Who's the Fairest of them All?

Today marks the opening of the 66th annual Robeson Regional Agricultural Fair. It also marks the unveiling of all the hard work our 4-H members and volunteers have done with the club fair booths. Over the last few years there has been increased competition in this wonderful fundraising opportunity for our clubs. This year there were 13 booths in the 4-H area that answered the question...."4-H is...?". For each of our clubs 4-H is a little something different, which is hard for some people to understand. You see the concept of cows and cooking still are strong images when people see the clover. However I think our clubs did their best to illustrate the different attributes of 4-H.
This year the clubs that set up booths included: Bladen Ambassadors, Dirty Dozen 4-H Shooting Sports Club, Dirty Rascals Junior Master Gardener 4-H Club, Horsin' Around 4-H Horse Club, Inspirational Youth Leaders, Spiritual Generations, St. Paul's 4-H Pony Club, Super Clovers, United We Stand, Voices in Praise 4-H club, and Young Leaders. Over the past few years the fair booths have gotten very competitive. While it is a good spirited competition we must admit that that the creativity and quality of the booths has really increased as well. "I would say several of these booths are state fair quality booths," said Cathy Graham the Robeson County Extension Director. That is one of the things that made it hard for our judge this year. He spent more time trying to determine a winner in the 4-H booths than the other two areas combined. He narrowed it down to three, then two. Then he judged all the booths and came back to put on the ribbon for the best overall booth. When it was said and done the Dirty Rascals Junior Master gardener 4-H Club took second place for their thriller, spiller filler booth while the Dirty Dozen 4-H Shooting Sports Club took first and best overall for their fired up on safety booth.
St. Paul's and the Lumber River Federation FFA booths also took first and second in the FFA division. Congratulations to all of our booth winners at the fair!

Booths aren't the only place to see 4-H members at the fair. You can see some of their handiwork as part of the crafts, crops and art exhibits. Starting Saturday you will be able to see their hard work at the fair for those who raised animals. 4-H Animal check in starts at 8 am in the livestock building. Our first 4-H show of the season will begin at 2 pm.

Growing Communities

Robeson County Farmers have the opportunity to make a difference for Robeson County 4-H youth and Volunteers. Once again this year Monsanto is rewarding farmers and supporting agricultural education through their Growing Communities program. Eligible farmers have the chance to win $2,500 dollars that will go to a local nonprofit of their choice. Entrants must be 21 years or older and actively engaged in farming a minimum of 250 acres of corn, soybeans and/or cotton, or 40 acres of open field vegetables, or at least 10 acres of vegetables grown in protected culture. Entrants must reside in eligible counties where a minimum of 30,000 acres of corn and/or soybeans and/or cotton and/or vegetables are planted each year (Robeson County is an eligible county). Farmers who were eligible and/or participated in the program in 2010 may also make an application for 2011 if they meet the eligibility requirements.

To register all a farmer has to do is go to Monsanto's Grow Communities web site and register. If you know an eligible farmer please ask them to register and choose Robeson County 4-H as their benefactor. Farmers have until November 30th to register.

Focusing In on the Fair

The Dirty Dozen 4-H Shooting Sports Club met to finalize their fair booth plans. As part of their meeting they painted objects that would go in the booth, planned the spacing and what supplies might be needed for the youth to bring to finish off their booth. The plans for this club's booth are also top secret. So top secret as a matter of fact that we could not take photos of the plans for the blog post.

Also as part of this meeting the club members were required to give a speech on shooting sports. Each member did a impromptu speech which ranged on topics from safety to rifle mechanics, and even the benefits of different shooting positions. After receiving feedback from their club leaders Larry Russ and Peggy Monk the group finished up the details of their fair booth props and then adjourned.

The next club meeting will be held on October 28th at the Robeson County Fair Grounds starting at 4:30 to set up their fair booth.

Thrilling, Filling, and Spilling into the Fair

The Dirty Rascal Junior Master Gardener 4-H Club met this evening and went over their top secret fair booth plans. Now no one privileged to the plans is allowed to say too much but I can say they talked about thrilling planters, information that will fill your life, and plants that will spill over to make a statement. We were also told that fiber optics and woodworking projects will be included. Club leaders Ms. Messy Missy and Mrs. Tanya also worked with the youth on their special containers for planting.

After all the plans and container review there was time to be crafty. Mrs. Tanya had special 4-H crafts that she handed out to everyone. Each person got a chance to make a 4-H Christmas Ornament and a beaded 4-H key chain. The craft art kits are from oriental trading and were a lot of fun to make. Our older youth help the younger ones with any of the details that involved fine motor skills.

The club's next meeting will take place at the Robeson County Fairgrounds as they get ready to do their booth. That meeting will take place September 28th starting at 4:30 pm.

Special Election Called

As you may remember in August we held elections for County Council Officers and Volunteer Leader Officers. However a motion was made to table the meeting for County Council Officer elections to a later date. Today is that later date and boy, did our youth get the job done.

Christian McRae, was President-Elect and help run the elections for this year. Korina Pittman and T'Asia Shelby had already submitted their nomination forms for Secretary and Reporter so we needed to come up with a Parliamentarian and President-Elect for the coming year since Christian will become President. Nominations were opened from the floor and Dillon McCartney was nominated for Parliamentarian and Shabreya Vample and Justin Moore were nominated to run for President-Elect.

The ballots went out to each club with members present and Christian with a guiding volunteer hand counted the votes. When it was all over with Christian McRae will be the incoming President, Shabreya Vample will be President-Elect, Korina Pittman will be Secretary-Treasurer, T'Asia Shelby will be reporter and Dillon McCartney will be the new Parliamentarian. Our new officers will be inducted as part of the 4-H Youth Achievement event on December 2nd.

They will have orientation held on October 24 at the 4-H office at 6:30 pm.