GALA
The Greater Appalachian Llama and Alpaca Association

Directors At Large - Dawn Bishop, Miranda Brown, Deb Elias, Todd Smith, Sarah Davis

Lynne Pomerleau began her life with large livestock at age 9 with her first horseback riding lessons and acquired llamas in 1996.  She has owned, trained, bred and shown llamas and has taken on many opportunities to showcase llamas and educate the general public and veterinary staff. 

A lifetime member of the Greater Appalachian Llama and Alpaca Association, Lynne serves as the 2007 President, having been vice president of the Association for the previous two years.  She attended her first GALA Conference in 1995, co-chaired and led a training session for the 2001 conference, and has worked on the 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006 conferences.   

Lynne has introduced llamas to the public through participation in numerous parades, local municipal family events, regional activities including Earth Day and the MSPCA’s summer camp, and attendance with a llama at the Lowell Spinners’ baseball game.  She has brought llamas to Tuft’s Veterinary School’s veterinary educational expo at Boston’s Hynes Auditorium. 

Lynne works as the manager of a 40-horse Morgan stable that offers an extensive equestrian program in addition to training.  She has volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, participating in the build of two homes in Massachusetts, and has been active in local community endeavors.  Lynne lives in northeastern Massachusetts.  She intends to continue to make animals top priority in her life and plans to continue to work to further the development of the camelid community.

Hi, I’m Erika!  I am co-owner of White Mountain Llamas.  With White Mountain Llamas my sister and I promote anything that involves llamas from community service to spinning and felting.  We have a lot of fun with our two llamas Bella and May, going to schools and the Fryeburg Fair Llama Show in Maine every year.  Hana and I have been working in the lama business (mostly llamas) for ten years now and travel around New Hampshire and a little bit of Vermont to help new llama owners shear wool, trim toenails, and do some general training. 

 My permanent residence is in Woodsville, NH and I go to school in Poultney, VT at Green Mountain College.  At college I am majoring in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Production and getting a minor in Geology.  I am an avid worker on the campus farm here, Cerridwen Farm, where I help with pasture management and a lot of animal husbandry aspects. 

I’m here on the GALA board to answer questions and help you network with other lama owners in your area.  I’m also your representative on the GALA board; if you have suggestions or concerns just let me know!  Please feel free to contact me at whitemountianllamas@hotmail.com and we can start some fun conversations!

During the weekdays I’m an Environmental Consultant in Frederick, MD where I work as an intermediary between the cement, paint, and steel industries and the EPA and state environmental agencies.  Although I live in Maryland, I spend as much time as possible on the weekends in Virginia with our llamas.  My parents (Linda and Rob Brown) and I run Graustark Farm located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Bluemont, Virginia.  We started the farm in 1997 with two geldings and now have around 50 llamas.

I've taken on the GALA website as one of my projects while on  the board of directors and would welcome any comments or suggestions from the membership - galawebsite@yahoo.com.

My name is Deb Elias.  I live with my husband, Patrick and our 5 year old son, Derek and from time to time our foster children.  Our farm is known as Country Quilt Llama Farm located in Winchester, CT.  Besides the lamas, we have two dogs and a cat.  

 Llamas are the most interesting and intelligent animals I have ever had the pleasure to work with.  I currently have the privilege of owning 4 llama geldings 1 male mini and 1 very unique alpaca gelding.  I have owned llamas since 1988.   In 1992 I created a children’s program, “Hooked on Llamas” using my PR llamas, that I started promoting at daycare centers and preschools.  My programs also developed into pet therapy at convalescent homes. To date I currently have a solid business base of over 200 customers for my programs.  I love sharing my llamas with the very young and the elderly.  I also enjoy participating in the performance classes at the local shows.  I am a part of the farm jackpots – a competitor and also this year we hosted our 5^th annual farm jackpot.

 GALA has been a big help to me from the start.  Every single GALA member that I have had the pleasure to meet over the years has always been helpful.  Llama people are special.  The GALA membership, newsletters and conferences are a wealth of information that we don’t want to lose.  I was a speaker at the GALA Conference 2006 and presented “Making Money with Your PR Llamas”.  GALA has the reputation of being an “A” class organization.  I received a call last Fall asking me to be part of the GALA Board of Directors, and have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity.  I would like to continue helping in that way.  I hope that my years of experience in the llama community help me to give back to GALA what GALA has done for so many.

My name is Todd Smith and I am from Averill Park, New York. Averill Park is about 15 miles east of Albany, New York. My parents, Ray and Pat Smith, my partner Paul Hastings and myself originally got into loving Llamas back in the late 1980’s. We intended to have them as pets, but we all know what that leads to. We now have twelve Llamas all together with two on the way this fall. We began our breeding program with the purchase of two males from Berry Acres to compliment our seven females. This year we have started a 4-H group on the farm and have some great kids. Hopefully, this year we will be learning more about what to do with our wool that we have.

A few months back, I took over Pam’s position on the board. I am very excited and looking forward to serving on the Board. I want to make myself available to you if you have any questions, comments, or concerns that you would like me to bring up to the Board.

 I also wanted to update you on a couple of things from the last Board teleconference. The main topic of discussion was to get the website updated and keep it updated. This has finally been accomplished! Miranda has worked diligently to get this done. Thanks Miranda!! There are still items that need to be updated, but at least we have the Annual conference back on the site. Our website is a valuable tool to the general public, along with the membership to keep everyone updated and answer questions.

 My biggest push will be to get our Association out in the public’s eye. I would like it more visible and gain membership along while educating the general public. Every show that I attend, I will bring our banner and set it up to display in our stall area. If you see it, stop by and say hello and introduce yourself!

We became members of GALA prior to acquiring our first llamas and have attended each GALA Conference since then. Our attendance at GALA Conferences has proved to be invaluable in our quest for the latest information on herd management and we have found the members of GALA to be a valuable resource.