The week of July 25 found us happy to be back at Wills Park Equestrian Center in Alpharetta, Georgia. Our fourth annual show ran on Saturday and Sunday and we had 12 excited campers ready for their first day of competition camp. As usual on Tuesday morning, the staff gathered at 6am for the wonderful complimentary breakfast at Homewood Suites and headed over to Wills Park to get all set up for the week. Wills Park looks just fantastic! New manager Kathy Harper has done a magnificent job improving the property and giving us all the support we needed for our event. The weather goddess was good to us the whole week - if you spend July in Georgia this is very important!

ACORD welcomes riders with any disability to their 4th Annual Horse Show and Competition Camp in Alpharetta, GA

We quickly split into groups of people to prepare for the camp, get the horses evaluated and matched, and put the show together. Nora Grassmyer and Deb Tannenbaum set up the ACORD office, while Anne Beckemeyer and Jim Turner put everything together in the barn. As usual, Mary Frankel had done an outstanding job with borrowed horses and kept everything on track the whole week. Mark Leland was a fine Safety Manager for the entire event. Char Feuerhelm and John Stevenson set up all the rings, managing to borrow even more gorgeous plants and trees to enhance our site. Steve Frankel shuttled between office and barn to keep everything flowing smoothly and then expertly announced the whole show. Nicole Serie chauffeured everyone around and quickly became Patrish Lawrie's Production Assistant as Patrish took hours of video and photographs, made personalized photo keychains for lots of the riders, and produced terrific Competition Camp certificates.

  Campers learned about lots of things, including taking care of tack.

The campers were all matched on Tuesday, ready for action on Wednesday morning. Camp Director Jay Johnson introduced everyone, we reviewed the different organizations for riders with disabilities, discussed rules from grass roots to international, and talked about the show coming up. Campers' complete show expenses and some travel/lodging expenses were sponsored from the efforts of Carrie & Jerry Schwartz and the Variety Salute Benefit last April in Illinois.

  Fiona Larsen enjoying her mounted clinic sessions at the Georgia Competition Camp

Camp days were laid out between mounted sessions with Clinicians Lisa Blackmon, Linda Fritsch, Marj Kittredge and Cliff Sudberry … and all the information we could stuff into their willing minds. To put it mildly, the campers were thrilled with their horses and clinicians, enjoyed the non-mounted educational sessions and had a ball "networking" with their peers and ACORD staff.

We had lots and lots of great volunteers, lunches donated every day for the camp, and terrific weather. Saturday morning we enjoyed our traditional Opening Parade of athletes and volunteers, with the national anthem expertly sung by Linda Lane. On Saturday, the show offered classes in Equitation, Dressage, Obstacle, Pole Bending and Musical Freestyle. Entries in Costume were so numerous that we had two classes on Saturday and three more on Sunday. A rousing Victory Celebration Party with live music, wonderful food and entertainment was thoroughly enjoyed by all Saturday evening.

The Opening Parade is a chance to show off your center's assets.

Preparing ribbons for Saturday's Equitation Classes.

Creative Lisa Gatti and the Pal-O-Mine crew came up with a skit called "Atlanta Choir On the Road to Divinity (ACORD)" which was performed during the party, resulting in hysterical laughter and cheers all around. It's difficult to describe the skit, since I was a surprise participant and too busy laughing to pay close attention … but it involved nun's costumes, a wheelchair rap performance, and enthusiastic gospel singing. I can hardly wait to see the video!

New classes this year were Unified Equitation, Showmanship and the UPHA Challenge, which all ran on Sunday in addition to more Obstacle and Pole Bending classes. Our Awards Brunch was wonderful - everyone relaxed and ready to enjoy themselves as the ribbons were distributed.

  Jay Johnson ran the Competition Camp all week and then Pole Bending on both days of the show.

All the participants were very pleased with how smoothly everything ran. We now have quite a crew turning out to put this show together - and this year we found several more Georgians who really contributed in a big way. We'll be begging them to schedule their vacations during our show next year so that we can have them for the whole week!

Michelle Commiso gets ready for her first ACORD show.

We are grateful to the following for their generosity and support:

CAMP STAFF: Lisa Blackmon, Eva & Brent Carter, Char Feuerhelm, Mary Frankel, Linda Fritsch, Lisa Gatti,Ann Genovese, Nora Grassmyer, Kathy Harper, Jay Johnson, Marj Kittredge, Mark Leland, Judy Serie Nagy, Nicole Serie, John Stevenson, Clifton Sudberry

OUR HAPPY CAMPERS: Bret Brannan GA; Kim Decker VA; Megan Giusti VA; Amy Gee IN; Rebecca Hart PA; Fiona Larsen VA; Chris Lipe GA; Margie Maris GA; Keith Newerla NY; Donna Niethe NJ; Stephen Rouse KS ; Barbara Spindler NY

OUR GENEROUS SPONSORS: ATT Foundation and Volunteers The Brannan Family, Powder Springs GA Cathy Gill, By-the-Bay Ad Specialties, South San Francisco Jim Campbell, Goffstown NH The Giusti Family, Purcellville VA Carrie & Jerry Schwartz, VARIETY SALUTE BENEFIT, Illinois Mary & Steve Frankel & Liz Michaels, Atlanta GA Sonora Farms Parents Group Green Valley Tack, Pine Island NY Handy Farm, Broad Run VA Jay Johnson, Gilroy CA Homewood Suites, Alpharetta Mark Leland, Washington DC Dan Nagy and Staff at SECURITIES AMERICA, San Jose CA Pal-O-Mine Equestrian Center, Long Island NY Park Avenue Bank, Valdosta GA Frank Tse, Pacific Coast Designs, South San Francisco CA Loudoun Therapeutic Riding Foundation, Virginia

MAJOR FUNDING for this event was provided by the STACEY ANN BOE MEMORIAL FUND

HORSE SHOW JUDGES: EQUITATION: Clifton Sudberry, Victorville CA DRESSAGE: Anne Genovese, Stone Mountain GA OBSTACLE: Kathy Harper, Alpharetta GA FUTURES: Karen J. Miles, Atlanta GA SHOWMANSHIP: Sally Gray, Augusta GA

HORSE SHOW OFFICIALS: EVENT MANAGER: Judy Serie Nagy; OPERATIONS: Nora Grassmyer, Deb Tannenbaum; HORSE MASTER: Mary Frankel; BARN MANAGERS: Anne Beckemeyer, Jim Turner; SAFETY MANAGER: Mark Leland; ARENA MANAGER: Char Feuerhelm; LOGISTICS: John Stevenson, Jay Johnson, Steve Frankel, Nicole Serie; VOLUNTEERS: Mary Hamilton; ANNOUNCER: Steve Frankel; HOSPITALITY: Liz Michaels