Theo Tops Volunteer of the Year

Theo Tops was honored as Volunteer of the Year at the NWPCS New Year's Reception in Heerde on Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019. “Very nice! We were perplexed,” responds his wife Riek who received the accompanying flowers from the hands of NWPCS president Piet Peters.

Theo and Riek Tops have been members of the NWPCS for 54 years. They bred Welsh section A ponies with ‘De Mispelhoef’ as their stable name. In the ’80s, when Theo Tops stopped showing his ponies at shows, he became ringmaster at regional shows and then mainly those of department South. In addition, he is a measurer and sketcher at the Central Mare Inspection and foal inspector/chipper from the introduction of chipping.

Honored

“Theo Tops was nominated for the title by department South and the main board honored that,” said chairman Piet Peters. “He does a lot for the studbook. We gave Riek the flowers because she always goes with him and makes sure Theo can do his thing.”

And so the couple also went to the reception together last Saturday. “We were already planning to go,” says Riek Tops. “My daughter Jolanda asked about it before. Only if it had kept snowing like it did earlier that week, we wouldn't have gone. Then they would have had to come up with something to get us there.”

Video

Daughter Jolanda Bekkers, who together with Bert de Ruiter is the broadcaster at the Central Stallion Show, captured the homage on video. “That's great that she did that and very nice to be able to look back,” Riek Tops enjoys afterward.

Source: NWPCS