Robeson County 4-H

  It's day three of 4-H Congress and we have a day packed with activities, and so much still to do.  It's hard to believe we will be headed home tomorrow.  Today we are going to focus on the sweet tasty present and try not to think about the future.   Our first act was to juggle multiple schedules.  Maurice Rogers came up from Lumberton today with his mother to join us for some select activities.  Maurice Rogers and Alex Evans needed to be at the McKimmon Center at 10 am while the rest of the delegation needed to be at the first event for our cultural awareness activity.  So we dropped off one and headed to downtown Raleigh for our first event, a documentary on Lemurs at the IMAX theater.  This 3-D adventure took us to Madagascar to learn about different typed of Lemurs and how they survive.  Our youth learned about the role scientists played in saving Lemur populations and the negative impact agriculture is having on these creatures. ...

  Day two of 4-H Congress started off a little rough for our Robeson County delegation as they were still trying to recover from a long fun day of of Congress.  Of course all of that went by the wayside when we arrived at the McKimmon center for the awards program.  Youth were recognized for everything from district presentation and project record awards to 2016 national trip winners, and ambassador.  We are pleased to announce that Alex Evans received her bronze level 4-H Ambassador certification today.  That certification is a result of taking a variety of workshops, documenting what she learned, and completing another 15 hours of leadership and community service activities.   After the awards our youth split into groups to work on a character scavenger hunt.  Each member of the group represented a different pillar of character and worked on a variety of activities.  Some were required to watch a video, others had to work on a drawing of a ...

  Day one of 4-H State Congress started off like all the others with state presentations.  We had six youth who earned the right at district competition to head to state competition.  Alex Evans, Tachoma Hair, Jada and Jordan McKinnon, Jaylyn McNair, and Maggie Underwood got up early, after weeks of practice, and travelled to Raleigh to represent Robeson County 4-H.  Jada McKinnon started our day with a presentation on "Making America Great Again through Literacy."  She compared against youth from Five other districts and brought home the gold in the 9-10 age division. Next up was Maggie Underwood who taught a room full of folks in Careers and Entrepreneurship about becoming a professional video gamer.  While Maggie was speaking our guys were braving the elements outside competing in outdoor cooking.  Tachoma Hair and Jaylyn McNair both competed in beef cookery while Jordan McKinnon was grabbing for gold in Turkey char grill.  Let's just say ...

We woke up to a very sunny Thursday and very prepared to handle our new schedules.  We hit it early this morning with cabin cleanup and breakfast then it was off to our activities.  Our 10 to 12 year olds got to hit the newly reopened ropes courses.  Once they hiked up the hill they got to climb a telephone pole and jump off.  Ok we admit it sounds like a rather silly thing to do, but it is very safe as every camper wears a helmet and harness.  they also climbed up and walked across poles and rope bridges.  All of this to push their boundaries and take them outside their comfort zone.  Each of them was set up with the opportunity to succeed and overcome their fears.  All of them tried and were proud of themselves for trying.  It was a great experience.   Our youth also got a chance to check out the boulder wall today.  Much like our rock wall that campers climb up, the boulder wall requires a little more ingenuity and different s...

  "I can't believe only have one more full day of fun!" said not one, but two of our campers at lunch today.  Although I tried to get them to enjoy the here and now, and not worry about going home quite yet, they decided to focus on coming back next year.  Now that is what I call problem solving at it's finest.  In an informal survey our campers like the pool and everything else they are doing at camp.  Still haven't heard what they don't like.   Setting that aside, Wednesday was another fabulous day at Betsy Jeff Penn 4-H center.  It was almost cool at 75 degrees this morning.  Last night's storm made the morning much easier to wake up to.  The cooler temperatures had them excited about today's schedule.  We have talked a lot about the activities over the last few days and today we thought we might focus on the Trekkers and Adventurers.  This our the oldest kids at camp.  The Adventurers will cook dinner tonight at outpost...

  We woke up Tuesday morning , rested, hungry and eager to start our day.  It was a little warmer today then yesterday but that didn't slow us down one bit.  All of our groups started the day cleaning their cabins for inspection and then moved on to breakfast.  Today our menu started with pancakes and sausage.  It was warm and yummy.  Before we knew it it was time to split into our groups and move on out to activities with all of our new friends.   Today included some of our favorites and some new things.  For example we got to go to archery and ga-ga ball.  We also did more than just learn about horses today we actually got on them and went for a ride.  How much fun is that?  Some of us got to go to the beaver dam.  Before we did that we went to classroom two and learned all about these devastating creatures and how to look for signs of them.   It wasn't long before we were back in the dining hall enjoying meatball ...

  Boy did we sleep well last night at Betsy Jeff Penn 4-H Camp.  Which made our first activity this Monday morning (after getting up, and doing our cabin chores), especially important and wonderful.  We headed straight to the dinning hall to have breakfast.  On the menu, bacon, eggs, and some fluffy buttermilk biscuits.  There was also a fresh fruit bar and cereal.  So in other words there was no reason for us not to have a full stomach to start on day on.   After breakfast it was time to head to our activities.  Today we had a smattering of Arts and Crafts, GaGa Ball, archery, rock wall climbing, horse back riding, canoeing, and swimming.  Oh where to start on the wonders of the fun we had today.  Let's start with the Ga-Ga Pitt.  This is something new at BJP and they actually have two pitts.  The game is a little like dodge ball below the knees.  The goal is to be the last person standing, and not to get hit by the b...