2020 has taught our 4-H community more lessons than we wanted to have in only one year. With big ups, downs, and new paths our members trekked forward with hope and understanding.

We may have missed some big annual milestones like our awards banquet, the fair, and traditional summer camps, but last Friday we made the end to the year bright with an Awards & Holiday Celebration. We truly could not have done it without the amazing support of Dr. Simonne, our Fair Board, Nassau County BOCC Technical Services & Facilities Maintenance, our Extension staff, and of course a committed and resilient 4-H Community! Thank you to everyone who helped make this event a reality for our youth!

How We Did It

Ms. Kelsey, Mr. Ted, Mrs. Laura, & Mrs. Holli started the discussion of how to have a safe in-person event after the Nassau County 4-H Association pushed for more in-person 4-H activities. We decided to merge our postponed awards celebration with our annual holiday party.

Following both county and UF guidelines our team made the following plan:

1. Be outside to comply with UF policies for larger gatherings. We put our event in the UF portal early just in case we needed to make any adjustments to our planning.
2. Set an absolute maximum capacity of 75 people, which would include all supporting staff, guests, and non-member attendees. We also had a touchless sign-in.
3. Require pre-registration through Eventbrite.
4. Separate families by having a clearly (and festive!) pre-marked large 12 x 12 foot space for each family that was also 6 feet apart from another family group; allowing families to sit together without needing masks.
5. Families brought their own comfort items which reduced risk by using shared tables/chairs set up by others.
6. Make picking up awards easier by allowing winners to select their award instead of being handed one.
7. Still providing a tasty celebratory treat by purchasing individually packaged cupcakes.
8. We added a little extra cheer by giving everyone individually packaged jingle bells.
9. Enjoyed time as a group by watching The Grinch under the stars.

Awards & Honors

Project Books

Project and Record books are a chance for 4-H members to demonstrate their mastery of a specific subject area over the course of the year. These books are submitted and graded each year by agents. Youth can receive awards for completion of project books or progress made toward their goals. This year we had a record-breaking 19 submitted books!

The Following youth completed the Horse Record Book:

• • Raelin Tew– Blue
  • Danyelle Bell– Blue
  • Lainey Walters– Blue
  • Lauren Walters– Blue
  • Kimberly Forster-Red
  • Jack Norstrem-Red
  • Emily Pilcher-Red
  • Charlie Norstrem– white
• Emma Norstrem earned 1 blue ribbon for her horse record book and 2 certificates of progress for the goat and horse project books.
• Kai Laurendine earned 2 blue awards for both the Horse Record book and his sheep record book.
• Kee Laurendine earned 2 blue awards for completing the Horse Record book and sheep record book.
• Tucker Williams earned a blue ribbon for his swine record book
• Tristan Shannon was being recognized for his progress in his Crank it up project book.
• and finally Peyton Brown earned 2 red awards for her lamb and swine record books.

Volunteer Awards

Club Leader of the Year: Patti Walker

Volunteer of the Year: Amanda Stevenson

School Enrichment Volunteer of the Year: Madison Stevenson

Youth Volunteer of the Year: Emma Norstrem

Outstanding Community Partner: Nassau County Florida Farm Bureau

4-H’ers of the Month

• August – Ethan Hatton
• October- Charlie Norstrem
• November- Kaitlyn Malott
• December – Olivia Zabatta
• January – Raelin Tew
• March- Natalie Stevenson

4-H’er of the Year: Kaitlyn Malott!

Giving Back

This year we collected so many items for three different animal rescue organizations!

Our staff & members also created more than 40 letters for first responders!

Faces of Resiliency

Please enjoy some of the friendly faces from our event! All unmasked moments were in compliance with guidelines. Thank you to everyone who braved the cold to celebrate with us!

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