**11th Annual Basset Blast**
Events Best Basset Photo! Best Costume Best Howl Best Trick Best Waddle Craziest Hat Funniest Name Longest Distance Traveled Longest Ears Most Freckles New King and Queen Oldest Basset Raffles The Crew Parade of Bassets	The Crew, The Volunteers, The Help, and the one... 11 years, and counting! Mike Benstine is our muscles, he loads all the Raffle and Silent Auction items from Mary's, then comes to WABR and loads up all the tents, chairs, gift bags, and lots of bins with decorations, T-Shirts, sweatshirts, beads and goodies, registration, photo contest, etc, helps unload along with the Whole Crew, sets up all the big Basset Blast signs, sets up the speaker and amp, and makes sure everything gets where it needs to be, takes all our wonderful pictures, measures longest ears, and then along with the Whole Crew takes it all down and unloads it back to WABR. Always with a smile. Mary Charbonneau is WABR's godsend Raffle and Silent Auction Magician. She is champion of obtaining donations, Then she organizes them into fabulous Raffles, takes all the pictures for the Raffles to go online, manages all the online Raffles tickets, wraps them in all the beautiful wraps, Designs and publishes the wonderful list of Raffles, Silent Auction, BB Schedule and Thanks You pages, you find in your registration packets. Once at the Blast she sets up the Raffles, Silent Auctions with paperwork she designed. Runs back and forth to draw Raffle numbers. There isn't enough space to list all the things she does between Basset Blasts. Paul Charbonneau is Mary's great other half. Not only does he sell you your Raffle Ticket, but he loans Mary to work with WABR. We love Paul's sense of humor. Becky Cowart is a great help assisting Mary with the Raffles, taking pictures of the Raffle winners, and everything needed. You should see this little gal carry tables. This is the crew you see: Traci Benstine is our fabulous M.C. She keeps the show going with her fun, happy personality. Love that girl! Rachel Wright and Sandy Hooper are our stupendous judges. Rachel comes from Seattle to help and Sandy came all the way from Nevada to help and judge. I love it because they have not idea which bassets are rescues and which are not. They don't know the rescues or the wonderful people I do. Rachel Wright works for the Delta Society, and is in charge the Partner's Programs, which deals with training and certifying dogs who visit nursing home, hospitals, etc. She has two Delta dogs who spread their loving grace to nursing homes, and are special favorites at the hospital for children with Aids. Rachel also counsels children, Mai, her sweet bassadore is her assistant who gets the children to talk then no one else can. Sandy Hooper Sandy bred Champion show bassets for many years. Sandy was amazing, prior to breeding, every flat surface of her house would have pedigrees and pictures of Champions as she perfected her Windblown line. Her bassets are/were gorgeous, structurally put together so they moved so gracefully. Plus she spent so many hours with them, when she showed them they performed flawlessly. Sandy also judged many Basset Conformation Shows - very different from judging the crazy Basset Blast contest. Rachel Wright and Sandy Hooper Rachel's Mia Rachel's Rudy Andrea Andrews has two beautiful bassets and her Mom Cathy Scalici. These two are WABR's fun, busy super sales ladies. Cathy with Peppermint Patty. Patty was one of the 17 Puppy Mill Breeders WABR took in. It was fun watching Patty, she'd enjoy your loves, but keeps her eyes on Cathy, who she obviously totally loves. Peppermint Patty was 8, when WABR took her in. She had lived her whole life in a 3 by 3 cage, being bred every cycle. She had never been on grass until she came to WABR. She was not in good shape, in fact Dr. Brown gave her a 50/50 change of making it off the table. But this little girl had a taste of a big yard to run free, and people who appeared to love her - she's a survivor. Natasha Brauss is so great running the registration desk. WABR is so lucky to have her expertise. Natasha work for UPS, Boy can this pack up and load/unload. Daina-Robin Hanson did a extraordinary job of the Pre-Registration desk. Sandy and Dennis Dickenson, even with Sandy's broken arm they took over the Photo Contest Booth. And they came all the way from MT! Dee Tobin designed this years T-Shirts, and came to help. Dee is a bundle of energy helping out everywhere, plus keeping the list of winners of each contest. She and Daina came over from Seattle, and stayed with Mary, so they helped Mary finish up last minute preparations for the Blast, and were wonderful help getting the truck unloaded, setting up, tearing down tents, loading truck, and unloading at WABR. After all the work we put them thru, the want to come back and help next year. Yea, Dee! Jessie Benstine and her friends came to pass out beads, treats, food samples, and more beads. They helped unload, and set up tents They ensured each winner's bags was set up for pictures. Every person and bassets had beads because of the fun young crew! Dee and Daina Little Helper: