{"id":1181,"date":"2007-09-11T23:37:08","date_gmt":"2007-09-11T16:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/?p=1181"},"modified":"2007-09-11T23:37:08","modified_gmt":"2007-09-11T16:37:08","slug":"talented-american-junior-paint-horse-association","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/industry\/talented-american-junior-paint-horse-association\/","title":{"rendered":"Talented American Junior Paint Horse Association"},"content":{"rendered":"

leader earns special honors from her peers<\/em><\/p>\n

FORT WORTH, TEXAS\u2014<\/strong>American Junior Paint Horse Association (AjPHA) member Laura Akerlund of Grafton, Wisc., earned her group\u2019s highest honor recently, when she was named 2007 Youth Member of the Year. The award was announced during this summer\u2019s World Championship Paint Horse Show, where Akerlund, a former AjPHA president, also received a Gist trophy buckle and a $500 U.S. Savings Bond for the honor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I heard the good news I had won, I was ecstatic! I am very honored to have been chosen and am extremely thankful to everyone who helped me to achieve this award,\u201d said Akerlund. \u201cI\u2019m especially grateful to my mom and dad for their encouragement and support.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Youth Member of the Year award is presented to an AjPHA member who has shown outstanding dedication, commitment, and a caring attitude to their community and regional club, which is a local branch of the national Youth organization. It is the most prestigious award available to AjPHA members.<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout her association with AjPHA, Laura has repeatedly shown great enthusiasm for and a commitment to the Paint Horse breed, AjPHA and her community,\u201d said AjPHA Director of Youth Activities Candace Lancaster.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, Akerlund served as the Youth organization\u2019s president during 2006 and 2007,\u201d continued Lancaster. \u201cDuring her term, she instituted an initiative to generate local community involvement by AjPHA members. Entitled \u2018One Stride at a Time\u2019, it raised more than $10,000 for cancer research and cancer patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

Akerlund has also served as an AjPHA National Director since 1998 and has held positions as the organization\u2019s Secretary and the Zone 5 representative. On a local level, she served as her regional club\u2019s President for four terms.<\/p>\n

Outside of the Paint Horse industry, Akerlund was the captain of her high school\u2019s varsity gymnastics and competitive cheerleading teams, a student council member, a member of the soccer and gymnastics teams and on the honor roll. She also was a mentor in the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America organization and volunteered as a coach for a local cheerleading group.<\/p>\n

As Akerlund enters college this fall, she continues her involvement with Paints through a scholarship from the American Paint Horse Foundation. She is attending the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, where she plans to major in either Public Relations or Communications.<\/p>\n

About AjPHA<\/strong>
\nDeveloped for Paint Horse enthusiasts 18 years old and younger, the AjPHA fosters responsibility, positive sportsmanship and promotion of the Paint Horse breed. With more than 7,000 members, this organization promises a strong future for the industry.<\/p>\n

AjPHA Youth Member of the Year candidates are nominated by their regional club. For more information about AjPHA or this prestigious award, visit ajpha.com<\/a>\u00a0 or call (817) 834-2742, ext. 248.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

leader earns special honors from her peers FORT WORTH, TEXAS\u2014American Junior Paint Horse Association (AjPHA) member Laura Akerlund of Grafton, Wisc., earned her group\u2019s highest honor recently, when she was named 2007 Youth Member of the Year. The award was announced during this summer\u2019s World Championship Paint Horse Show, where Akerlund, a former AjPHA president, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apha","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1181\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}