It Comes Down to the Vote

Monday night it was time for an update, sharing of learning, and setting of agendas. In other words it was time for our quarterly 4-H County Council and Volunteer Leaders' Association. The night kicked off with a rousing game of Bingo. As the officers took care of the games and awarding prizes, they got the crowd warmed up for the meeting ahead.

Kenneth Bethea, President of the Volunteer Leaders' Association called the meeting to order and asked James Nixon of the Voices in Praise 4-H Club and Christian Tice of the St. Pauls 4-H Pony Club lead the group of about 50 in the pledges. Aljaquan Nixon, the President of the County Council then recognized new members, new clubs and visitors to the meeting. Korina Pittman, the County Council Secretary, Treasurer conducted roll call. After counting the members Voices in Praise 4-H Club won the roll call award for having the highest percentage of members present at the meeting.

Veronica Powell, our current South Central District Secretary reported on district and state activities and offered clubs the opportunity to take part in a letter writing campaign to soldiers and their families. The Operation Military Kids campaign allows youth to write to a solider serving overseas and then a letter to that soldiers child who is at home waiting for them, This is one of several ways that 4-H members can help support our troops and their families.

Missy McLean-Wright and Katherine Bethea talked about the state 4-H Volunteer Leaders Conference. Missy spoke about the various workshops that the volunteers had to choose from while Katherine focused on one of the workshops she attending. "Are You Ready for the Leadership Challenge" was a workshop taught by Angela Shaver, the Cumberland County 4-H Agent and our own Shea Ann DeJarnette passed on the book The Leadership Challenge. Katherine and Laura Bethea were part of a group that were given the task of creating their own leadership song or jingle. With the help of the other volunteers in attendance, Katherine lead the group in their own rendition of a 4-H Leadership song.

T'asha Shelby then filled everyone in on what happened at Winter Enrichment and Aggie Rogers gave out the project record awards. This year our winners and participants are as follows:

-In the noncompetitive Cloverbud division Jaheim Purdie of the Inspirational Youth Leaders submitted a book on Gardening, Chrsitian Trice and Paiton Twigg of the St. Paul's 4-H Pony Club submitted animal science books, Elijah Leach of the Voices in Praise 4-H Club submitted a book on communication, Patrick McBride of the United We Stand 4-H Club submitted a book on Healthy Lifestyles, while Darius Brown of the Young Leaders 4-H club also submitted a book on healthy lifestyles, and Tierra Locklear a member at large submitted an animal science project record.

-In the 9-10 year old junior division Brianna Cryer, Chasity McClay, Megan Butler, and Taylor Holden of the St. Pauls 4-H Pony Club each submitted one if not two books on animal science: Jasmine McBride of the United We Stand 4-H Club and Amaria Rogers of Young Leaders each submitted a project record on Community Service; Jasmine McBride submitted a second book on Healthy Lifestyles which competed against Chenilin Hill, of the Inspirational Youth Leaders 4-H club book; and Michicko Hill of the Inspirational Youth Leaders 4-H Club submitted a communication arts book. In the end the judges determined Michicko Hill's communication arts book which placed first, Jasmine McBride's First place and Chenilin Hill's second place Healthy Lifestyles books, Amaria Rogers and Jasmine McBrides first and second place Community Service Books, as well as Brianna Cryer's and Brionna Locklear's first and second place animal science books would go on to district level competition.

-In the 11-12 year old junior age division Maurice Rogers of the Young Leaders 4-H Club placed first with his citizenship book while club mate T'Asha Shelby placed second in the same division. Daniel Bourhenne and Caylee Holden, both of the St. Paul's 4-H Pony Club placed first and second respectively in the animal science division. Maurice Rogers and Camry Ocean, of the Voices in Praise 4-H club went head to head in the communication arts category and placed first and second respectively. In the final category Jivinity Graham of the United We Stand 4-H Club and Jaylyn McNair of the Inspirational Youth Leaders 4-H Club went head to head in the Healthy Lifestyles category and place first and second respectively. We are very proud to say all of the project records in this division will go forth to district level competition.

-In the 13-15 year old age division we had five competitors completing seven books. Santiago Robinson of the Dirty Dozen 4-H Shooting Sports club completed two books one on personal development and one on animal science for which he placed first in both categories. Zarie Baker of the Voices in Praise 4-H Club also completed two books, one on consumer science and the other in Healthy Lifestyles. She placed first in both categories. Alexus Jones of the Inspirational youth leaders placed first in Communication Arts. Shawndora McNair of the Inspirational Youth Leaders 4-h Club received third in Healthy Lifestyles while Azaya Graham of the United We stand 4-H Club took home second place. In this age division Alexus Jones, Azaya Graham, and Zarie Baker were all chosen to go on to district competition.

-In the 16-18 year old division Aljaquan Nixon of the Voices in Praise 4-H Club submitted a project record on Community Service for which he received a blue ribbon. Korina Pittman of titan's 4-H Club also received a blue ribbon for her cumulative record on electricity. A cumulative record is similar to a project record but lists information for at least three years of project completion. Both Korina and Aljaquan's records will be going on to district competition.

Kenneth Bethea then introduced our new County Extension Director, Dr. Cathy Graham. Dr. Graham gave a few words to the group and thanked them for their participation in the learning activities that we offer. Christopher Bullard, the County Council Reporter filled everyone in on the county scrapbook. Christoper and Libby Burney, the volunteer leaders association reporter handed pages out to the clubs so they could create their own pages for the book. Christopher also announced a scrapbooking workshop for April 25th and 26th, at the 4-H office starting at noon each day. He is asking as many youth as possible to come out and help put the pages together.

After all of this excitement it was time for the big topic of the night, Cloverbud Retreat. The County Council Officers would like to host an overnight retreat for the youngest members our 5-8 year olds. The officers called a vote to see if they should offer a lock in overnight event, an event that would last until midnight, or a day time event for the youth. When the votes were tallied it was decided that the Cloverbud retreat will be an overnight lock-in event. When a date and time is set more information will follow.

After the vote we went over upcoming dates that can also be found at the bottom of this blog. Then we closed the meeting with refreshments that were provided by the Dirty Rascals Junior Master Gardener 4-H Club. Our next County Council and Volunteer Leaders Association meeting will take place on May 2nd.