Volunteers Celebrate Exellence

There is a phrase that happens when you travel with 4-H Volunteers that says, "What goes on in (insert name of place they are going), stays in (again insert the name of the place they are going)."  Not that this is a wild bunch, but they do know how to have fun while learning and for most of our youth that can be an embarrassing thing to see an adult having so much fun.  That is of course the case each year we travel to Raleigh to attend the State 4-H Volunteer Leaders' Conference.  This year we might have had a smaller delegation, but we still had a lot of fun.  Attendees this year included Katherine, Kenneth and Laura Bethea, Peggy Monk, Veronica Powell, Larry Russ and our 4-H Agent, Shea Ann DeJarnette represented Robeson County.
  Workshops ranged from 4-H Beginnings to horticulture workshops, Leadership learning to Etiquette.  It was a full day of learning and bringing back opportunities.  All of that mixed in with district meetings and elections, state meetings and elections as well as fund raising opportunities for the North Carolina 4-H Volunteer Leaders Association.
  In district news the members agreed to adjust their districts to that of the Extension Districts which means Robeson County is now part of the Southeast District.  During the Southeast meeting both Veronica Powell and Peggy Monk were elected to officer positions.  Veronica will serve as the District Secretary and Peggy will serve as the District Reporter.  Congratulations to both of them and thank you for stepping forward.
  Another great thing about this conference are the awards.  Three new endowments were signed that will benefit the work of volunteers around the state.  Also Peggy Monk received her emerald ACE Master Volunteer certification.  Our own 4-H Agent, Shea Ann DeJarnette was part of a team that received the Extension Staff Award from the Volunteer Leaders Association.  Angela Shaver, 4-H Agent for Cumberland County, Cathy Brown from Hoke County, and Linda Gore from Moore County were part of the team that received the award for the Four County Volunteer Revolution Leadership training.
  Also thanks to help from Robeson County Volunteers we had an incredible grilling basket for the basket raffle as well as a bench made by our own Larry Russ which was auctioned off to the highest bidder.  The highest bidder happened to be 4-H Volunteer Specialist Harriett Edwards and her husband Jeff who are pictured here enjoying their new bench.  Larry was also kind enough to make a second bench which was part of our grilling basket raffle.
  It was a great weekend for all in attendance.  If you would like more information on training opportunities such as this please contact the 4-H staff at (910) 671-3276.