By Patricia D. Fiske
Correspondent
COVENTRY – Saturday, May 7 started with a light misting rain, and the general understanding of most of us – it wasn’t supposed to rain until later in the day—one person thought after 2 p.m., and another thought after 5 p.m. Mother Nature had other thoughts. But, I have digressed.
After parking my car, I grabbed my camera and started filming. On hand was the TASIS emergency wagon, with Robert H. Benton Jr., on standby. For those unfamiliar with TASIS, (Tactical and Strategic Intervention Services), it is a volunteer organization contracted with hospitals, airports, schools, Colorscape Chenango, and events such as this, providing safety and security through communication teams, safety and security teams, search and rescue teams, etc. For those who may be interested in joining TASIS, their website is www.tasis.org, or you may e-mail Benton at benton@tasis.org. They will train people for service in their organization.
The registration and coffee was from 9 to 11 a.m. Cora Williams and Nichelle Guldy worked the registration tent, accepting the donations and registering the riders. I was invited to have some coffee and a sweet bun, which I did, a lemon filled sweet roll ... very good! I chatted with the coffee maker, Allen Smith, and was encouraged by Gwen Hinman to take a picture of him with his coffee cup. He told me he didn’t have the particular cup she was talking about, but he did have a mug of coffee in his hand. He and his grandson, Trey Nerzak were tending the fire. Marshmallows on a stick and some campfire stories and song would have been great about that time; however, I had a mission. My mission was to report this event through the media and my website, helping the folks at St. Jude’s Hospital through the Rex Farm Saddle Up Event.
Then the trail ride. Since there were some late comers, the trail ride started a little after 11 a.m. There were horses and horses and more horses. They were beautiful, all colors, all sizes, and some decorated very pretty wearing lacy-looking head dresses with their manes and tails braided. Children as well as adults were riding. Jan Hinman, the hostess and trail head of this event reported 52 horses and riders participated. I left after the riders rode off down the trail in the now heavier misting rain to fix lunch, and then to return at 1 p.m.
The riders were back by the time I got there at 1 p.m. and already lined up at the food tent. My, it sure smelled good. Hot dogs, hamburgers, pasta salads, toss salads, macaroni salads, coffee, Danish, cinnamon rolls, cookies, cakes and cold beverages. The guys cooking up the hot dogs and hamburgers were Tom Sisk, Joe Clark and Brian Hollenbeck.
Decorating the tables were cowboy boots stuffed with flowers. Although I had never seen anything quite like that, I must admit, it fit the occasion perfectly. One gentleman, whose name I won’t mention, donated all his old boots, so I’m told. The folks at Rex Farms painted them black and stuffed them with flowers.
Prizes were awarded per the dollar amounts of $100 and over given to St. Jude’s. Jan called out the names of the winners and told them to pick out their prizes, which were on a table loaded with many different baskets of prizes. The winners are as follows:
Barbara Steinberg - $410, Deb Zieno, $300, Priscilla Baldwin, $254, Lynn Marie Kleingardner, $250, Mariah and Taylor Hinman, $250, Lori Gordon, $235, Faith Sisk, $200, Kristen Quackenbush - $150, Robyn Young, $150, Robert Young, $150, the Madison family, $150, Marilyn Miller, $145 and Kevin Dean, $100. These gifts plus other smaller amounts added up to $4,500. Jan reported she expected more by the end of this next week, and believes they will make the goal of $5000. Last year, they raised $5,010.