Pheasants and 4-H Enrollment

by  Wendy Wedum, Pondera County

4-H members across Pondera and neighboring counties are re-enrolling for the new 4-H year which started on October 1^st. The 4-H program is open to youth from 5 to 19 years of age. There are two age groups where children can enroll. The youngest children from 5-7 years can participate in the Cloverbud program. We have two leaders, Becky and Trina who do hands on activities for the Cloverbuds once a month in Conrad and Valier. All Cloverbud activities are non-competitive and these children explore and discover new ideas about the 4-H program while having fun with other children the same age.

Once children are 8 years of age, they can join the regular 4-H program and enroll in over fifty project areas in animal science, engineering, technology, natural science, family and consumer sciences, communications, health and leadership development. We will also be starting the shooting sports program taught by certified 4-H leaders in archery, rifle and pistol after Thanksgiving.  Youth must be at least 9 years old to participate in the shooting sports program.

All these activities wouldn’t happen without the 31 volunteer adults who share their time and talents with the 91 kids who are enrolled.  Pondera County has four 4-H Clubs, two in Valier and two in Conrad. These caring adults help 4-H members with their projects, they do fun club activities, organize service activities to help others and 4-H members grow their life skills to help them be successful adults.  If you want to know more about the 4-H program, call our office at 271-4054.

I also want to share information about a really neat project to raise pheasants that is starting in Pondera County.  Coming up are two parent meetings for the pheasant project. The first meeting will be at 5:15 pm October 17 in the EOC room downstairs in the courthouse. The second meeting is at 7 pm on October 17 at the Valier Civic Center. If you are interested in learning about pheasants and raising them from day-old chicks to adulthood, this project is for you! You don’t have to be currently enrolled in 4-H to attend this meeting, we’d love to see some new faces as well as old! This meeting will be informational to ensure everyone is on the same page about the project before we begin, so if you are unable to make it, please call Adriane at 271-4054 and she will fill you in with the details about the pheasant project!