Nicodemus 4-H Club reports on year of events
Posted on Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Photo Submitted The Nicodemus 4-H Club held a garden workshop earlier this year.
The 2007-2008 4-H year ended on September 30. For the Nicodemus 4-H club the year was a success... depending on how one determines success.
If you are one who enjoys competition you might determine success by the number of club members whose Benton County Fair entries won honors, such as Champion or Reserve Champion, Best of Show, or were selected for State Fair competition later in October. The Nicodemus 4-H club had several of those.
Perhaps you determine success by how many community service projects the Nicodemus 4-H club was involved in, how many workshops club members led to teach new skills, or maybe there is something else that you measure success by.
If any of you were in 4-H you know that the office of club reporter is one that reports to the public the business of the local 4-H club. Recently, the Herald-Leader informed our club that the paper was interested in publishing local 4-H club reports.
Some of the community service projects the Nicodemus 4-H Club takes part in are baking cookies and filling bags with candy at Christmas to take to shutin's and 4-H supporters, we also hold an annual bake sale at the Siloam Springs IGA with the proceeds going to "Share Our Strength. "Other projects we participated in this year were a coin drive to benefit a little girl with leukemia and an ongoing project to collect can tabs. The can tabs are sold and the proceeds donated to the Arkansas Children's Hospital where there is a fund that helps any 4-H member in the state who becomes a patient there.
We also volunteered with the United Way's Stuff the Bus campaign to collect school supplies for kids whose families cannot afford to purchase them. One of our most important community service projects is to place flags on the graves of veterans at the Weddington Cemetery each year before Memorial Day and then pick them up again following the holiday so that we can put them out again the next year.
Recently, we began a recurring community service project to go once a month to a local facility that provides assisted living to people who need it.
A big part of 4-H activities is contests. Our members participate in everything from cookie decoration and gingerbread house construction contests to public speaking and consumer judging contests; chicken barbecue contests to fish identification and bait casting contests, not to mention the fashion revue and many crafts and livestock projects and journal keeping. This past year our club turned in 31 journals of which ten were selected to compete at the district level or higher. Of those, several were named winners of their categories.
Samantha Brandeberry placed second in the constructed fashion revue at State O'rama and also was on the First place Consumer Judging Team and won first place in Individual Consumer Judging with a perfect score. She placed 6 th in the event on 4-H Day at the AR / OK District Fair in Fort Smith. Three of our members also had items selected for State Fair entries from the projects they exhibited at the Benton County Fair. Mitchell Baker's homemade Christmas card was selected along with a Christmas table centerpiece by Joseph Brandeberry and a sewn pillow case, a Christmas ornament made from a recycled nightlight bulb and a decorated lampshade all by Samantha Brandeberry.
In addition to the county 4-H events, our members also participate in other competitive events that take place outside Benton County and are not sponsored by 4-H but many 4-H members compete in them. Becca Windham and Coleman Honea showed their rabbits at several contests this year and did well in the placing. Aryana Mitchell showed her goat at a couple of the shows prior to the Benton County Fair and did well. Colton Burden, Colton Padgett, Wyatt Padgett and Nate Robinson all showed their beef cattle at AJCA sanctioned shows during the spring and summer and were successful in their classes. Colton Burden also went on to show his cattle at the district fair in Fort Smith.
Our members also take part in other educational and leadership activities. In November, Becca Windham and Samantha Brandeberry both led workshops at Super Saturday. Becca demonstrated how to show Rabbits and Samantha showed an original Power Point presentation about Cancer in Animals and possible treatments. During June and July, many club members participated in Discovery Day tours. We visited the Bloomfield 4-H club's Garden Project, Arvest Ball Park, AERT - where they turn recycled bags into manufactured decking and other materials, Peterson Farms Hatchery, La-Z-Boy, Channel 40 / 29, Horses for Healing, a wildlife rehabilitation center, Countryside John Deere and Sign Artists just to name a few. In August, the club hosted a craft workshop at our meeting place for members of the club and many of our members had the opportunity to attend county 4-H camp at Mt. Sequoia. We also have special guests make presentations to us. One of the things that 4-H Clubs are supposed to do is follow parliamentary procedure. Since a lot of us younger members do not really understand how this works, we invited the Siloam Springs FFA Parliamentary Procedure team to come and give us a demonstration. Some of our club members are also members of the Benton County Teen Leaders. Samantha Brandeberry and Nathan Creasey were part of the Teen Leaders that served as counselors for the Cloverbuds Day Camp held in Siloam Springs in July. Samantha was also elected Song Leader of the Benton County Intermediate Teen Leaders.
Two of the highlights of each 4-H year are the Nicodemus 4-H Achievement Banquet and the Benton County 4-H Achievement Banquet. At our October club banquet each member receives a pin for each year they have been a member of 4-H. We also announced the club champion for the past year. Selection is based on an application that each member fills out. A member cannot win this award two years in a row unless they move up in age groups. This past year Jennie Carter won our Senior Club Champion, Samantha Brandeberry was the Junior Club Champion and Mitchell Baker was the Beginner Club Champion.
To attend to the county achievement banquet held in November you had to turn in a journal back in January. This is the night county awards are handed out, scholarships are presented, and clubs and leaders are recognized. This past November, Samantha Brandeberry was selected winner of the Intermediate County Leadership award and Mitchell Baker and Joseph Brandeberry were selected winners of the two available Outstanding First Year Member awards. In addition, the club fulfilled all the obligations to be named as a Benton County Honor Club and also received a third place incentive award for all the hard work we did during the year.
Finally, our club held officer elections in September. Officers hold their office from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30. For the coming 4-H year, these are the Nicodemus Club Officers: president: Samantha Brandeberry; vice president: Nate Robinson; secretary: Raychelle Hand; treasurer: Becca Windham; reporter: Allison Creasey; photographer: Denver McCormick; song leader: Mitchell Baker; recreation leader: Colton Padgett; inspiration leader: Aryana Mitchell and historian: Nathan Creasey.
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