53 years straight judging school pet day
IT never rains when Ray Lawrence judges the Maheno School pet day — and yesterday Mr Lawrence extended the sunny streak to 53 consecutive years.
The 85yearold retired Maheno stud sheep breeder did not attend the rural North Otago school as a child, but his father, uncles, children and grandchildren all did.
And it was the spirit of Maheno’s rural community — evident in the school — that kept him coming back year after year, Mr Lawrence said yesterday.
‘‘I’ve been a national dog trial judge and over my experience there I’ve judged 12,043 runs, so yeah, I’m reasonably qualified.’’
He remembers his first pet day ‘‘distinctly’’: there were 45 dogs and more children back then ‘‘but the quality of the dog and the pupil wasn’t as good as what it is today’’.
‘‘They were farm dogs and in a lot of cases they hadn’t known the child to any degree — that’s different now, very much so,’’ Mr Lawrence said.
His oldest son was a pupil at the school when Mr Lawrence began judging for the children, and he was now 61 years old, and a grandfather.
Maheno School principal Ryan Fraser could not confirm yesterday how long the now 59pupil rural North Otago primary school’s pet days had been running, but said he had fond memories of pet days himself, growing up attending school in Riverton.
Pupils at Maheno School had completed projects on their pets, which were used in the judging, but it was the ‘‘empathy’’ children had for their animals that he admired — ‘‘making sure they’re safe and happy’’.
‘‘It’s really cool to see the kids engage with their pets,’’ he said.