Denver Holder Addresses Sarge's Annual Meeting
by Cynthia Morris, 1/30/08

On Tuesday, January 29, Denver Holder, President of the N. C. Search and Rescue Dog Association, was the guest speaker at Sarge's Animal Rescue Foundation's third annual meeting at the Waynesville Public Library. He was accompanied by JoEtta Newman, Treasuer of the NCSRDA and Board Member of Sarge's.

"My dog, Tater, and I were trained to rescue by Denver" said Newman. "I knew the group would enjoy hearing the rescue stories and learning about this extremely valuable organization."

The NCSRDA is headquartered in Clyde and has 36 members who with their dogs as a team respond to emergency calls from fire, rescue emergency management and law enforcement agencies. They take calls from all WNC counties and have also worked in Wilson and Durham counties. The members are employed in other professions and receive no monetary compensation for the time they spend on rescue missions which can last for days.

" Labrador Retrievers are used for their air scent and hounds for their ability to track and trail from point A to point B," said Holder, who has been president of NCSRDA since 1984. "We make the training a game for the dogs to make it fun for them "Holder said. "It takes about 6 months to train the dogs," continued Holder, " and two years to train the handlers!"

As a public service, NCSARDA will conduct classes entitled "Lost in the Woods" in schools or for organizations for students to help children learn what to do if they are lost. The organization will also speak to Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers to help them prepare in advance in case the patient wanders away from home.

Denver Holder can be reached by phone at 828-421-1888. The website address is sardog1@ncsarda.org.

Preceeding Holder's presentation, a vote was taken by Sarge's members to extend the Board member terms of Doyle Teague, Joanne Gregory and Nancy Rhoades. Three bylaws were voted on to be included or revised in the original bylaws regarding Sarge's mission statement , voting quorums at the board meetings and methods of establishing committee chairpersons.



Denver Holder and Joetta Newman.
Brandon Anderson of Harbor Capital Management announced to the group that Sarge's will host a golf tournament benefit at Laurel Ridge Country Club on April 17. "Our first year turnout was very good and we had many compliments on the organization of the tournament, awards ceremony and dinner," said Anderson. "With the good word-of-mouth from last year," Anderson continued, "we'll be looking forward to even more golfers to join us." Barbara Buck, Chairperson of the event, encouraged more women to sign up this year. 2007 Sponsors will be contacted soon to sign up for this year's tournament.

Kristin Coleman confirmed that Sarge's will continue with the Pet Photography Contest to culminate with an awards presentation on March 8 at the WNC Visitors Center.

"With 83 dogs and 70 cats rescued from the Haywood County animal control facility and put into foster care in 2007 and 306 animals sent to breed rescue facilities," said Doyle Teague, Board President, "we reduced the dog euthanasia to below 50%."