County Events is a 4-H event where 4-H members (8-18 years old) complete a demonstration, illustrated talk, or speech on various subject areas at the county level. Judges provide them with comments and award them a score that decides their placing. A score of 90-100 receives a blue ribbon, 80-89 receives a red ribbon, and a 79 and below receives a white ribbon. If a participant receives a blue ribbon, and they have the highest score in their subject area and age division, they receive a purple rosette ribbon. Any participant that receives a blue ribbon qualifies to participate in District Events which includes all blue-ribbon winners in Indian River, St. Lucie, Brevard, and Martin County! This year, District Events is scheduled for April 30th, 2022, and will be held in Indian River County.
On Saturday January 22nd 2022, Indian River County held their 4-H County Events program in person for the first time since COVID-19 began. All CDC guidelines were adhered to and it was great to see our 4-H members in person again! To participate in County Events, 4-H members had to register online via Google forms. This was a new strategy this year and it went over well. After the deadline of January 7th for registration, the IRC Extension Office worked diligently to prepare all materials needed to have a successful event.
Bright and early on Saturday morning, faculty & staff worked to set up the event before judges arrived at 8 am. When the volunteer judges arrived they went through a thirty-minute orientation going over tips and tricks, rules, and the description of demonstration topics. 4-H members began checking in at 8:30 am and all fourteen participants were checked in by 9 am. After all participants were signed in, we began the presentations!
At first, many of the participants were nervous to present in front of an audience but with some great encouragement from parents and the Extension Office personnel, they were comfortable and confident. It was a very successful event and the audience got to watch demonstrations on how to make beef jerky, properly play volleyball, make yummy shepherd’s pie, and even got to learn how to make homemade valentine-themed play dough! The judges were given samples and recipes to take home and enjoy. There were speeches about the Titanic and illustrated talks about colic in horses. There was a wide range of subjects that the 4-H’ers presented on, and the audience was very supportive of all presenting youth. They all did amazing, and the Indian River County Extension Office is very proud and amazed by the amount of talent that we saw at our 2022 4-H County Events!
0
