This New Club is Right on Target

It is one of our favorite things to do in 4-H and I love when I can yell it out to the world (or write it for all to read). Today we can officially announce a new club in our county. This is a speciality club (meaning it focuses on one area) that will be known as the Dirty Dozen 4-H Shooting Sports Club. What makes this speciality club unique from our others (besides the shooting discipline) is that it is a cross-county club meaning youth from both Robeson and Bladen counties are making up the membership. So far 12 youth have signed up to be a part of the club. Eight attended the first organizational meeting in March and four attended the last meeting. Not only did the youth get to pick a name this past meeting but they also went over the introduction to rifles, proper sight alignment, how to load the rifles, and practiced target shooting. At the end of the day, to reward them for their hard work, the club leader, Larry Russ even let the members play the .22 caliber version of tic-tac-toe. It is much harder than it sounds but they all had a really good time. According to one club member, "it was even better than video games."

The club focuses on gun safety, proper handling of firearms, and helps youth learn about responsibility, and gain self esteem. The club leader says that he hopes to have the team ready to shoot in competitions sometime next year. He is also planning field trips for the club members and lots of time on the firing range to practice everything they need to know, and get them comfortable with this awesome responsibility. Russ, is a certified through 4-H shooting sports to teach riflery to our 4-H youth. Missy McLean, another 4-H volunteer, is also certified in archery and hopes to start that discipline soon.

This club will meet monthly in Fairmont, and the meetings are scheduled from 9-12. Due to equipment and range limitations this club can only accept a limited amount of members. If you are interested in learning more about this club please contact Shea Ann DeJarnette, 4-H Youth Development Extension Agent at Shea_Ann_DeJarnette@ncsu.edu or (910) 671-3276.