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Phillips County

4-H in Phillips County

Published: 2020
By by Sarah Townsend
2020 was certainly a year for the record books. As COVID-19 began impacting the country in late winter, Phillips County MSU Extension began altering plans for 4-H spring and summer programming. This included switching many regular face-to-face programs such as monthly club meetings, Cloverbuds, Youth Quality Assurance training, and even 4-H Camp, to online platforms. While participation decreased in many elective 4-H activities, it was encouraging to see club leaders and 4-H members get creative while having to social distance. The greatest alterations to summer programs were to the 4-H Fair and Livestock Sale. While we were thankful for healthy enrollment numbers in the market animal projects, our fairgrounds weren’t large enough for members to distance and hold a fair as usual. An adjusted fair schedule had members exhibit their animals on the day of their show, and most animals did not stay overnight. 4-H shows were not open to the public, so a 4-H and FFA Facebook page was created to live stream the shows, as well as showcase the indoor 4-H exhibits and awards. The Livestock Sale was converted with the help of an online auction company. This increased accessibility for buyers while keeping crowd size to a minimum. While buyers could attend an in-person component of the sale, youth and market animals were not present. Instead youth submitted a pre-recorded sale video of their animal. The sale was a success with 84 animals being sold for $238,087 in total sales, $62,264 of which was sold over the internet. Even with the alterations to programs and the fair, we received a lot of good feedback about implementing some of the changes, as 4-H families found it was a great way to do some things. In spite of more unknowns in the coming year, we are confident we can continue to deliver a quality 4-H program due to the challenges and growth we all experienced.
4-H camp packets for the Multi-county Virtual 4-H Camp.