Collectibility Spotlight: Volunteer Models, Part 2

It’s kind of cool that part 2 of my volunteer models is scheduled to post only a couple hours after I finish my volunteer shift at the BreyerFest Children and Youth Show. Before I get to the models, I’d like to share (in italics below) some of what I wrote about the show in 2020 during my Missing BreyerFest series of posts.

I’ve been lucky enough to be asked to be the Results Guru for the BreyerFest Children & Youth Show since 2016, and let me tell you. I love everything about this show. It is one of my favorite parts of the whole weekend.  

Every year on Saturday morning, we volunteers get up before dawn and trek over to the Alltech Arena at KHP. It’s the only time I make my favorite drive in the semi-dark; the sun is beginning to come up, but it’s not there yet. Once I arrive, my job is pretty easy to set up – plug in laptop, turn on, queue up the spreadsheet, run some last minute tests to make sure it’s working the way I need it to, and done. I then go help with the setup wherever I’m needed. After a quick breakfast, we start letting the kids in, and the fun begins.  

The kids are so great to watch throughout the day. They're learning, they’re gabbing together, they're jumping up and down with excitement over any color ribbon, they're living in the moment as only kids truly can, and having a great time. We all gather around at the end to watch the overall champions and reserves get awarded; those kiddos get a glossy prize model, just like the adults at the show the day before, and it is really cute to see how excited they are.  

In addition to having fun watching the kids, I get to nerd out with my awesome Excel spreadsheet all day. There’s room for over a thousand individual placings between the Children’s show and the Youth show, not to mention some extra Honorable Mention ribbons that the judges can hand out at their discretion. That’s over a thousand entrant numbers, entrant names, and horse names to put in, plus the section and overall champs/reserves – a ton of data! But it’s Excel, and I love it, and I’ve programmed my spreadsheet over the years to work for me, and I’m generally able to get it done by the time we’re all packed up.  

Because I’m the results lady, I also get to see all of the awesome, creative, hilarious names these kids give their models. Every single year there are names that make me say “Oh that’s awesome!” or laugh out loud.  Food-related names like Cheese Puff, Sweet Potato, Fish Stick, and Holy Fruit Salad.  Great pop-culture references like Boba Fett, At-At, Castamere, and The Night Is Dark and Full of Terrors. Straight up funny names like Achoo, Big Fat Honkin Brownie, I’m Especially Teed, Lil Ugly Fella, Mooey Booey (it was a cow), The Floor Is Lava, and my personal all-time favorite, Grandma’s Wallpaper, which was a Prince of Chintz model.

I can’t wait to see what the kids come up with this year.

 

#711298 Churchill was the 2018 volunteer model, a wonderful sooty buckskin on one of my favorite molds, Wintersong. There were around 180-185 of him made. To say I was thrilled when he was announced as that year's volunteer model is a giant understatement.

 

 

#711359 Man of the Hour was the volunteer model for BreyerFest 2019. He’s a nice dark bay roan - who isn't purple or pink! There were around 200 of him made.

 

 

BreyerFest was online in 2021, and they hosted a photo show for the kids on the PonyBytes site. The site automatically calculated results, so my usual job was rendered useless, but they found another role for me - Head Steward. It was an interesting experience, especially because I conducted a good bit of my responsibilities from a beach house in the Outer Banks, where my sister, brother-in-law, nephews, and my boyfriend Chris and I had all escaped for a much-needed vacation after more than a year of not being able to do much at all.

Our volunteer model that year was #711488 Thornycroft, a chestnut rabicano on the Desatado (Criollo) mold. [I will never stop referring to Premier Club models by their issue name, not ever.] There were also around 200 made of him.

 

 

Of all the volunteer models they’ve done, this has got to be one of my favorites. I’m not huge on the mold itself - she’s the only one I have on the Lipizzaner Mare - but that color! And she’s glossy! This is #711526 Zeitgeist from BreyerFest 2022. There were 250 of her made.

In August, I’ll share my volunteer models from 2023-2026. Still keeping my fingers crossed for a not-double-dilute Vegvisir!