Every Things Golden

The 9th Annual NorCal Golden Palooza…

Want to have some fun? We’re talking the kind of fun that tickles kids and grown-ups alike, the kind of fun that reaches into your heart, that deeply soothes in ways you didn’t know you needed. Yes, that kind of fun is coming to town Saturday, Oct. 19, as a comradery of golden retriever lovers hosts the ninth annual NorCal Golden Palooza at the Redding Convention Center.

If you don’t own a golden retriever, just bring yourself, friends, family. But if you do share your home with this specific breed, you and they are invited to contribute to the pack, which in recent years has filled the lawn in front of the convention center with hundreds of platinum blonde doggos excited equally by all the visitors and by each other’s company.

Event Director Amber Moore promises the 2025 NorCal Golden Palooza will be quite a spectacle. “They just love each other and they frolic and want to play and they’re everybody’s best friend,” she says. “And it is a sight to behold, because we usually bring about 600 tennis balls, and these dogs are just going nuts with these balls. Then they’re jumping in and out of the waterfalls at the convention center.”
Admission is free, but organizers request a donation of a used leash or a collar, an old dog toy or an old dog bed, or whatever you think a dog might need. After the event, Norcal Golden Lovers will deliver these proceeds to Shasta County animal shelters.

For that, you get a golden retriever costume contest or a golden retriever parade across the Sundial Bridge. A professional trainer demonstrating basic commands. A professional groomer trimming golden retrievers at rest between their bursts of play. A professional photographer capturing portraits of owners with their golden retrievers. And though a food vendor will be selling goodies meant only for golden retrievers, humans will be able to find snacks at a booth set up by the U-Prep cheerleaders.

This all began after Moore created the Facebook page “Norcal Golden Lovers,” which she used to socialize with other golden owners, online and off. Eventually people began contacting her asking if she knew anyone who could take a golden retriever they could no longer keep, so she began matching dogs who needed people to people who wanted dogs. After word of this got out, she received a call from Norcal Golden Retriever Rescue, a renowned Menlo Park operation.

They offered her the position of area director, and she grabbed it. “I started rescuing goldens from here to the Oregon border, over to Susanville, over to Weaverville and down to Red Bluff,” she says. “This entire area, I was matching people and goldens together for adoption, and it was just amazing.”

Norcal Golden Retriever Rescue became a fundamental partner with Norcal Golden Lovers, and it will staff two booths at the upcoming palooza, one to provide information about rescue, adoption, fostering and volunteer opportunities. The other will have a table where children are given a little golden retriever toy and an application they fill out to adopt their own golden retriever. All funds remaining after the raffle held to cover palooza expenses will be donated to this rescue operation.

It was nine years ago, while crossing the convention center lawn with a friend, each walking a golden retriever, that the idea for a golden dog party came to Moore. At first try, seven friends with dogs showed up. The second year, the event drew 22. The third, 39, and it grew from there. Last year, calculated by the number golden retriever swag bags distributed at the registration table, nearly 500 attended.

One of the original seven NorCal Golden Palooza friends, Jerry Butler, has volunteered at all eight past events. He grew up with a golden retriever, his last golden retriever was one of the original seven dogs, and today’s Butler family lives with their latest golden retriever in their Redding home.
Why golden retrievers?

“It’s kind of funny, when you have a golden retriever, you’re always excited to meet somebody who has one, because you can go and they’ll just play and wear each other out,” Butler explains. “I never have a concern about how my dog gets along with other dogs. Golden retrievers are kind and they’re very consistent.”

Of past NorCal Golden Paloozas, he says, “It’s just like a whirlwind of happiness with all these dogs. It’s an amazing place to be. It’s like everything good in the world was going on that day.”

Beth Willett of Tracy has been a NorCal Golden Palooza volunteer for two years. She fondly remembers all her golden retrievers from the past. “They are just the most loving, gentle, loyal, just amazing companions, and they become truly a part of your family,” she says. After Willett retired she started anew, but this time she had her golden puppy certified as a therapy dog, and began taking her to hospitals, libraries, senior homes, schools and more.

“What they get out a the visit, I think, is some smiles and a moment of just maybe going back to their own childhood,” Willet muses. “One of our most popular sites are the Amazon warehouses. They give their employees breaks and let their employees come out and pet and play with the dogs. It’s fun to watch the magic that all the therapy dogs weave when they meet with people.”

The NorCal Golden Palooza kind of fun. Immersing yourself in 500 therapy dogs.

Norcal Golden Lovers request all dogs attending be golden retrievers, for safety’s sake. They assure this golden retriever superparty will happen, rain or shine. “If it rains, the dogs don’t care. They love it,” Moore says. “Come and watch. Your cheeks will hurt from smiling so much.” •

NorCal Golden Palooza
Redding Convention Center
700 Auditorium Drive, Redding
Saturday, Oct. 19, 10am to 2pm
(530) 356-6658
www.norcalgoldenpalooza.com
Find Norcal Golden Lovers on Facebook