By Laura Allen
N.C. Cooperative Extension

On Saturday, June 18, nine Rowan County 4-H’ers competed at the 4-H South Central District Activity Day held in Harnett County. All 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 youths were divided into age categories by their 4-H age (age they were as of Jan. 1, 2022) and by topic area. One 4-H’er participated in 4-H Entertains, a showcase of talent for 4-H’ers.

These youths first competed at our County Activity Day on April 1 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:

Gold winners:

• John Tucker, 8, competed in the agricultural safety and health category. His title was “Safety First.”

• Guy Deal, 10, competed in environmental science. His presentation was entitled “The Soil Investigation Service.”

• David Croyle, 12, competed in the poultry category with his speech called “Crazy Quackers — Life with Backyard Ducks.”

• Carson Halpin, 12, competed in pork char-grill, an outdoor cookery competition where he was judged on his grilling abilities and food safety.

• Mason Gabosch, 14, competed in the small and companion animal category, presenting on the topic of “Puppy Parenting.”

Silver winners:

• Nathan Croyle, 14, competed in the arts and communication category with his presentation on coin collecting entitled “Money Worth Keeping.”

• Olivia Stirrup, 15, competed in the family and consumer sciences category, with the topic of “Stain Removal.”

• German Jaramillo, 16, competed in the fisheries and aquatics category with his presentation “A Look into the Life of Otters.”

Bronze:

• Samantha Simon, 15, presented her speech “GMO, good or bad?” in the health/fitness category.

• For 4-H Entertains, John Tucker performed his original song, “4-H Farm Song” and earned a blue ribbon.

These youths all did a great job representing Rowan County 4-H and gave very thoughtful, technical and thorough presentations. Best wishes to the gold and silver winners who will be representing Rowan County 4-H during the State Presentation Finals in Raleigh on July 16.

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. If you are interested in getting your child involved in 4-H, contact Laura Allen, 4-H Agent, at laura_allen@ncsu.edu or 704-216-8970.

Laura Allen is 4-H agent with the Rowan County Extension.