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Stump is named Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. (Photo by Kjunstorm, used under Creative Commons)

Cross Roads resident to again judge Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show

News Stories Archive

By ADAM SCHRADER
Published in the Dallas Morning News and the Denton Record-Chronicle on Feb. 1, 2015

Once again, dog lovers from across the world and celebrities from the stages of Broadway and the sets of Hollywood flood New York City’s Madison Square Garden for two days and nights in February for the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

The show offers more than 3,000 dogs in the competition of a lifetime. They know when they’re being shown and respond to the applause.

But it’s not just the spectators and dogs who have a good time. Cross Roads resident Norm Kenney will judge 16 breeds at the 139th annual Westminster Kennel Club All Breed Dog Show on Feb. 16-17. This will be his seventh time judging at the Westminster show.

Kenney, who has been judging since 1978, has judged thousands of dog shows. His first time judging Westminster was in the early 2000s, and most recently in 2013. But his favorite experience in the past 37 years was judging the working group for the Westminster show in 2008, he said.

“I enjoy going across the country and the world actually, seeing the different dogs and the breeds. But Westminster is really the Super Bowl of dog shows,” he said. “It’s the best of the best.”

Tom Bradley, chairman of the Westminster Dog Show, said Kenney was picked to judge again this year because his base knowledge of the breeds. Kenney is approved to judge six of the seven groups of dogs found in the country and is working on getting approval for the last group, which in his case is hounds.

“This is no small feat and it takes someone with a strong dedication to the sport to be approved to judge all of the breeds that are recognized by the AKC,” Bradley said. “There are less than a dozen people in the U.S. who are actively judging who can judge all of the breeds. On top of that, he is well respected and a gentleman, which helps in finding him a place on our panel.”

The dog show extravaganza in Madison Square is the second oldest sporting event in the country, second only to the Kentucky Derby. In the 1870s, a group of men gathered in the bar of their favorite hotel to boast about their shooting accomplishments and their dogs’ abilities in the field. One night in 1877, they decided to put on a dog show — that they named after the hotel.

The organization and its show predate the founding of the governing body of the sport, the American Kennel Club, which was established in 1884.

Kenney will judge some of the more than 3,000 dogs competing in the all-breed dog show and the club’s second annual Masters Agility Championship at Westminster.

For any American Kennel Club dog show, including the Westminster show, a selection committee looks at a registry of roughly 3,000 judges. They send invitations to a few of those judges for the show. Judges are chosen to select winners at three different levels of competition, the breed, group and best in show.

In what is considered the first round of the dog show, Kenney and his fellow breed judges will select the best of each of the 192 eligible. This level of the competition is not televised. The winners of the breed classes, labeled “best of breed,” go to the group level — which are considered the finals, or playoffs so to speak, and televised. There, judges select the best of each of seven groups: sporting, hound, working, chariot, toy, non-sporting and herding groups. Each group winner competes for the top award, “Best in Show.”

In the working group, Kenney will judge Anatolian shepherds, German pinschers and Neapolitan mastiffs. In the toy group, he will judge miniature pinschers, Shih Tzus, silky terriers, toy fox terriers and Yorkshire terriers. In the non-sporting group, he will judge American Eskimo dogs, Tibetan terriers and Xoloitzcuintli breeds.

In the sporting group, Kenney will judge Brittanys, Spinones Italiano, Vizslas and Wirehaired Pointing Griffons breeds. This year, the dog show will add two breeds to its competition lineup: the Wirehaired Vizsla in the sporting group and the Coton de Tulear in the non-sporting group. Kenney will also have the honor of judging the Wirehaired Vizsla this year.

None of the breeds he will be judging is a breed he currently owns. But there is no extra preparation for judging at Westminster, he said.

In the coming weeks before the show, Kenney said he will just have to refamiliarize himself with the written breed standards of the breeds he will be judging.

“When a judge is invited to judge, usually a year or so in advance, you usually know at that time which breeds you are being invited to judge,” he said. “So now I’m really just getting the tuxedo out for the evening festivities.”

Kenney, originally from Boston, started breeding and showing Doberman pinschers in 1967. Over the past 48 years, he has bred a variety of dogs. He has judged all over Texas since moving to Cross Roads two and a half years ago.

“There is a great dog-loving community in Texas, from dog show handlers, breeders and judges,” he said. “The only thing I regret is that I didn’t move here 30 years ago.”

Kenney’s first love is for dogs and his second is for horses, which is one of the many reasons why he lives in Texas, he said. Cross Roads is in the middle of reigning horse country. Kenney, who retired from development and construction, has bred horses for the past 10 years. It has become his primary business. In between judging dog shows, he raises baby quarter horses with his girlfriend, Rhonda Nickels, and sells them at yearly sales. Right now, he is breeding foals and waiting for a bunch of them to be born.

Kenney and Nickels are also involved with Doberman and boxer rescue — volunteering to any dogs that need to be placed a helping them find new homes.

“The dog world is interconnected — whether it is pure bred or mixed breeds, we’re all dog lovers and want the best of the animals,” he said. “And it all starts with the American Kennel Club.”

The evening finals are televised live from 7 to 10 p.m. on CNBC, Feb. 16 and on USA Network on Feb. 17.

“I’m very proud and excited to go with Norm to watch his judging at Westminster Kennel Club,” Nickels said. “I am looking forward to seeing the best of the best in the dog show world.”

ADAM SCHRADER can be reached at 214-773-8188 and via Twitter at @schrader_adam.

(Photo submitted by Mike Foster)

‘Calendar Girls’ cast strips for cause

News Stories Archive

By ADAM SCHRADER
Published in the Dallas Morning News and the Denton Record-Chronicle on Dec. 5, 2014

The Greater Lewisville Community Theater will host the region premiere of the comedy Calendar Girls by Tim Firth. Landing the licensing rights to produce the play has become a big deal for southern Denton County’s arts community.

The play is based on a group of women in Yorkshire, England. In 1998, when one of their husbands died from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the group decided to raise money to purchase a hospital waiting-room sofa. Despite their advanced ages, the women decided to pose naked for photos and then sell the resulting pinup calendar.

Their fundraiser went better than expected and they soon had donated hundreds of thousands of pounds for leukemia research. Because of its success, the women decided to make followup calendars each year. Now, they have raised millions of pounds for leukemia and lymphoma research.

Touchstone Pictures released an award-winning film starring Helen Mirren in 2003. Tim Firth released his stage adaptation in 2008. The play was a huge success in the United Kingdom. Every theater that performed the play would make a pinup calendar to further the women’s cause.

Theaters in the United States recently acquired the rights to perform the play, and the Lewisville theater company has one of six production licenses in the country. It will be the second U.S. theater to stage the play.

Nancy Thorne, a theater board member, said she is happy to have a small role in Calendar Girls.

“We’re just a small community theater,” she said. “So we’re really excited about being able to produce it.”

Delynda Moravec is one of the six principal actors in Calendar Girls. She was particularly attracted to this project because her husband, Kip, is a 40-year survivor of Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“The thought of him dealing with cancer as a teenager is heartbreaking to me,” she said. “I want to be able to help raise awareness and support research for these diseases, and this story is a poignant reminder of what we can accomplish when we come together for a cause.”

In keeping with tradition, the women of the GLCT cast and crew have produced a 2015 pinup calendar. It will be on sale for $15 each during the run of the show. Net proceeds will benefit the North Texas Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

“It just seemed natural to do exactly what these ladies did and give to the cause they donated to,” Thorne said.

Mike Foster, a Highland Village photographer, has shot GLCT’s production photos for many years. He said he was caught off guard when he was asked to take pictures for the calendar.

“I was excited, thrilled and terrified at the thought. Before the shoot, nerves were relaxed at Tierney’s Cafe and we were ready to go,” he said. “I knew the ladies were going to be nervous, as was I, but once the shoot started, we all had a blast.”

Thorne said the group joked a lot before the photo shoot to calm their nerves.

“Mike was so professional and an easy guy to work with,” she said.

Calendar Girls runs through Dec. 21, with performances at 8 p.m on Fridays and Saturdays, and 3 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets cost $17 for adults and $15 for 65 and older or 18 and younger. It is rated PG-13 for adult content.

Crumpet comes to town

The Greater Lewisville Community Theater will perform the Joe Mantello adaptation of David Sedaris’ The Santaland Diaries simultaneously.

The play is based on Sedaris’ personal essay about his time as an elf in Macy’s.

Chris Robinson plays Crumpet in this one-man, one-act play. Out of work and desperate, this irreverent little man takes a job at Macy’s ushering children and their parents through the Santaland maze to meet an everchanging array of Santas.

Robinson has directed numerous productions in area theaters, including the last two musicals for GLCT. He said he first became aware of The Santaland Diaries during a road trip to Houston, when he heard Sedaris read the essay on NPR.

“My travel companion and I laughed for days over the antics of Crumpet the Elf,” he said. “I thought at the time I could portray him brilliantly if I ever had the chance.”

This is Robinson’s first solo performance.

“I have performed in many productions of the two-actor Tuna plays with my good friend, the late Ryan Roach, and it was always comforting to be able to rely on his support as a fellow actor,” he said. “It’s a bit scary now to have only myself to rely on onstage.”

The Santaland Diaries will run at 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays through Dec. 20. Tickets cost $12. It is rated R for adult content and language.

GLCT is at 160 W. Main St. in Old Town Lewisville. Call 972-221-7469 to make reservations. More information is available at glct.org.

Lewisville/Flower Mound editor Adam Schrader can be reached at 214-773-8188 and on Twitter at @schrader_adam.

(Photo courtesy Lewisville Helping its Heroes)

Group that ‘helps heroes’ raising funds to become nonprofit

News Stories Archive

By ADAM SCHRADER
Published in the Dallas Morning News and Denton Record Chronicle on Nov. 7, 2014

Organizers of a group called Lewisville Helping Its Heroes are working to raise funds to incorporate as a registered nonprofit, tax-exempt group.

Formed in July, Lewisville Helping Its Heroes focuses on assisting service members, military veterans, first responders, educators and their families.

Angela Bennett-Engele, a longtime resident of Lewisville, is the group’s president. The group relies on volunteers from the community to accomplish its mission.

“It is unfortunate that patriotism has fallen to a record low, [but] through endeavors like this, we can turn things around,” she said. “It takes reaching one person to make a difference.”

The group provides much-needed services ranging from home repairs to purchasing clothing or food. So far, they have helped a single family and plan to help one family each year.

“We are a new group,” she said. “But we have grown and can’t thank the community enough for their support.”

Her father, Air Force Capt. Steven L. Bennett, died in the Vietnam War and was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously. She has served with other veterans support organizations and as volunteer coordinator for the Fort Worth Veterans Museum.

“As the daughter of a Medal of Honor recipient, it is an honor to assist, and show my appreciation to anyone who has served their community or country,” she said. “Too often we overlook or take for granted the level of dedication these brave people have.”

Erich and Emilee Klein, owners of Badgers BBQ, came across the group on Facebook as they were scheduling the restaurant’s grand opening. Badgers focuses on serving service members, and the owners took interest in the group, Erich Klein said.

“Michelle — one of the officers of the organization — came in, sat down and talked to us about how we can have a mutually beneficial relationship,” Klein said.

Lewisville Helping Its Heroes treasurer Joey Hernandez is a carpenter. He helped with the restaurant renovations. In return, the restaurant owners let Heroes use their banquet space to pass out fliers and information about the organization during the grand opening Oct. 4.

“They [Helping Our Heroes] have been wonderful and believe in the same things we believe in,” Klein said.

The grand opening included a raffle, with proceeds going to the Heroes group to help the family of an area Marine. The group has provided birthday gifts for the Marine’s son, employment assistance and home remodeling work.

On Oct. 18, the organization held a fix-up party to get all the home repairs done in one day. A new volunteer, who worked to get the walls of the master bathroom retextured, was able to donate ceramic tile for the bathrooms.

“We appreciated that because we are only currently on a ‘peel and stick’ budget,” Bennett-Engele said. “It is so nice for our members to pull together to offer even better than what we can afford.”

Group members returned Oct. 25 to finish landscaping, paint, put down tile in two bathrooms and hang ceiling fans and lights.

“They did wonderful work,” Bennett-Engele said. “We really appreciate all of their hard work.”

The group later hosted a booth selling glow sticks at the annual Lewisville Spooktacular Trails and Glow Run Extravaganza, handed out candy and fliers and staffed a fishing game for children.

“Everyone was exhausted and just ready to get home and put their feet up. It was a busy, warm, loud, crazy, stressful day,” Bennett-Engele said. “But, in the end, we did what we set out to do and that was help our military family, and spend time connecting with the community.”

On Nov. 1, group members spent the day at an antique car show after event sponsors invited them to participate.

“What an honor for us,” she said. “We are so excited that people are taking notice of us and what we are doing for the community.”

Lewisville/Flower Mound editor Adam Schrader can be reached at 214-773-8188 and on Twitter at @schrader_adam.

barbecue, flower mound, ribs, cooking

Couple opens barbecue joint in Lewisville catering to public safety officers

News Stories Archive

By ADAM SCHRADER
Published in The Dallas Morning News on Oct. 9, 2014

Badgers BBQ, a new restaurant in Lewisville, has a mission.

Owners Emilee and Erich Klein serve family-style barbecue, but they also want to use their restaurant to honor “the badge”: law enforcement, firefighters and soldiers in the community.

Hence the name Badgers.

The restaurant opened in August and had its grand opening last Saturday.

Emilee runs the restaurant with Erich’s help. He is a full-time federal law enforcement officer.

Starting out

Erich, 43, has been with a federal agency in the area for almost seven years. He chose not disclose which agency.

When he was 16, he snagged his first job in law enforcement as a cadet at a California police department. At 21, he received his California police officer certification. He moved to Texas in 1999 and received his new certification in 2001.

“I decided not to pursue it for various reasons,” he said. “An opportunity rose up to get with my agency now, and here I am.”

Emilee, 43, has been in retail management since high school. After moving to Texas, she took a short break to blend the couple’s families before returning to work as a general manager for a fast-food chain.

The Kleins talked about opening their own place for years. Finally, they decided to stop talking and do it. Emilee left her job to start planning the new venture in December of 2013.

They shopped for space, but none felt right. One day, their insurance agent called to tell them the restaurant next to her office was going out of business.

The location on Lewisville’s Main Street, just east of Flower Mound, fit. It’s close to Lewisville and Flower Mound police stations. Attracting law officers to dine with them is part of their business plan.

“The landlords were open to everything. They were really trying to work with us,” Emilee said. “It was time, and everything fell into place, so here we are.”

Erich said they couldn’t have done it without support and input from his friends and co-workers. The Kleins said their two 15-year-old daughters Danielle and Shelly, who are in ROTC, and Lilly, 10, were instrumental in their success.

“They’ve really stepped up and helped put in sinks, scrub nastiness off the floor before we moved in,” Emilee said. “They learned how to cook barbecue and are our primary waitstaff.”

The Kleins suffered hiccups on the road to completion. Renovating the space was difficult and money was short. They feared failing to meet their deadline for opening.

“Because of a significant loss of money and having to pay someone to come back in and rebuild, we had to open very quickly,” Emilee said. “So we were not able to decorate like we wanted to, but we’re getting there.”

In the end, they orchestrated a successful opening with assistance from Helping Our Heroes in Lewisville.

Helping Our Heroes

Lewisville Helping its Heroes was formed by a group of friends who decided to help a military family in need. Their goal is to formally incorporate as a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization. And they are raising money to get that done.

The Kleins came across the group on Facebook as they were scheduling Badgers’ grand opening.

“Michelle, one of the officers of the organization, came in, sat down and talked to us about how we can have a mutually beneficial relationship,” Erich said.

Lewisville Helping its Heroes board member is a carpenter. He helped with the restaurant renovations. Then, in return, Badgers let Heroes use its banquet space to pass out fliers and information about their mission during the grand opening.

“They [Helping Our Heroes] have been wonderful and believe in the same things we believe in,” Erich said.

Among the scheduled events for last Saturday’s grand opening was a raffle with proceeds going to the Heroes group.

Honoring the badge

The main dining room had not been fully decorated for the grand opening, but the Kleins decided to walk their guests through the planned decor so they could envision how it might look when finished.

A vinyl blue sign decorated with police shoulder patches from around the world greets customers as they enter Badgers. Soon, a red sign with firefighter patches will decorate another wall.

On the back wall, the Kleins will hang printings of the police officer’s prayer, the firefighter’s prayer, the soldiers’ prayer and the EMT prayer. They also plan to commission a mural dedicated to fallen heroes. A formally set table underneath the mural will always remain empty to remind guests of fallen soldiers who are not forgotten. Emilee said sugar and lemon on the table symbolize the bitter-sweetness of their sacrifice.

“When my customers come into my building, I want them to feel that overwhelming sense of pride that this is their country,” Emilee said. “People fight for their freedom to safely come to restaurants like mine.”

The restaurant also hosts a table reserved for on-duty, uniformed officers and firefighters. Its location allows officers a full view of the restaurant, the entry points and their cars.

Emilee said when the restaurant held a fundraiser for the Lewisville High School baseball team, all the tables were full and people were waiting. One group asked if they could sit at the reserved table.

“I had to tell them ‘no,’ and explained that the table is reserved specifically for on-duty officers. You don’t know when they will get to eat because they are always working. I want to make sure they get fed and have a place to kick back,” she said. “Once I explained that to them, they were like, ‘Absolutely, we will wait.’”

“It’s very cool that I can do that through my restaurant,” she said.

Fracking the Bakken Formation in North Dakota (Photo by Joshua Doubek used under Creative Commons)

Smitherman asks city officials not to approve ban on fracking in letter

News Stories Archive

By ADAM SCHRADER
Published in the Denton Record-Chronicle on July 11, 2014

Barry T. Smitherman, chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, has asked Denton city officials not to approve a ban on hydraulic fracturing within city limits.

Denton City Manager George Campbell, Mayor Chris Watts and members of the council all received Smitherman’s letter Friday. He also asked in the letter that his comments be read at a public hearing on the fracking ban proposal during Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.

Under the city charter, the council must hold a public hearing on an initiative petition before taking a vote on the matter. A group of Denton residents organized the initiative in the spring, delivering the signatures of nearly 2,000 registered voters supporting the ban. If the council passes the ban Tuesday, Denton would be the first city in Texas to ban fracking inside its city limits.

Denton sits on the state’s largest onshore natural gas field, the Barnett Shale, and to access this natural gas, companies use fracking.

“Natural gas production in America has also soared because of hydraulic fracturing,” Smitherman wrote.

The Texas Railroad Commission regulates oil and gas drilling, and Smitherman’s letter stressed the importance for drilling in Denton.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Texas was the leading crude oil-producing state in the nation in 2013 and exceeded production levels from federal offshore areas. Texas accounted for about 29 percent of U.S. marketed natural gas production in 2013, making it the leading natural gas producer among the states.

Smitherman wrote that a ban on fracking is “a ban on oil and gas drilling, one of the key pillars of our Texas economy.”

Staff writer Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe contributed to this report.