4-H - Inspiring Kids to Do!

Kari Lewis

Outside of school, 4-H is the largest youth development program in Montana that reaches nearly 20,000 youth in all of Montana’s 56 counties.  Within the Glacier county 4-H program, 81 4-H members have been learning to, “Make the Best Better,” this past year under the leadership and guidance of caring adults and the MSU Extension office.  The 2017-2018 4-H year included learning opportunities, leadership development, and community service activities. 

                4-Hers contributed to their community in a variety of ways throughout the 4-H year.  As part of their Teen Leadership project, JR Seewald and Coalter Littrell organized a pork raffle to benefit a fellow 4-H member, Clark Diemert, who had been injured in a motorcycle accident.  Their efforts raised over $1,700 for Diemert’s medical expenses!  4-Hers baked 12 dozen homemade rolls for the Community Thanksgiving dinner, while the Cloverbuds created cards for the table decorations.   All three clubs teamed up to host a Soup and Bread luncheon in January which raised over $700 for the Parkview Senior Center to provide meals to homebound senior citizens.  4-Hers also supported the Glacier Care Center through doing Christmas shopping for residents, ‘adopting’ residents and visiting them monthly, and planting flowers outside the Center. 

Glacier county members took advantage of numerous travel opportunities available through 4-H.  Myla Cundall attended the National 4-H Congress in Atlanta, Georgia, as a result of her winning the state Fashion Revue contest.  Grace Rooney, Sienna Cundall, and Coley Cundall were participants at the Montana 4-H Rec Lab in Thompson Falls where they developed leadership skills and networked with over 100 4-Hers from across Montana.  In April, Brandeon Molenda, Jed Winkowitsch, Ken Winkowitsch, Katelyn Suta, and Addisyn Bengtson attended the first GROW (Goals, Recreation, Opportunities, and Will) event that was targeted at middle school 4-H members.  Sienna and Coley Cundall also attended Montana 4-H Congress on the Montana State University campus where they competed In the Fashion Revue contest.

                Throughout the year, members took advantage of numerous learning opportunities available.  Thanks to project leaders, volunteers, and teen leaders, members had opportunities to hone their skills in livestock, sewing, poultry, cake decorating, and small animal showmanship.   The Horse and Livestock camp held in June at the Marias Fairgrounds taught members livestock showmanship, livestock judging, and horse skills.  The shooting sports program grew this past year with Shotgun being added as a discipline available to Glacier county 4-Hers, in addition to the established archery and air rifle programs.  
                Members honed their leadership and communications skills through club involvement and leadership trainings.  Teen leaders, Sienna Cundall, JR Seewald, Coalter Littrell, and Canon Bradley served as camp counselors at the Multi-County 4-H camp in the Bear Paw mountains this summer.  Fourteen members competed in the county communications contest where they presented a demonstration, illustrated talk, or impromptu speech before a panel of judges for evaluation.  Prior to the fair, members practiced mock interviews and then at the Marias Fair each member competing completed an individual project interview with a subject matter expert in their project.  Nearly twenty members competed in the Roundtable awards interviews where they interviewed with fellow members before a judge, explaining their goals, project work, and learning experiences. 
                Glacier county 4-Hers excelled throughout the year.  As a club, the Curry Comb 4-Hers took second place in the Parade of Lights with their float.  Wyatt Berkram was awarded a NILE Merit Heifer and joins the ranks of fellow 4-H members, JR Seewald, Mat Tuma, and Coalter Littrell, as receiving heifers from this prestigious program to jumpstart their herd.  Camille Bradley entered a picture of her fair painting in the national 4-H Youth Artwork contest and was a selected artist who will have her picture featured on a calendar or other 4-H promotional items!

Don and Carolyn Popelka, local 4-H archery leaders, were selected as a 2018 recipient for the Tribute to Volunteer Excellence Award as the District 2 Volunteer of the Year.  The Montana 4-H Foundation recognized their efforts for creating a standard of excellence that helps motivate and encourage others and awarded them with a cash award of $100 for the 4-H event or activity of their choice.   
  The 4-H program in Glacier county continues to grow, thanks to the efforts of leaders and parents willing to contribute.  In the past five years, enrollment has grown from 41 4-H members to 81 members this past year.  Jodi Duncan leads the Cloverbud program which is a non-competitive, educational program for youth ages 5 to 8 that meets monthly during the school year.  Youth ages 8 to 19 may join a regular 4-H club and choose individual projects which can range from cooking, sewing, leathercraft, livestock, shooting sports, welding, cake decorating, quilting, and everything in between.  The Clever Clovers, Curry Comb, and Longview 4-H clubs are led locally by leaders Hapi Seewald, Jo Dean Rooney, and Raylee Johnson Suta, respectively.  In addition, 20 plus leaders help provide project learning activities throughout the year. 

If you are willing to share your time and talents with 4-H youth or are interested in learning more about 4-H, please contact the MSU Extension-Glacier county office at 406-873-2239 or glacier@montana.edu, visit the website at http://msuextension.org/glacier/, or stop by the office at 1210 E. Main, Cut Bank, MT. 

Oh, what can change in a 4-H year!

Kari Lewis
MSU Extension - Glacier County

4-H enrollment is underway, and today, I want to encourage anyone who has been considering joining to stop by your local MSU Extension office for details! 

After participating in archery for the first time
at 4-H camp this summer, Destini added it to her
4-H projects.  4-H archery practice sign ups are
underway, with practice beginning November 2.
Photo by Kari Lewis.

Yesterday, I had a visit from a 10-year-old 4-H member that made me think about just how much she has grown throughout her first year in 4-H.  She moved to the Cut Bank area a little over a year ago, and joined 4-H after a friend urged her to do so.  Neither parent had been involved in 4-H previously, but being new to the community they thought 4-H would be a great way to become involved.  Her first year, she successfully raised a pig and exhibited in cake decorating at the fair. 

This year, she added a sewing project that she can work on with her Grandmother.  She added a baking project, and scrapbooking which will fit well with her role as her club’s reporter and historian.  She had also attended 4-H camp this past summer where she shot archery for the first time, which led her to add that project.  Because she will be taking Hunter’s Safety this spring and her family wants her to learn how to safely use a firearm, she added Air Rifle to her list of projects.  I smiled this morning as I thought about a family that went from no previous 4-H experience and really wondering what they were getting into, to having a daughter enrolled in livestock, cooking, sewing, scrapbooking, and shooting sports projects, who is serving as a club officer, and is also gaining leadership experience by helping with the Cloverbud program. Oh, what can change in just a year of 4-H!

After successfully raising a pig and completing
a cake decorating project in her first year,
Destini has added numerous other projects
to her 4-H list for the coming year. 
Photo by Kari Lewis.

In Glacier county, we have three 4-H clubs that would love to have your son or daughter join them.  Our clubs meet once a month to conduct business, do community service projects, and work together on their various projects. In November, our shooting sports practices begin.  Each week, from November through February 4-Hers will be improving their marksmanship skills, learning self-discipline, safety, and personal responsibility through archery or air rifle practice.  We do have club equipment available for members to use through generous donations.   

Last week, one of the middle school teachers had called and asked if I would come share about 4-H with the 6^th graders.  She commented on how as a teacher she can pick out the 4-Hers as they have developed responsibility, public speaking, and problem-solving skills through 4-H, and she hopes more students can take advantage of those opportunities.  If you are interested in joining 4-H, where we ‘Learn by Doing’ ‘To Make the Best Better,’ please stop by or call your local Extension Office. 

As a side note, our office will be closed next Monday through Thursday as I will be in Bozeman for our MSU Extension Annual Conference, but you can always call or e-mail at kari.lewis@montana.edu if needed.  

What does it take to make the Marias Fair happen?

Kari Lewis, MSU Extension - Glacier county

This week, I started thinking about just how many people it takes to make the Marias Fair happen, and I wanted to share some numbers with you to illustrate just how much of a family-based, community oriented event the local fair is.  As I started putting this together, even I was a bit surprised at just how many folks contribute to our fair!

We had 186 kids from Glacier, Toole, Liberty, and Pondera counties exhibit 1,569 projects which included everything from shooting sports to livestock to cooking, sewing, photography, leathercraft, welding, and more.

We had 15 barn superintendents from three committees that oversaw our livestock, small animal, and horse shows.  We had 15 volunteers that helped weigh-in and process our market animals in under three hours. 

There were 145 steers, hogs, and lambs exhibited in the market shows.  On the breeding side, we had 8 yearling heifers, 9 cow/calf pairs, 2 yearling ewes, and three ewes with lambs at side.  There were 7 dogs, 44 dairy goat entries, 7 meat goats, 19 horses, 27 cages of poultry, 20 cages of rabbits, and 2 cats exhibited at the Marias Fair.  There were 20 volunteers that helped with the hog, beef, or lamb shows.  We had nearly a dozen volunteers help with the Dog, Cat, Rabbit, and Poultry Shows.  At the horse show, we had 14 volunteers that helped evaluate horsemanship, assisted in the ring, and announced the show.

In the 4-H food booth, we had nine food booth day chairs that kept the food booth running and

 oversaw the 257 youth and parent volunteers that worked in the food booth throughout the fair.  The food booth’s profits are returned to our 4-H youth as premium money, rewarding them for their blue and red ribbons they receive during the fair, and also provide us with a means to thank our volunteers and judges.

There were 25 judges that interview judged 185 kids over a five-hour period on Wednesday.  These judges had committed six to eight weeks in advance, and shared their afternoon with the kids, despite many also having harvest, haying, irrigating, and work commitments during the fair.  We had 50 plus parents and leaders that helped with interview judging, setting up, and taking down county displays.

On the public presentation side, there were three judges that evaluated nearly 25 speeches, demonstrations, and cowboy poetry talks over two days.  For the Friday 4-H livestock judging contest, we had six group leaders, two parents that assisted with check-in, two reasons takers, and one official judge that helped with the contest.

For Saturday’s Round Robin showmanship competition, we had 5 volunteer judges and 5 ring stewards.  At the livestock sale, we had 15 volunteers helping line up animals and three auctioneers, four ringmen, and four clerks that assisted in selling 145 head of livestock in just under three hours. Come Sunday, we had four guys that hauled the lambs, hogs, and beef to the processor.

In addition, we had numerous in – kind donations such as tens of cases of water from four sponsors, the use of livestock scales, squeeze chutes, and loading alleys, and multiple deliveries of water from the Shelby Fire Department to cool the showrings prior to the horse and livestock shows.

There were 90 plus sponsors of 4-H fair awards from multiple counties that recognized our kids’ efforts and accomplishments.  Lastly, we had four administrative assistants that put in a tremendous amount of time and effort both leading up to the fair and at the fair to make things run smoothly.

Really, this is only the tip of the iceberg, as each 4-H youth has project leaders, club leaders, parents, aunts, uncles, and friends supporting them and encouraging them in their journey.  Thank you to each and every person that makes 4-H and the Marias Fair possible, we couldn’t do it without you.  Thank you for choosing to invest in today’s youth, to make tomorrow better.  

If you want to know where all the good folks have gone, stop by your county fair, and I promise you’ll be encouraged at the youth and adult partnerships in action!