The impromptu reactions of some members, as they received awards, were comical, and a nice change from the seriousness of the work week. Those that missed the afternoon are the poorer for it, and the afternoon ended with many wishing for more. We hope that more of our members can make the event next year.

The pigeon show was judged by the brothers, Joe and Bob Rosticil, who along with their 94 year old father, Frank, have been making toast of the racing pigeon community in northeastern Ohio, for many, many years with very talented and well conditioned racing teams. It was good to peer at them finally through the bars of a show cage. The show participants presented their best birds, and in a very relaxed and cordial way, all enjoyed the friendly banter as bird after bird was ejected from class after class, until the final pen was selected by the brothers, Joe and Bob.

Winning Best of Show was Mr. Bob Gilbert, of Garrettsville, Ohio, with AU 2010 SKY 127 BCC, Mike Brown Sion cock. Mr Gilbert is a relative newcomer to the sport following his recent retirement, and is being mentored quite successfully by Mr. Walter Prazeracki, of Aurora, Ohio. (It is reported that Mr. Przeracki takes on the personality of a wolverine when competing in a 300 mile race, but is in every way is a major credit to the sport as proven by his special mentoring of two new members in the GAR Club at one time, after others had sidestepped the laborious task.)

The other big winner of the day was a third newcomer, Mr Matt Mueller, of Kent, Ohio, taking home not only numerous diplomas, but the plaque for winning the Brickman 300 Memorial Race, and 2011 Club Champion Old Bird.

It is good to see new faces succeeding, and to see them achieve such honors in such a competitive concourse is a reflection of the quality of mentoring being provided by the far-sighted members of the GAR club.