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Prairie County

Prairie County 4-H provides members opportunities to learn leadership, citizenship, and life skills

Published: 2020
By Sharla Sackman
The Prairie County 4-H program provides educational opportunities in a wide variety of 4-H project areas. 93% of 4-H members participated in at least one project workshop during the 4-H year. Projects highlighted were horsemanship, scrapbooking, photography, cooking, visual arts, and livestock. 4-H members demonstrated competence and confidence in these project areas during the 4-H interview judging process at All Events Day and the Prairie County Fair. In 4-H we are intentional about providing youth opportunities to gain communication, leadership and teamwork skills to enable them to become contributing citizens. Volunteer leaders and 4-H teen leaders were engaged to lead project workshops with the county agent. 91% percent of Prairie County 4-H members over the age of 13 served in county-wide leadership roles during the 4-H year by coordinating county events and teaching at project workshops. Prairie County was proud to have 4-H Ambassador Chay VanDyke serve as the State Ambassador Officer representative to the Montana Extension Advisory Committee. Each year, 4-H members look forward to participating in regional and statewide 4-H activities. The COVID-19 pandemic limited or altered some of those opportunities, however Prairie County 4-H members were able to participate in the Junior High Ski Trip, Eastern Montana Regional Small Animal Judging, and virtual Montana State 4-H Congress. Southeastern Montana 4-H Camp did not take place, but teen counselors recorded videos and organized activities so each participating county could implement their own local “camp” program. Prairie County’s camp counselor Molly Eaton recorded a video tutorial on a dream catcher craft project to go along with videos recorded by other counselors presenting a flag ceremony from Camp Needmore and interactive team building games. These experiences provided an opportunity for 4-H members to network with other 4-H members, gain communication skills, and take on leadership roles outside of the county.
4-H foods workshop