Skip to content

4-H members show off projects

Achievement Day held Aug. 13
8119743_web1_170816-OMH-M-42turkey2
Carmen Wilson, standing with the turkeys she has been raising since the beginning of the year, earned a ribbon for Best Market Turkey on Achievement Day. Amy Baechmann photos.

By Amy Baechmann

The Lone Butte 4-H club held their annual Achievement Day on Sunday, Aug. 13.

The event gives club members the chance to show their club and members of the community what they have worked on for the last few months.

The club is made up of over 20 members, plus the leaders, some of which couldn’t make it to Achievement Day because of the fire situation.

Most of the project animals were brought the day before the event so they could accustom to their surroundings and give their handlers a better chance of having a calmer animal the next day for showing. Many of the animals’ owners stayed the night, just in case anything happened or a new fire started during the storms and they needed to evacuate.

This year the projects brought to Achievement Day were: horse, dog, beef, poultry, photography, sheep, and swine. Each year people volunteer their time to judge the animals and photos brought to the Lone Butte Community Hall for Achievement Day.

Jillian Eyer judged poultry, Bobby-Jo Dayman judged beef and horse, Kelly Harrop judged swine and sheep, Trish Griffin judged dog and Doerte Pavlik judged photography. The club wants to send out a huge thank you to all the judges and parents who helped with the setup and organizing of the event, even in these tough times. Bobby-Jo Dayman was involved in Alpine 4-H when she was a teenager and participated in such activities also.

Carmen Wilson, a first year 4-H member, says, “4-H is interesting, you have to dedicate a lot of time to your projects, and to the club. It’s a lot like school.”

Club leader, Heidi Meier, who has been the leader for six years in the Lone Butte 4-H Club, says, “4-H teaches children respect, willingness to care for other things, and determination.”

At the end of the day, the judges tallied up the scores of the 4-H members and how they did with their projects, and then handed out ribbons, for best groomed, first in their unit, and showmanship. All the 4-H members received a ribbon, or multiple ribbons, from the Clover buds to the seniors. The judges received camping chairs with the 4-H logo on it as a thank you.

Due to the fires, the club postponed the sale of the projects to Sept. 9, where the projects which are being sold by the kids will be for sale. The club had decided that it was not safe to travel to Williams Lake during this fire season, and risk the health of the animals and club members, just to go to the Show and Sale which starts Aug. 24. Lone Butte Rocks will be held on the same day as the sale, and the club is hoping that people will come and support the kids when they have worked so hard all year, having struggled with the fires and smoke.