TORRINGTON
MEMBERS DONATED TO THE
LITCHFIELD HIGH FLYERS
The recruitment of new members to the sport of pigeon racing is by far
the biggest challenge that the sport faces today. It is to this end that
the members of the Torrington Racing Pigeon Club have helped to form a
new Four-H Club called the Litchfield High Flyers the starting members
of the Four H club are also members of the TRPC. Jolie and Natalie Breaux,
last years rookies of the year have recruited Zack, Teddy and Alex Fredenburg.
This youth organization has received the support of the Torrington Racing
Pigeon Club and the Connecticut Cooperative Extension service and the
I.F. State Fair and Poultry Exhibit.
The 4-H’ers had a pigeon show limited to racing homers old and young
bird’s, flown and non flown in which 20 pigeons were entered. The
judging of the competition was performed by Mr. Greg Cap. The judging
of the competition was performed by Mr. Greg Cap Awards in the form of
ribbons and trophy’s were provided by the 4-H and awarded to the
kids.
The judging of the competition was provided by Mr. Greg Cap.
To build an awareness of the homing pigeon sport an exhibit was set up
by members of the Litchfield High Flyers and Members of the Torrington
Racing Club. The exhibit contained memorabilia of the
contributions the pigeons made during the armed conflicts of WWI and WWII.
There was an army pigeon carrier on display complete with the capsules
and message paper. Various books and displays were prepared by the 4-H
members as to the contributions to early communication with pigeons.
Pictures of all of the equipment in a loft was on display along with pigeon
clocks, bands countermarks and the like to stimulate interest in racing
and raising the pigeons as a hobby. Also on display were periodicals such
as Skytalk along with the new materials from the I. F. for beginners.
A member of the 4-H club or the TRPC was on hand to answer any questions
that the spectators at the fair had and we were amazed at the amount of
interest in the sport.
After talking with the members of several other Homing pigeon clubs in
New England the Litchfield High Flyers determined that the best way to
bring in new members into the sport was to participate and display their
pigeons in the 4-H Connecticut Some caption goes here
Torrington members also donated 3 pair of homing pigeons to give to kids
in a free raffle. There were a total of 68 tickets filled out for the
3 pair of pigeons. The winners of the pigeons are now potential new flyers.
As of the date I wrote this article the kids have already raised young
from the pairs they won in the free raffle.We hope to repeat the same
type of activities with more birds in the raffle and maybe even a bird
release next year.
Submitted by Dean Breaux
Email: dbreaux3696@sbcglobal.net