By Matthew McClellan

Rowan County 4-H agent

For this installment, I think I’ll do some bragging about some of the accomplishments of our Rowan County 4-H members.

Every county has amazing youths who do incredible things within the 4-H program, but we really do have the best of the best here in Rowan County.

There are lots of stories of youth doing great things. Really all 4-H work is good stuff, but I want to focus on some of the personal accolades that some of our youths are receiving because of their dedication and hard work in the 4-H program.

Recently, we had youths at district presentations competition, and all of them placed. We had two bronze medalists — Emily Gobble, who competed in the animal category and talked about care of rat terriers, and Christian Stebe, who competed in the bees and insects category and presented on beekeeping.

Sam Oster won a silver medal with his presentation on peanuts, and Nathan Gobble was a district gold medalist with his presentation on wildlife management. Sam and Nathan qualified for the state 4-H presentations competition to be held next month in Raleigh.

Our horse project members have been busy as well, with three Rowan County 4-H Clubs competing at regional horse shows in the last month. The BCR Trailblazers 4-H Club, Blazing Hooves 4-H Club and East Equine Explorers 4-H Club all had members compete at regional qualifying shows around the state and earn the right to compete at the state 4-H horse show next week in Raleigh.

These members will compete for state awards and the right to represent North Carolina at the Southern Regional Horse Show in Perry, Georgia, later this summer.

I’d also like to recognize Emily Barlow. Emily will represent Rowan County 4-H at the county commissioners annual conference in Durham in August. She will take part in the Youth Voice Summit and meet with county government officials, learn about how government works, take part in leadership opportunities and meet youths from all over the state.

Each year Rowan County 4-H may send one deserving youth to this event and to earn the right to go. To secure her spot, Emily had to present at the county commissioners’ regular meeting, which she did on June 5. She talked about what the 4-H program means to her and thanked the commissioners for their continuing support of the program here in Rowan County.

Finally, I’d like to give a shout out to Makayla Ryder, who is representing Rowan County 4-H on the North Carolina National 4-H Shooting Sports team in air rifle. Makayla is competing in Grand Island, Nebraska, and I don’t have results from the tournament, but I know she is representing the county and state well in competition. Good luck, Makayla.

There are many more stories like this in Rowan County 4-H and we really are blessed with an abundance of riches in this county with the caliber and quality of our youth. There just isn’t enough room here to tell all of their stories.

If you’d like your child to write a similar story, maybe 4-H is the place to start. I’d love to talk to you and find a place for you in our program.

If you’d like more information about the 4-H program in Rowan County,contact me at the Rowan County Cooperative Extension Office in Salisbury by phone at 704-216-8970 or by email mcmcclel@ncsu.edu. I’d love to hear from you.