4-H offers youth many opportunities to explore their interests and compete in various events. Recently, Rowan County 4-H’ers have competed in 4-H project record books and 4-H presentations.

Project record books is an area of 4-H competition where youth pick a project topic and keep records of their work associated with that topic. There are nine categories that youth may choose from for project record book competition, many of which are agricultural-related.

The records submitted as part of the record book include: 4-H involvement, activities associated with the project topic, leadership, citizenship and community service involvement, awards and recognition received, and photos and supporting materials.

The following Rowan County 4-H’ers received district level awards for their project record books:

Gold medal: Sara Blandino, age 9-10, category: Plant Science; Madisyn White, age 9-10, category: Citizenship & Civic Education.

Silver medal: Christian Stebe, age 11-12, topic: Personal Development & Leadership.

Bronze medal: Christian Stebe, age 11-12, topic: Environmental Science; Madisyn White, age 9-10, topic: Animal Science.

4-H presentations allow 4-H’ers to explore a topic of interest and create a presentation on the topic, which will be presented to judges. These presentations allow youth to practice their public speaking skills. Youth can use props, displays, posters, or Power Point to aid in their presentation.

There are over 30 presentation categories that a 4-H’er can choose from. These categories range from horticulture, agricultural science and livestock to cooking, health/fitness and arts and communication. Youth are divided into age brackets for competition and only compete against those in the same category.

County Activity Day was held in April at the Rowan County Cooperative Extension Center. The winners from that event qualified for the South Central 4-H District Activity Day, held June 19 in Harnett County. The following Rowan County 4-H’ers competed at District Activity Day:

Gold medal: Jaysa Causby, age 11-13, category: Agriculture Science (crops); topic: Evolving Agriculture; Holly Wallace, age 14-18, category: open, topic: Walt Disney Goes East.

Silver medal: Sara Blandino, age 9-10, category: Arts & Communication, topic: The History of Barbie; Christian Stebe, age 11-13, category: Bugs and Bees; topic: Products of the Beehive.

Participation: Kailey Wallace, age 11-13, category: Horse, topic: Grooming the Horse.

Causby, Wallace and Stebe qualified for state level competition held in conjunction with 4-H Congress in July.

For more information about Rowan County 4-H, contact Laura Allen at 704-216-8970 or come by the Rowan County Cooperative Extension office at 2727-A Old Concord Road.