Fayette County’s 4-H program continues to grow
Frances Borsodi Zajac|Herald-Standard
In this file photo, JoJo Miller of Upper Middletown leads Gideon, her 2-year-old Great Dane, during the agility competition of the 2017 4-H Dog Show at the Indoor Arena on opening night of the fair. Competition for the dog show took place over two nights and included classes in grooming, showmanship, obedience, rally and agility. Fayette County 4-H Dog Club is one of 24 traditional clubs that local youths can join.
Frances Borsodi Zajac|Herald-Standard
In this file photo, Austin Vance of Scottdale is shown during 2017 dairy cattle competition in the Indoor Arena at the Fayette County Fair. Vance won supreme champion with his grand champion Holstein that was an aged cow. Vance also competed in the 4-H Supreme Showman competition. Fayette County 4-H Dairy Club is one of 24 traditional clubs that local youths can join.
Frances Borsodi Zajac | Herald-Standard
In this file photo, Kelsey Kissner of Hiller walks her Boer goat Twisted X back to the barn at the 2017 Fayette County Fair at the fairgrounds in Dunbar Township. The fair features competition for open class and 4-H.
Interest in Fayette County’s 4-H program remains strong with the number of youths involved continuing over the 400 mark.
“We broke 400 last year. Right now, we’re around 430-440 so we’re continuing to grow, which means we’re replacing those who graduate and adding to our numbers,” said Jennifer Deicher, of North Union Township, who serves as Penn State Extension educator, 4-H and youth development for Fayette County.
According to the national website, 4-H is America’s largest youth development organization, delivered by Cooperative Extension through a community of 100 public universities that reach 6 million youths across the country. In Fayette County, 4-H works through Penn State Extension.
Youths ages 8-18 by Jan. 1 of a given year can belong to 4-H. Cloverbuds is a program for youths ages 5-8, introducing them to 4-H in a noncompetitive way.
In Fayette County, these youths belong to 24 traditional clubs, including two Cloverbud clubs: Mountain Area Cloverbuds and the new Uniontown Cloverbuds.
Other Fayette County 4-H clubs include archery, beef, Birds and Bunnies, dairy, dog, goat, 4 Hooves and a Heartbeat Goat Club, lamb, swine, shotgun, Creative Arts, Great Meadows community club, New Horizons community club, robotics, Rolling Hills community club, Sew Cookers, 4-H Garden and four horse clubs: Against All Odds, Bullskin, Dawson and Fairchance. Of these, Birds and Bunnies is new with members involved in chicken and rabbit projects.
Meanwhile, students at Uniontown Area High School started a robotics club that built underwater vehicles and will give a demonstration at the Fayette County Fair.
“It’s a great opportunity for kids to get hands-on learning,” said Deichert of 4-H. “They can study what they’re interested in with a structure set up by a caring adult.”
Youths decide what projects which they want to try. They can choose everything from animals to horticulture to home economics to science.
In addition, more than 3,200 Fayette County students participated in school-based projects, such s embryology, health, geocaching and water conservation.
Other Fayette County 4-H highlights include:
Five members attended the state leadership conference at Penn State University where they developed leadership skills by attending workshops and networking.
Eight members of the shotgun club attended a state-level shooting competition at Penn State in University Park.
A team from the robotics club competed at LaRoche College where they used skills to build and program EV3 robots. Several members competed at State Achievement Days at State College.
Several adult volunteers attended the Western Leader Symposium to increase their knowledge of working with youths and project specific training.
Four members attended the National 4-H Youth Summit for Agri-Science in Washington, D.C.
Three teams competed in the Science of Agriculture Challenge where they research community needs, address a local issue, develop a solution, collect data to test their theory and presented outcomes.
The annual Fayette County 4-H Benefit Auction helps pay for registrations for youths to participate in regional, state and national events as well as programming. The auction also provides funds for scholarships with eight 4-H graduates receiving a total of $7,000 in scholarships in 2017.
Youths pay a $25 annual fee and can belong to as many 4-H clubs as they like although there is an additional $25 for horse clubs. There may also be costs involved with projects.
Nationally, 4-H has been involved with Google and Deichert said Fayette County is now gaining from that relationship.
Deichert, another adult and two teens received training and Pennsylvania 4-H hosted a Southwest Regional Computer Science Retreat in April and the Fayette County 4-H Computer Science Camp in July – both at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus. The camps, open to anyone, explored subjects that included robotics and virtual reality.
Besides youths, Fayette County 4-H is always looking for adults who would like to be leaders, sharing their skills with the next generation.
More information on 4-H is available by calling the extension office at 724-438-0111 or stopping by the Youth Building during the Fayette County Fair, taking place from July 26 through Aug. 4 at the Fayette County Fairgrounds in Dunbar Township.