NC Cooperative Extension recognized the youth in our local 4-H program for their hard work over the past year at the 4-H Achievement Night held on Nov. 16, 2022. 4-H is America’s largest youth organization that gives young people ages 5-18 opportunities to build character and strengthen life skills. Laura Robson and Alyna Rutt were recognized for their outstanding 4-H Project Record Books. This project encompasses everything a 4-H’er has done in the previous year and also includes activities outside of 4-H while focusing on a certain subject area. It provides the opportunity to develop writing and organizational skills.
Laura won GOLD on the county level in the Animal Science category which allowed her to move on to the district competition. Alyna won GOLD in two categories: Healthy Lifestyles and Environmental Science. She moved on to the district level and won GOLD. Alyna advanced to the state level and came away with GOLD again. Madeline Branch and Alyna Rutt were recognized for their 4-H presentations. These presentations can be done on anything the participants choose that they’re interested in learning and sharing about.
4-H Presentations allow youth to build public speaking skills which are critical. Madeline spoke about grooming horses, and Alyna spoke about safety and how to be prepared. Both earned GOLD for their presentations and moved on to the state level earning BRONZE and SILVER respectively.
The Summer Gardening Program allows youth to tend to a garden at home. At the end of the summer these gardens were judged. This year our senior winner was Lukas White, and our junior winner was Riser Swaim. We had two participants who had done this for three years in a row, Ceily Bledsoe and Sterlin Swiam, beginning when the program was virtual in 2020. Our participants also included Madeline Branch, McKinley Branch, Easton Calhoun, Josie Calhoun, and Lillian Garcia.
The Youth Livestock Group competed in livestock skillathon and quiz bowl. This past year we competed in two contests. The first contest team consisted of Madeline Branch, Josie Calhoun, Evie Dowd, and Laura Robson. The second contest team consisted of Ceily Bledsoe, Madeline Branch, Josie Calhoun, and Laura Robson. At this contest, the junior skillathon results were Madeline in first and Ceily in second. In the intermediate category, Laura placed fourth. As a team, we were first in the intermediate division. For quiz bowl, Josie competed on a mixed county team which placed first, and our all-Surry team placed second in the contest.
Our 4-H volunteers work to run two community clubs, one in Beulah and one in Pilot Mountain. Our Beulah club volunteers are Bonnie Cahall, Rhonda Glidewell, and Gail Shelton. Our Pilot Mountain club volunteers are Brittany Estrada, Crystal Folger-Hawks, and Ashley Montgomery. We had two volunteers serve as district officers – Bonnie as treasurer and Rhonda as vice president. Rhonda and Gail also earned volunteer awards. Rhonda was a state individual award winner this year and Gail was a district individual award winner.
We are extremely proud of all of our 4-H members and volunteers for their hard work this year!
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com