A Message from Mari-Beth O'Neill

We are very pleased with the electronic version of the AKC Jr. News. We have received many positive comments and look forward to the opportunity to be able to communicate with you more frequently.

This issue contains the list of AKC Junior Scholarship Recipients for the 2004-2005 school year. This year we received over 100 applications from individuals from all over the country having competed in all aspects of AKC events.

The AKC/Eukanuba National Championship in Tampa, Florida will be January 15 & 16th, 2005. The Junior luncheon and preliminary competition will be on Saturday January 15th. The finals will be on Sunday January 16th. If you have already qualified with five wins in the Open Class with competition and your school year has ended, please forward your school transcript to the Judges Education Department.

Many clubs are trying to establish ways to support the juniors who participate in AKC events. We are interested in the experiences you have had as either a member of a club already or what you might like to see a club offer for Juniors. Please feel free to contact us with your ideas.

We would love to have more photos of Juniors competing at events across the country. Those of you with digital cameras, please forward your photos, along with the name of the event and captions, to mbo@akc.org.

We encourage Juniors to participate in AKC events. Juniors have handled dogs to Master titles in almost every AKC event. We are pleased to be able to recognize you for your accomplishments and wish to encourage your continued participation. Greatly appreciated are the articles and photos submitted from Juniors who are currently competing. Keep up the great work!