Congratulations to Alex Stepnoski from PA and Autumn Marks from NC for receiving the ARBA T.E. “Doc” Reed Memorial High School Scholarship to attend Animal Science Workshop for Youth conducted on the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, on June 14-16, 2006. The purpose of this event is to enable interested youth to enhance their rabbit husbandry skills. The syllabus includes: Overview – Breeds, Uses, Anatomy, Body Types, Genetics, Record Keeping, Diseases, Nutrition, Reproduction, Housing Design, Environmental Enrichment and hands-on labs featuring both live and carcass study.

The NCRBA held their annual state show the third weekend of March. This was a record setting event, with an updated location, and more entries than ever! Their membership is now tipping 150!! A BIG thanks go out to Paul Dvorak, outgoing Vice President; and to PJ Dvorak and Jeff Musick, outgoing Directors. Also thanks to the Tarheel Satin Club and Sandhills RBA for their generous donations to the NCRBA Youth Scholarship fund. They would like to thank all of their judges for their hard work, and a special thanks to Bill Rice for helping out at the last minute. Thank you to Kylee Smith for her exceptional performance as Youth President. Also thanks to Jeri North, Lisa Young, Cindy Osborn, Sherri Campbell, and Kylee Smith for all their help and support in making the youth programs such a success. Rick Rhyne was recognized at the NCRBA general membership meeting with a special award from NCRBA youth. Rick and his club have worked hard to allow the youth to have additional shows in conjunction with theirs, as well as many fundraising opportunities. NCRBA Youth Contest Results: Breed ID (ages 9-10)-1st Hannah Hayes, 2nd Somer Brashear, 3rd Paige Smith; (ages11-12)- 1st Faith Young, 2nd Lyndsey Osborn, 3rd Kayla North; (ages 13+)-1st Hannah Bennett, 2nd Kylee Smith, 3rd Lauren Coe. Our 2007 NCRBA Royalty: King-Jameson Wright; Queen-Hannah Bennett; Duke-Ryan Coe; Duchess-Fayth Young; Prince-Noah Hayes; Princess-Somer Brashear. Congratulations, and I hope all of you will be representing D9 in the youth contests this fall at the ARBA Convention in Grand Rapids! If you are not able to attend in person, you can still participate in the Achievement and Management contests. Anyone interested in learning more about the NCRBA can log onto their website at http://www.ncrba.com

Linda Norris, President Sandhills Rabbit Fanciers offers us news from Sandhills RBA. This has been an active quarter for Sandhills Rabbit Fanciers. We had our first educational clinic in April with Cathy Patrick as our speaker. It was a hands-on clinic on posing. Sandhills would like to send our best regards to Cathy, and a big thanks for following through on this, even though we could tell she was not feeling well. Our second annual picnic show was held in Snow Camp, NC on the 19th of May. This is one of those fun events Sandhills likes to do. We want to put the fun back in this hobby. Some shows are so competitive, that people don't take the time to enjoy the moment. This type of event is also a time for new breeders to talk with others and learn the ropes. We had a luau theme for this year, with lots of decorations, tropical foods, tropical clothing, and even a tropical bunny contest. We had some awesome entries. Oh, and how can I forget the beach music and Jimmy Buffet music. What could be better than that and a rabbit show? We had a cookout and potluck luncheon between the youth and open shows. No time to rest though. We're well on our way to our next event. This is something we're very excited about. The NCRBA general membership meeting is in August in Burlington, NC. Mr. Robert Crawford has graciously accepted an offer from Sandhills to be a guest speaker at the meeting. He will speak on "The Art of Line Breeding". We are so looking forward to hearing the knowledge from his years of raising the winningest New Zealands around. And we're not even at our biggest event yet. We still have our triple open/double youth/double cavy September show in Greensboro, NC and our Christmas charity show in December in Sanford, NC, and also will be helping out in June at the Chatham County 4H camp. Our next hot topic for our meeting will be preparations for hosting a D9 judges conference in 2009. We will have more info about that in the next issue.

Karen Dehaven writes on behalf of the MACBA. I would like to THANK everyone that attended the MACBA Classic whether it be just on Saturday or Sunday, or for the weekend. We had 335 entries on Saturday, which made for a busy day for not only the judges, but for Vera who again was the perfect show secretary! The kids did a bang up job with the dress up class and I do not know who enjoyed it most, the kids or the adults! Outstanding entries and outstanding winners! They were great. Also a BIG thanks to June Gonzales who made the cutest cavy dress up tiles for the three winners. Actually everyone was a winner and got a carrot filled with bubble gum for entering. The awards were wonderful, Leigh Ehrenkrantz did a bang up job and I was thrilled I won a couple of pieces of her slate art! Also June did a super job on the Cream Challenge and the AOS Challenge awards. They were beautiful as usual. Considering I started late, I was thankful for the corporate sponsors for donating items and money to do exhibitors bags for the open and cute, colorful baskets for the youth. We had plenty of candy and munchies at all the writers table. Plus the raffle table had some super nice items offered and we had a good deal spent by the exhibitors for tickets. It was very profitable, thanks to Pat and Prudence for doing a great job running it! Thank you to all the writers that spent much of their day writing! They were great and we encourage more people to take a turn at writing! A special thank you to Liz and Jesse Long who got roped into cooking and doing the kitchen last minute. It was great! And appreciated. The Bonnet Fund brought in over $200! Thank you for your generosity. We will not know the total until Denise Robertson, actually totals up all the pigs she brokered, she is generously donating $0.50 per pig to the fund. Was it enough to put the bonnet on Vera, yes but she cheated! She had a life size picture of MY FACE and she held that up in front of her face! We have agreed to continue the fight for the bonnet at the next Mid Atlantic show to see how much it costs for her to put it on. Thank you for all that donated, please keep that money coming! Its for the youth show on Sunday at the 2009 Specialty. Lastly a big thank you to all that helped put on the show, set up and cleaned up. But special kudos to George Long, who tirelessly did it all! Judging, trash collection, set up, clean up, etc. You are the greatest and one of the biggest hearts of MACBA. I take my hat off to you George! Finally, a huge thank you to everyone that was there. It was wonderful seeing every one congratulating everyone else for their wins. People helping each other. People ohhing and ahhhing over each others animals. The friendships within the fancy are amazing. Make Macungie a must attend show for 2008! Wait until you see us next year, we will be bigger and better than ever!

Stacy Sauter and John Graybeal remind us we should be very proud of the youth for D9 Dutch. The youth members of CRDBA just got home from Kalamazoo Mi and the National Dutch Show. There were just under 500 Dutch in the youth show. Lauren Dean from MD won Best of Breed in the Youth show with a Gray Jr. Doe at the National Dutch Show! This little doe also took Best Gray, Best Jr Gray & Best overall Gray! She also got a perfect score on the Dutch Rabbit Judging. I know there are a few other kids & adults in District 9 who did VERY well. Billy Bounds took the Gray Jr. Buck Class in open. Kevin Athey took Best Opp Chocolate with a Sr. Chocolate Buck & best Jr Chocolate with a Jr Choc Buck in Youth. The Hare Raisers held their twenty-second annual rabbit show on May 26. There were 390 in the first show, and in the second show, 356 braved the heat. Also in the same show room, Baltimore & Howard held their belated cavy show. The rabbit show had been on April 14, but since that was the same day as the cavy nationals, cavy sanctions could not be obtained, so the show was moved to the Hare Raisers date for the second time in 2 years. Since ARBA requires that an all breed rabbit show also be held, and it is very difficult to hire judges for Memorial Day weekend with competing Nationals and family commitments, we decided to set the rabbit entry fee at $30 as a fund raiser for both clubs and a little bit of fun. Five rabbits and one stuffed rabbit entered this show, and a great time was had by all.

Craig Hardee from NC writes: I thought that I'd drop everyone a line to let you know about what I'm going through in Apex right now, because your town or city might be next. If you recall, some guy in Apex had 65 sheep living in and around his home in downtown Apex. In their zeal to keep that from happening again, the Apex town council has passed a tough new ordinance that excludes most all animals except for horses. Right now, rabbits are in the ordinance as being excluded. I've been emailing the mayor of Apex and even had a call from the town manager. There will be a public hearing on Tuesday, May 1 to discuss the ordinance and it has been suggested that I be there and I will be. As a side note, two of my kids and my granddaughter had their pictures on the front page of the Apex Herald this week. I was "conveniently" out of town for the pictures, but I was quoted extensively for the article that accompanied the pictures. I really think that rabbits will be allowed, from my conversations with the mayor and town manager. But it's a lesson to us to stay informed on what's happening around us so that we don't give up the right to keep our rabbits.

District Nine has experienced a number of losses in our ARBA family in 2007. Bunnie Turley Sr. from NJ passed away on April 17th, losing her battle with cancer. Bunnie was often referred to as ‘Mother Bunnie’, although her given name was Rose-Marie. She and her daughter, Bunnie Jr., have been strong supporters of the ARBA for years. Bunnie will be sorely missed. Michael Wade from MD passed away very unexpectedly on May 11th. Anyone who has attended a show in MD has met, seen, or relied upon Mike or Sherry in some manner. Mike and Sherry have been such a strong and supportive force behind many shows/activities in our district. Sherry also lost her mother this spring just after Mike’s passing. There is a Memorial Fund that has been set up in remembrance and honor of Mike Wade. The fund will be used for something that will be dedicated in his name. Contributions may be made to the "Mike Wade Memorial Fund" at the following address: Mike Wade Memorial Fund, Westminster Union Bank, Attention: Martha Harrison, 117 East Main Street, Westminster, MD 21158. Cathy Patrick of OH passed away June 7th, after losing her battle with cancer. Even though Cathy Patrick resided in OH, she and her husband Bill have frequently judged in District Nine and were close with a number of our D9 members. Times like these are difficult, but we are comforted in knowing that they are still with us in our memories, and their contributions live on through us.


Eric