Heather Haines, 4-H Agent, UGA Extension Forsyth County
4-H is the nation’s largest youth leadership development organization empowering nearly six million young people across the U.S. with the skills to lead for a lifetime. As a program of the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Cooperative Extension System, 4-H is part of the nationwide Extension network.
Georgia is proud to be one of the largest state programs in the country with more than 240,000 active 4-H’ers across the state. The mission of Georgia 4-H is to assist youth in acquiring knowledge, developing life skills, and forming attitudes that will enable them to become self-directing, productive, and contributing members of society. This mission is accomplished, through “hands on” learning experiences, focused on agricultural and environmental issues, agriculture awareness, leadership, communication skills, foods and nutrition, health, energy conservation, and citizenship.
4-H’ers are known for sharing their research-based knowledge, and in 2022 the local 4-H program provided many opportunities for youth to find their spark. 26 local 4-H’ers participated in Project Achievement, 4-H’s yearly public speaking contest. Topics ranged from Dog Care and Training, to cooking, to science! 7 students placed 1st in their respective categories and one high school student had the opportunity to continue on to the state level in the Beef category.
The local 4-H program also offered youth to grow their knowledge by participating in judging teams. Local students in 4th-12th grade participated in Poultry Judging, Wildlife Judging, Forestry Judging, and Cotton Boll and Consumer Judging. The Junior Poultry Judging Team placed 4th and Senior 4-H’er Wendy Taylor placed 3rd overall. At the Wildlife Judging contest, local 4-H’ers were able to secure top 3 honors in management practices, general knowledge, and identification. The Junior Forestry Judging Team placed 5th overall, and at the Cotton Boll and Consumer Judging Contest Rishabh Sahasrabudhe placed 2nd in Placing and Reasons for the Cloverleaf division.
27 youth led by a group of volunteer coaches were able to hone their archery skills and participate in two state matches. At the State Indoor Archery Match, Sri Eesha Datla placed 1st in the Fita Recurve Junior division. Maya Wood placed 3rd in the Junior Female Recurve division. At the state archery match, Clark Christensen placed first for Cloverleaf Novice; Maya Wood placed 5th in Junior Recurve; and the Junior Recurve Team placed 3rd overall.
Youth also had the opportunity to work with livestock animals and show them at county and state livestock shows. At the Junior National Livestock Show, Timothy Laszlo and his goat placed 6th in the showmanship class! At the Georgia National Fair Livestock Shows, Timothy and his goat were able to advance to the grand drive round in showmanship and received 5th place out of the two 6th grade brackets. Dustin Thomas and his goat received 7th place in his showmanship class, and Emma Ball secured 9th place in her showmanship class.
In additional to these educational events, youth were also able to attend district and state-wide conferences, participate in community service projects, travel to residential summer camp, and participate in local summer day camps. If you are looking for somewhere to get your family plugged into in 2023, 4-H could be the perfect fit! Youth in 4th-12th grade are invited to join us on January 11 from 7PM-8PM at our office at 5110 Piney Grove Road to learn about all of the events that will be happening in 2023!
For more information about registering to become a member of the local 4-H Program or how to get involved, please call the Forsyth County Extension / 4-H Office at 770-887-2418 or send an email to forsyth.extension@uga.edu. In Forsyth County, 4-H is supported by The University of Georgia, Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, Forsyth County Board of Education, and United Way of Forsyth County.