[ March 25, 2022 ] On the heels of Junior-Senior DPA at Rock Eagle where Pickens County 4-Hers broke records, cloverleaf 4-Hers from Pickens County traveled to Union County on Saturday, March 19th to show off their hard work and come back winners as well.

These 4-Hers were from both Harmony Elementary and Jasper Middle School. Once again, every single 4-Her placed with over 300 competitors in attendance! Pickens County was even recognized as the county at the competition with the highest percentage of first place winners!

First, each 4-Her had to learn about a subject area of interest. We had subjects ranging in everything from robotics to braille. After a speech of 4 minutes was developed, then display boards had to be prepared. Since Junior-Senior DPA had just been completed two weeks before, these students had a limited time to get ready for this competition. However, they did this and their hard work really showed.

Representing 4th grade at Harmony Elementary School:

Sophie Morgan did a presentation on Van Gogh in the Arts category focusing on the Sunflower and Starry Night paintings.

Siobhan Towers was in the Public Speaking category who pled with the audience to help save her favorite animal?the panda.

Both of these students were awarded first place in their respective categories.

Representing 5th grade at Jasper Middle School:

Otoniel Bautista made a great after school snack in the food fare project. He created a snack called "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" using celery, peanut butter, grapes, and apples.

Natasha Flores was in the very competitive International Project. She talked about the holiday celebrated in Mexico called the Day of the Dead.

Beau Tate told us about Robotics as he covered the history of robots and explained exactly what constitutes a robot. He even made his own "BoardBot" that he made from a tin can and created a code so that it would respond with a loud noise.

Viridiana Valdovinos was in the Clothing and Textiles project. She had her audience travel south of the border with textiles.

All of these students came home with blue ribbons.

Representing 6th grade at Jasper Middle School:

Amelia Hooker competed in the Forestry project. Her presentation was entitled "Deforestation Destruction". She selected this topic after studying about deforestation in school. Amelia awarded second place.

These 4-hers were accompanied by Justin Fellenbaum, Pickens County agent; Traci Buckingham and Melvina Carlan, Pickens County 4-H volunteers; Teen Leaders Sheila Flores, Molly Hooker, and Ryan Johnson; Mr. and Mrs. Joe Morgan, Will Tate, and Lupita Gonzalez who were family members of the 4-Hers.

The Pickens County 4-H program presently serves all 5th and 6th graders at Jasper Middle School. However, any child in Pickens County in 4th through 12th grade can be a part of the 4-H program whether in public school, private school, or home school.

There are over 60 project areas that youth can learn more about through this program. You can look at a more complete list of project areas on the Georgia 4-H website georgia4h.org.

Pickens County 4-H also has a focus on developing leadership skills and have students participate in community service. If you are interested in having a family member get involved in 4-H, you can contact the county 4-H office at 706-253-8840. You can also find out more about what activities are going on in 4-H locally by looking at the 4-H Facebook page at Georgia 4-H Pickens County.