CAMDEN — By PATRIC FLANNIGAN and TAMMY FRAZIER
Staff writers
Although Darleen Wheelington’s announced at last week’s meeting of the Camden Kiwanis Club that this year’s SAKC Dog Show will be the last, she will still be active in dog shows - but this time, as a handler
Wheelington attended the club’s meeting on Thursday to speak about the 20th Annual South Arkansas Kennel Club Dog Show - a milestone that few would’ve imagined possible during its early years - but also shared that this would be the last SAKC Dog Show. The dog show will be held from Feb. 23-24 at the Highland Airport Facility on Veterans Road in East Camden.
Wheelington has told the Camden News that she will now have time to show dogs - something she has always love to do.
She said she didn’t come from a background of people who were participants in dog shows. Wheelington went to a show in Louisiana and and decided to show her own dog, not know that the cowboy boots she wore would be a bit of a hazard on the slippery show floor.
It was then that she met her mentor, Lavern Anderson, who passed away a few years ago.
The show that year was going to be dedicated to her, but it ended up being in Anderson’s honor, shared Wheelington.
The SAKC Dog Show can compare to the biggest of dog shows around the nation despite it being held in what many would consider is a small town. Wheelington stated that cash prizes, the home-cooked food from local volunteers who raise money for the American Cancer Society, and the overall hospitality of the people from the area is what has always kept participants coming back.
“I’m gonna tell you guys first because its coming out next week, but this is our last show,” Wheelington stated. “So if you’ve never came out, you need to come… Again it has been a dream come true to have shows here. I was saying earlier that that building sitting out there, any group - especially you young people - if you got a dream then do it,” she said during the Kiwanis Club meeting.
Instead of mourning the closing of the show, Wheelington is looking forward, and is proud of the strides it took to get the hugely-popular show up and running in Camden.
For example, she said that for most places it takes between 15-20 years of show dogs, running the facility to show the dogs, and doing other tasks as set out by the American Kennel Club before a new club is licensed.
To her credit, Wheelington was able to get the SAKC Dog Show accredited and licensed within 10 years - and this after being told that she would not be successful with the show.
She related that she is also proud of the economic effect the show has had for the entire area over the years.
And she shared that anyone else who had the time to ‘relaunch’ the SAKC Dog Show can do so after meeting certain requirements.
Wheelington stated that for this last show, she still needs held with cleaning the facility after this weekend’s show. She still needs around six people to help with the cleaning tasks.
Those who wish to help clean the building can contact Wheelington at 818-7588.