UGA Cooperative Extension

Walton County Extension Office:
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Walton County Jr. & Sr. 4-H'ers big winners at DPA

Walton County Junior and Senior 4-H’ers participated in District Project Achievement (DPA) the weekend of March 4-6th at Rock Eagle. Thirty 4-H’ers, twelve Junior (7th & 8th graders) 4-H’ers and eighteen Senior (9th- 12th grade) 4-H’ers, submitted a portfolio highlighting all their activities for the 2010 year. The portfolio includes project work, helping and sharing, citizenship and teen leader activities, community service involvement including activities outside 4-H. The portfolio accounts for 40% for Juniors and 60% for Seniors of their final score. The remainder of their score comes from a six to twelve minute presentation or demonstration in their project area. Competing were Joseph Ashley-1st-Power & Energy, Michael Ashley-1st-Power & Energy, Courtney Boone-2nd-Target Sports, Katie Brooks-HM-Festive Foods for Health, Wesley Brooks-HM-Outdoor Recreation, Omekah Edmondson-HM-Public Speaking, Lana Goitia-2nd-Horse, Zachary Goitia-HM-Target Sports,  Leah Grimes-HM-Performing Arts-Instrumental, Mitch Hubbard-1st-Poultry & Egg Science, Christina Johnson-3rd-Horse,  Joby Jones-HM-Outdoor Recreation, Tori Jones-HM-Horse, Jacob Mappes-2nd-Performing Arts-General, Daniella Moore-3rd-Festive Food for Health, Davin Moore-2nd-Outdoor Recreation,  Jeshua Moore-1st-Companion Animal Science, William Morris-2nd-History, Hannah Peevy-HM-Dairy & Milk Science, Carleigh Peters-1st-Target Sports, Hannah Peters-2nd-Muffins ,Kristin Phillips-1st-Dog Care & Training, Jessica Polson-1st-Dairy Foods,  Maggie Polson-1st-Food Fare, Daniel Queen-1st–History,   Amber Rogers-1st-Festive Food for Health,  Emily Rogers-1st-Public Speaking, Jessica Rogers-2nd-Food Safety & Preservation, Brittni Sheffield-HM-Health , and Ashly Sorrells-HM-Dairy Foods.  Six Senior Walton County 4-H’ers placed 1st at DPA and will be representing the Northeast District at 4-H State Congress in Atlanta July 19 -22, 2011. Attending 4-H State Congress will be Joseph Ashley, Mitch Hubbard, Kristin Phillips, Jessica Polson, Maggie Polson and Amber Rogers. Glen Blair, 4-H Coordinator reports Walton County had the second largest delegation going to State Congress from the Northeast District (39 counties). If you would like to find out more about the 4-H opportunities, please call the Walton County 4-H office at 770-267-1324.

Walton 4-H Wildlife Judging Teams take top honors in State Contest

Congratulations to Walton County 4-H Junior Wildlife Judging Team for taking top honors at the State competition at Rock Eagle. The State champion Team members were, Blair Caldwell, Andrew Mappes, Ashley Stacy, Connor Hall and Coach Glen Blair, 4-H Coordinator .The contest was at the Rock Eagle 4-H Center , consisted of 4 parts: (1) Evaluate 2 sites and make recommendations for improvements needed for specific species of wildlife. (2) Rank 4 aerial photos to determine which are best for 4 species of wildlife. (3) Prepare and deliver a set of reasons justifying their placing. (4) Identification of foods that birds and animals eat. 4-H’ers learn how to attract birds and animals to their back yard. If you would like to find out more about Wildlife Judging or any or the many other opportunities offered by 4-H, contact the Walton County 4-H office at 770-267-1324 or e-mail gblair@uga.edu.

Walton County Consumer Judging Team

Our Junior Team: Wesley Brooks, Emily Rogers, Brianna Sims and Brittany Sims placed 4th in the Conyers Area contest. Our Senior Team Katie Brooks, Mitch Hubbard, Amber Rogers, and Jessica Rogers also did a wonderful job at the competition. We had a great time preparing for the Consumer Judging contest. We had a scavenger hunt, played puzzle games, produced wonderful cotton commercials, learned every thing there is to know about breakfast cereal, tennis shoes, gift cards and umbrellas, and practiced our judging skills. WAY TO GO 4-H’ers !!

 

 

National Avian Bowl Contest

A trip to Louisville, KY was to represent Georgia in the National 4-H Egg and Poultry Conference to compete in the National Avian Bowl Contest.Team members were: Katie Brooks, Andrew Byrne, Mitch Hubbard and Jessica Polson under the leadership of Bethany Lightfoot. Chris Stephens also coached and due to college classes could not travel with team. The team went through 5 rounds of 15 questions each round. This team came home with 7th place in the nation.

 

 

Walton 4-H Students Compete at State Congress

Rising 11th grade Walton County 4-Hers Joe Ashley, and Maggie Polson recently attended State 4-H Congress 2010 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Atlanta. To qualify for State Congress they had to place first at District Project Achievement, and then they put in many more months of work perfecting demonstrations and interview skills. While at State Congress, besides competing in their project areas, they met new people from all over the state as well as went on donor tours and had a night of fun at Six Flags Over Georgi. Joe Ashley competed in the Power and Energy project giving  a demonstration on restoring cars, and taking 3rd place. Maggie Polson competed in the Food Fare project area, which involved preparing a one-dish meal in under one hour. Maggie made a Mexican Lasagna, and placed 2nd.  Both Maggie and Joe gained a lot from competing at State Congress and hope to qualify and return in 2011.

Wash Your Paws

Walton County 4-H partnered with The Walton County Health Care Foundation, Social Circle City Schools and the Walton County Schools to teach a lesson on Hand Washing to Pre-K through the Fifth grade classes. The WCHCF gave 4-H a grant of $3005 to purchase supplies and equipment for the program. Because of the concern about the possible outbreak of the H1N1 flu, Glen Blair, Extension Agent offered to teach the Hand Washing lessons while setting up the regular 4-H meetings with the school principals. Seven of the school principals have taken advantage of Blair’s offer. The lessons consist of two parts; a video “All Hands on Deck” that described when and how to properly wash hands and a demonstration of how “germs” can be transferred by the students to other students or objects used by other students by using “Glitterbug Potion” and a black light. Care was used to assure the students we did not put germs on their hands, only the “Glitterbug Potion” which will glow under a black light. The lessons were taught by the Walton County Extension staff; Judy Ashley, Glen Blair, Kathy Sasser and Michelle Rogers. Over 3500 students will receive the training. The goal of the program is to prevent the spread of infectious disease in the schools.

Juniors & Seniors Project Achievement

14 Juniors and 10 Seniors traveled to Rock Eagle the weekend of March 6,7 & 8 to compete in the District Project Achievement contest. All the Juniors placed in the top 3 and 2 of the Seniors were in the top 3 placings. Attending were Leah Grimes in Arts, Amber Rogers Better Breakfast, Davin Moore Consevervation of Natural Resources, Andrew Byrne Phys., Bio. & Earth Science, Jessica Rogers Festive Foods for Health, Katie Brooks Festive Foods for Health, Jessica Polson Food Fare, Maggie Polson Food Fare, Makayla Clegg Horse, Tori Jones Horse, Sara Parr Horse, Elyse Moon Human Development, Omekah Edmondson Muffins, Kelsey Wilson Outdoor Recreation, Joby Jones Outdoor Recreation, Nat Lalaian Performing Arts-Instrumental, Victoria Williams Performing Atrs Dance, Rebekah Clegg Performing Arts Vocal, Joseph Ashley Photography, Daniella Moore Plants & Soil Science, Mitch Hubbard Poultry & Egg Science, Michael Mappes Sheep & Meat Goats, Alyssa Stone Sheep & Meat Goats and Courtney Broone Sheep & Meat Goats.

Events

Walton County 4-H Goat Club hosted the Ninth Annual 4-H Goat Master Classic goats show in May 2010, over 250 goats were entered in the show. The Market show numbers increased from 100 goats in 2009 to 171 goats this year. Youth exhibitors doubled to 120 4-H'ers and FFA exhibitors. The Goat Club just completed the "Pen Project". Walton County 4-H Goat Club own 100 pens used to hold the goats at these shows. The Goat Club used the pens to draw the Georgia Dairy Goat Breeders Annual show to Walton County. The Club plans to host more show in the future.

Cloverleaf 4-H'ers go to Camp Wahsega

The 4-H Cloverleaf (5th & 6th grader) Campers traveled to Wahsega 4-H center this year for a week of camping in the mountains. We had 115 4-H'ers, Teenleaders, Volunteers and 4-H Staff at the camp. The Campers learned about teamwork, overcome their fears on the zip line, played in the cool stream water falls, learn new songs & dances and made memories that will last a lifetime.

Juniors Attend Camp at Jekyll Island 4-H Center

Seventeen Walton County 4-H'ers go to the week long camp on Jekyll Island. While at the camp they swim in the ocean, play on the beach, learn about the ecology, visit a turtle hospital, take a boat ride to Racoon Cove, go shopping on Saint Simmon Island, dance and the list goes on and on of all the fun.

Last update April 1, 2011