Published: October 15, 2008 04:53 pm            

Extension Service – Keeping it green

Oct. 5-11 was National 4-H Week and in celebration, we wanted to get the word out. Some of our 4-H youth attended the Randolph County Board of Commissioners’ meeting where they led the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and the 4-H Pledge. The 4-H Proclamation was read in to the minutes to officially kick off the week. Your Randolph County commissioners gave us a warm welcome and have a clear understanding of the importance of 4-H in the community. Our STEM/SOS participants from four area middle schools performed some pretty exciting science experiments along with 4-Hers throughout North Carolina. We also held an open house at the extension office to invite members of the community to join a club or become a 4-H volunteer. Thank you to everyone who made special efforts to promote and support 4-H and the youth we serve.

This year’s Randolph County Dairy Show was a complete success (again). As you may know, our dairy show is held at the Fall Festival each year. Located between Carolina Bank and the Employment Security Commission, the tent goes up on Friday while the show rink is assembled and the hay starts flying.

Many of our youth and families spent the whole weekend downtown, spending the night in campers or in the makeshift barn with the cows. It was a successful show for the youth participants who were all business on Saturday for the dairy judging events.

Sunday was a little more relaxed, with the favored costume class and the adult amateur events. The costume class consists of youth coming up with a theme that promotes dairy products and carrying this theme through with a costume for themselves and their cow. As you can imagine, this proves to be rather entertaining considering the creative minds in 4-H. This year Evan Gunter brought home third dressed as the Fonz while escorting his poodle skirt clad cow with the theme It’s Happy Days Drinking Milk. Cole Coltrane promoted dairy with her Dr. Seuss cow and sidekicks, Thing 1 and Thing 2, to capture second place while Sarah Thomas dressed as Sen. McCain with Gov. Palin (aka her mom) and their cow campaigning for dairy as the best choice to bring home first place. This is such a fun event that everyone looks forward to and an excellent opportunity for youth and families to work together to create memories that will last a lifetime.

Evan Gunter added a new class to the agenda at the Sunday portion of the Randolph County Dairy Show. As part of his 4-H community service project, he put together a Special Olympics class that was open to folks with special needs to have the opportunity to show a dairy cow in the judging rink. This was a great event that we hope to grow next year since the participants had such a grand time. Congratulations to Evan for all his hard work.

Moving forward, we are looking to this year’s state fair to be full of opportunities for our 4-Hers to learn and grow. We have entries in the 4-H crafts, garment, photography, dairy, horse and poultry divisions. I hope you take the opportunity to attend the N.C. State Fair in Raleigh from Oct. 16 through Oct. 26. With the theme, Take Time for a Great Time, make this your time to make a memory with those special in your life.

For more information about 4-H, give us a call at (336) 218-4000 in Liberty; (336) 819-3000 in Archdale/Trinity or (336) 318-6000 in Asheboro. 4-H is open to girls and boys ages 5 to 19 without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin or disability.



Jody Terry is the 4-H program assistant for Randolph County 4-H, part of the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service in Asheboro. She can be reached at (336) 318-6013.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.