by Carol Edwards, Club Secretary

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If you are an admirer of the large, active, black-and-white or blue-and-white rabbits called Checkered Giants, the American Checkered Giant Rabbit Club invites you to become a member. ACGRC is an organization dedicated to raising, exhibiting, and improving this spectacular breed. The Club’s purpose is to help members with all of these activities.

ACGRC is an international club that was first chartered by the American Rabbit Breeders Association in 1919. The ACGRC has members in 37 states, Canada, Malta, Puerto Rico, and Uruguay. The American Rabbit Breeders Association also currently charters 13 state and regional Checkered Giant specialty clubs, formed to promote this beautiful rabbit in various parts of the United States. The specialty clubs take turns hosting our ACGRC Annual, a national all-Checkered Giant show held each spring.

The state and regional specialty clubs also hold their own all-Checkered Giant shows throughout the year, giving breeders many chances to compete and to compare their animals with other breeders’ stock. If you are interested in obtaining Checkered Giant breeding stock, a good person to ask may be a specialty club Secretary. The Secretary will usually know who has stock for sale.

The ACGRC holds a Sweepstakes competition for Checkered Giants entered in shows put on by any state and regional rabbit club that applies for a sanction and pays the $8 fee. ACGRC members receive Sweepstakes points for the first five places in each class when they exhibit rabbits at a sanctioned show. There are approximately 200 ACGRC-sanctioned Checkered Giant shows held each year. This number includes shows sponsored by all-breed clubs as well as those hosted by specialty clubs.

Exhibitors in ACGRC-sanctioned shows also compete in a Top Ten contest for Checkered Giants that win Best of Breed or Best Opposite of Breed. Each of these awards carries Top Ten points, based on the number of entries in each of the two categories represented by the award. The rabbit that receives the most points during the Sweepstakes year wins the prestigious E. B. Shultz Award.

All members of the ACGRC receive a copy of its Guide Book. The Guide Book includes articles by members on the rabbit beautiful (and the ARBA standard of perfection), building your herd, breeding future champions, showing your winners, joining our Club, and the ACGRC constitution and by-laws. You will find, in their advertisements, names and address of members whom you can contact for questions that the Guide Book doesn’t answer.

In addition to the Guide Book, ACGRC members receive a bi-monthly News Bulletin. The Bulletin is the way members stay informed about club activities. In it are such things as the President’s message, Sweepstakes and Top Ten cumulative point scores, names and addresses of members, helpful articles on Checkered Giant care, a list of future shows that have been sanctioned by the Club, and detailed results of recently-held shows,.

Our club has a unique way of showing the results from sanctioned shows. We are one of the few specialty clubs that prints the ear number of the rabbit along with the exhibitor's name through fifth place for each class. Upon request, the ACGRC will also present a Rosette to any breeder whose rabbit wins Best of Breed at a sanctioned show, if there are at least six exhibitors who are club members. The ACGRC is one of the first specialty clubs to have a substantial newsletter, and our Bulletin has always been edited and printed by club members.

The American Checkered Giant breed is an energetic one, and so are the people who raise and show them. I know you would enjoy their company, and they yours. On behalf of the American Checkered Giant Rabbit Club, its members, its Executive Officers, and its Board of Directors, I’m happy to invite you to participate in the sport we all share and love.


For more on the American Checkered Giant breed, see The The “Rabbit Beautiful,” Today and Yesterday.