Celebrate 4-H youth at the fair

PHILLIPS — The Price County Fair and 4-H are synonymous in terms of purpose and in providing a way to celebrate the accomplishments of youth from kindergarten through high school with the community in a very fun and engaging atmosphere.

Summer is a busy time for our Price County 4-H families, said Julie Diepenbrock, 4-H program educator for Price and Taylor counties. The Price County Fair runs from Aug. 21-25 and is a great opportunity for others to see the 4-H member projects and see what they’ve been working on and learning about all year.

“Whether you wander through the barns and chat with some of our 4-H members about their animals, sit a while and watch one of the animal shows, visit the Junior building to see the huge variety of projects our 4-H members have created, or attend the MAS auction, our youth appreciate the community support,” Diepenbrock said. “And, of course, grab a meal, ice cream, a malt or mini donuts or bid on a Silent Auction basket at the 4-H Dining Hall to help support 4-H throughout the coming year. All of these are great ways to show your support for Price County 4-H.”

The 4-H junior class entries are judged from 3 to 7 p.m. the Wednesday the fair opens and include clover buds, electricity, clothing, computers, home furnishings, self determined-youth leadership, cultural arts, nutrition and foods, photography, flowers and houseplants, health, social and political sciences, booths, banners and scrapbooks, natural science, mechanical projects, family and child development, animal and veterinary science (non animal), knitting and crocheting, woodworking, junior plant and soil, and communications.

“It is a great place for the kids to exhibit, to showcase what they have done and learned throughout the year,” Diepenbrock said.

The judging at the fair is done face-to-face, she said. The kids sit down and the judge will ask them to talk about their project. The judges ask the youth why they chose a particular project, what were the challenges and other interaction between expert mentors and 4-H youth to help develop skills.

In addition to the specific skills it is those relationships that are nurtured at the fair among peers and with mentoring adults is what 4-H and the fair is all about. Allowing the kids to explore what 4-H calls their “sparks,” that sudden interest that can be pursued as one of many interests or it may become a lifelong passion.

During the fair the 4-H kids volunteer to staff the food booth in the dining hall. This year, in addition to the pulled pork and sandwiches they will be selling mini-donuts, ice cream and malts.

“There is also a silent auction in there,” she said.

“One of the big things for kids is being able to explore those things,” she said.

Other ways that 4-H participates during the Price County Fair is through the Dining Hall, Silent Auction, Market Animal Sale, and Farm Olympics, she said.

People think of 4-H as all about animals and while that is a big part of 4-H there are many other types of fun learning opportunities, she said. There are more than 100 different non-animal 4-H projects on display at the fair such as the static exhibits in the junior exhibit building.

“Things like woodworking, canning, crops, Lego creations, just all kinds of things that they've done,” Diepenbrock said.

When kids sign up for 4-H, they will indicate which projects they're interested in, she said. Over time, they are also exposed to other activities and when they show interest they can choose to do a project in that area, such as bread making or cake decorating, when a 4-H kid might want a project they can do with their grandmother.

A photo exhibit in the fair dining hall has a sign that says “4-H is more than just animals.” This is to show fairgoers and prospective 4-H kids and parents photos of kids doing all of the arts and crafts, and foods from their 4-H fun days, summer camp, day camps, and library programs.

“You'll see pictures of many of the kids and the different projects,” Diepenbrock said. “There's even some travel experiences that the kids can go on. There's one called “American East.” that they go to Niagara Falls and Boston and it's a great opportunity for them.”

The fair exhibits are one way for people to see all of that, she said. Taking a trip through the Junior Exhibit is another way for kids and parents to see the things that 4-H is doing that they weren’t aware of before.

“Last week I was at the Taylor County Fair and this one kid was like, ‘oh, I didn't know that you could enter Legos in the fair. I want to be in 4-H and be able to enter some of my Lego stuff,’” she said. “Part of that is because he just walked through the exhibit.”

In terms of entrees, photography is the largest 4-H project in the state of Wisconsin, she said. This is because more youth are enrolled in photography than any other project.

Three day camps this year at Elk Lake Park, Smith Lake and Timm’s Hill. The day camps included an introduction to photography activity which included artistice, technical and even etiquette portions.

Preparing for the fair competitions helps instill drive in kids along with some leadership skills, she said. The projects are a learning experience and the guidelines, rules and judging interviews all helps develop well-rounded, responsible kids.

The Price County Fair Board takes care of all of the details, with 4-H as a partner of the fair. The fair board gets the judges while the kids do a lot of the work to prepare the buildings and static exhibits. You can see the kids doing the cleaning and painting in the weeks leading up to the fair.

The 4-H Horse Council has been running a monthly speed show out at the fairgrounds all summer. There are also horse clinics throughout the year to teach kids about different kinds of riding, the different kinds of saddles, taking care of their horse, feeding, and a variety of topics.

“That's true in all of our animal projects, that they do a good job of education,” she said. “But it's also a lot of fun for the youth. So the horse show is really fun to watch and typically it's weather dependent.”

On Sunday afternoon, the 4-H'ers do a Farm Olympics, which is a games event to let off some steam after all the hard work and wrap up the fair with some fun.The 4-H members and their parents are joined by former 4-H people at the event.

“They do it in the barn and they just have a really good time,” she said.

The 4-H membership has decreased somewhat over the years as kids have more opportunities now than they did 20 or 30 years ago, she said. The membership is stabilizing, however, and shows an increase over recent years with 121 youth members and 36 adult volunteers.

“In a small county, that's a lot of kids,” Diepenbrock said. “The age in the county has been going up and there aren't as many kids here in Price County as 50 years ago.”

Price County 4-H page has a lot of information on programming and the Facebook page provides the day to day updates on activities and events. This is also a spreadsheet online to get a glance at the clubs to see what the main age groups are in each one and what kinds of things they are doing.

“So, if you’ve got an 8-year-old who is thinking about rabbits, then you kind of look and see, ‘oh this club has mostly older kids, and this one has a couple other kids that are interested in rabbits too,’” she said. “That can kind of help with the process.”

Parents can also bring their kids to visit a club before deciding whether to join, she said.

For more information on Price County 4-H, contact Diepenbrock at julie.diepenbrock@wisc.edu or 715-748-3327 x289. Also visit price.extension.wisc.edu/4-h-youth-development.