New Leadership Emerges

In 1988, Peggy Lopez was appointed as Secretary, Treasurer, Editor and a January-February 1987 newsletter was published. The name of the newsletter was changed from "Sundance Newsletter" to "Sundance 500 International." This newsletter announced that Jane Kilberg had been elected President of Sundance 500 International and contained a letter from Jane introducing herself to the membership and thanking Frank Scripter and Gretchen Hanks for keeping Sundance 500 alive. Sundance 500 International was about to begin traveling on a path of continuous growth for the next ten years. Some of this journey was pleasant and some was a difficult struggle. But Sundance 500 International did survive the various pitfalls and remained a strong organization.

The March 1988 newsletter contained the promised tribute to Mary Manley. Jane Kilberg wrote, "Although I did not know her well, she affected me.  She showed me that you can not give up when things are not going well.  She taught me that in life lies a spirit and a strength with a little faith that is within all of us...I visualize her in an endless landscape of green, riding Sundance along side of Phil Jenkins, John Whisanad and PS Doc Edward. They are laughing, enjoying the sunshine as they leap and gallop under the clouds, because they didn't catch the Sundance spirit

--- they are the Sundance spirit." During this time, Sundance 500 International did not have a copier so was relying on friends of the organization to copy the newsletter. A drive to collect funds for a copier began at this time. The April newsletter showed some changes from those printed historically. The stallion auction and directory were included, but most articles were horse health related.

In May, Duane Gray and Gretchen Hanks resigned from the Board and there was a request for nominations to fill these vacancies. In June, Jane reported to the membership that the Board had voted to reincorporate the organization in Colorado. The name was changed to Sundance 500 International, Inc. in a divided vote by the Board. There also was a request for any suggested changes to the by-laws. In August 1988, Jane Kilberg submitted Sundance 500 to the ApHC for the Hall of Fame. The newsletter that month contained the now famous foal photo contest and

members were asked to vote on a winner. In other news of the time, it was reported that Prince Plaudit died on June 29, 1988. Harry Edwards was elected to fill a Vice President vacancy and in September of that year Mary Farmer joined the Board.

October found requests for members to support the nomination of Sundance 500 to the Hall of Fame. There was a call for ads for the upcoming 1989 Sundance stallion directory, which would be printed professionally and published as a separate publication. During this celebration of the 15th anniversary, Sundance 500 began to promote additional awards programs, including a youth award, horse mileage, and the mileage and saddle log.