By Laura Allen

Rowan County 4-H Agent

Last Friday, eight Rowan County 4-H’ers competed at the 4-H District Activity Day held in Lincoln County.

Seven of these youths participated in 4-H presentations, where they had to give a presentation, speech or demonstration to a panel of judges and a classroom full of guests. These youth were divided into age categories and by topic area. One 4-H’er participated in 4-H Entertains, a showcase of talent for 4-H’ers.

These youth first competed at our County Activity Day on April 29 in order to qualify for the district level event. Each of these 4-H’ers spent weeks preparing for their presentation or talent act. During this process, 4-H’ers were able to practice and develop their public speaking and presentation skills while building confidence in their abilities. At District Activity Day, these Rowan County 4-H’ers were competing against 4-H’ers from 18 other counties.

The following Rowan County 4-H’ers participated at District Activity Day on June 14:

Guy Deal, 8, participated in the Cloverbud Division. His presentation was “Grass, It’s What’s For Dinner.”

Holly Wallace, 18, competed in the Health & Fitness category. Her topic was “What is the Low FODMAP Diet?”

Josie Correll, 15, competed in Public Speaking with her speech, “Get On Board With Certified Hereford Beef.” She placed silver (second) and will be traveling to Raleigh to compete at the State Presentations Finals on July 20.

Laney Gabosch, 14, competed in the Foods & Nutrition category with her presentation on “Heart Health.” She placed gold (first) and is eligible to compete at the state level.

Emily Barlow, 15, also competed in the Foods & Nutrition category, presenting “My Pumpkin Bread and Its Health Benefits.” She placed silver (second) and will go on to compete at the state competition.

Allison Mares, 11, competed in the Horse category with her presentation “Arabians.” She is also eligible to compete at the state level.

Christian Stebe, 14, competed in Beef Char-Grill, an outdoor cookery competition where he was judged on his grilling abilities. He placed gold (first) and will compete in Raleigh at the state competition.

David Croyle, 9, participated in 4-H Entertains. He performed his talent act “Super Mario Tunes,” where he dressed as Mario and played Mario tunes on his keyboard.

These youth did a great job representing Rowan County 4-H and gave very thoughtful, technical and thorough presentations. Congratulations to all!

Another recent 4-H competition was for 4-H Project Record Books. For Project Record Books, youths conduct a project on a topic of their choice from January-December and keep records on this project in their Project Record Book. These books are then submitted and judged at the county level.

Several Rowan County 4-H’ers won at the county level and had their project record book submitted to the district level competition. The following youths placed at the district level:

Jaysa Causby, Gold (first), Personal Development & Leadership Project Record Book;

Sam Oster, Gold (first), Science & Technology Project Record Book;

Oster, Silver (second),  Personal Development & Leadership Project Record Book.

If you are interested in getting your child involved in 4-H, or if you would like to help financially sponsor 4-H activities, please contact Laura Allen, 4-H Agent, at laura_allen@ncsu.edu or 704-216-8970.

4-H is the youth development component of Cooperative Extension. Rowan County Cooperative Extension is located at 2727-A Old Concord Road Salisbury, NC 28146.