Tierney Watkinson
Special to The Tribune
Hello again, from the Springhouse 4-H Club.
It’s been a while since I’ve actually reported anything, which is strange because it seems like something 4-H-related has been happening just about every weekend. Our club has been up to a lot of things lately.
March 5 we had our district speeches, which were held at Mountview elementary. Matthew Armes, Tyrell Watkinson, Wyatt Armes, and Madison Blusson — who placed first and second in our club’s senior and junior categories, respectively — all competed.
They all did awesomely. (As I say this, I’m hoping “awesomely” is actually a word). Matthew came third as a senior member and Wyatt also came third as a junior member.
Tyrell and Madison didn’t place, but they weren’t far behind. Congrats, guys!
A quick note: When I say senior, I mean a 4-H member who is 13 to 21 years old.
A junior member is nine to 12 years old.
Cloverbuds, who only compete at club level with their speeches, are the youngest members.
On April 16, our club held a practice judging rally at Hugh and Jane Flinton’s.
About half of our members (we’re not many in number this year) were unable to attend because some of us are also members of high school rodeo, which was that weekend, too.
But for the most part, I think everyone learned something.
April 30 was our Springhouse 4-H Club Petting Farm and Beef-On-A-Bun-Sale. Save-On-Foods hosted our fundraiser, and also very generously supplied the cooking equipment and all of the beef, sauces, and other goodies we sold.
Thank you, Save-On Foods!
And thank you to everyone else who generously donated to our 4-H club
Our event began fairly early in the morning and went on until 4 p.m. that day. We had a bunny, a horse, a couple chickens, a dog, and a ewe and lambs. We were a hit.
Our first judging rally was on May 1, in 100 Mile House.
It began at 10 a.m. and ended after noon. Each member had to judge four projects. We had 20 minutes per project to judge. Our club did very well.
June 11 was the next rally, this time held at the William’s Lake Stockyards.
We were able to hand in our show and sale posters that day. Be sure to look around town for them.
Our own Madison Blusson got second for her poster as a junior, and Maeghan Watkinson got second as a senior.
We also later found out that Courtney Rankin had won grand aggregate senior judge, and was asked to attend a 4-H regional judging competition in Vancouver from July 15 to 17. Way to go, guys!
June 18-19 was the Cow Camp at Dawn Armes. All of the beef members had a fun weekend of playing soccer and learning about grooming and showing their beef projects.
Then, on July 1, our club built our float for the parade, with the theme being “To Grow Outward,” I believe. It took a couple of hours to set up.
The next day, July 2, was the Stampede Parade. As a youth group, we won first; overall we won second.
We didn’t have a hot-dog sale this year, unfortunately, so we had to search elsewhere for food.
Finally, our club fun day was July 16. Lots of hotdogs, chips, pop, skipping rocks, and swimming. Woot!
Wyatt Armes also announced that he would be going to a 4-H camp for juniors in Kamloops, and was looking forward to all of the shaving cream fights.
Tyler Stanke and Taya Sepkowski, our Cloverbuds, also showed us the cool cat pillows they had made, and told us about some of the other things they had been learning about as Cloverbuds!
We all looked forward to our club achievement day, Aug. 13, where showed off our projects to all the club members and their families and friends.
But the most excitement is definitely in anticipation of the up-coming show and sale, which begins Aug. 19.
In our club, we will have beef, sheep, swine, dog, photography, and Cloverbud members displaying and sometimes selling their projects at the Stockyards this year.
See you there!