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Impact Report

For plan Youth Development (McKinley County)
Date October 31, 2011, 3:23 pm
For Objective Medium-term Show medium-term objectives
Impact Report Youth Development - 4-H Project Coordination Situation McKinley has 104 traditional 4-H members and 82 Cloverbud members for a total of 186 enrolled in community clubs. Of the 186 traditional members, 63 were 1st year members, 55 were 2-3 year members, and 68 were members for over 4 years. These number represents a 10% overall increase over last year. The county has 10 community clubs for members to join and be a part of - 88% of the members developed skills relating to the projects they were enrolled in as is evident through their project completion, which includes, but not limited to, livestock shows, shooting contest, horse shows, indoor project competition and record book completion. 75% of the members displayed leadership traits through local club work by serving as officers, committee members, pledge leaders, etc. The Agent spent a substantial amount of time in assisting members, parents and volunteer leaders with the various livestock projects. These projects are designed to directly impact youth and increase their life skills. Members complete their projects at the Crownpoint – Eastern Agency Fair, Bi-County Fair, Ramah – Navajo Fair, Navajo Nation Fair, New Mexico State Fair, and the Northern Agency – Shiprock Fair. In 2011 the Bi-County Fair Junior Livestock Auction raised over $86,000 in sale receipts and “add-on’s” to 4-H members that made the sale. This past year in the county we had 8 market steers, 40 market sheep, 32 market swine, 5 market goats, 34 breeding animals (including sheep, and goats), 85 poultry entries, and 12 rabbit entries. Activities include: • Feeds & Feeding Workshop- The agent coordinated a program in March for members, leaders and parents about feeding and care of a market animals – this was presented by Purina Mills sales representatives. Through this education, members developed skills in all aspects of raising and showing animals as well as life skills, which include responsibility and dedication - 12 members and parents attended the workshop. • Home Visits - The agent set aside time to visit each member and check their projects as they progressed, this included weighing their animals and discussing the feeding and exercising practices. The agent evaluated the animals and suggestions were given to help make the project a success. Home visits are a great way for the agent to interact with members and parents on a one on one basis in a setting they felt comfortable in and able to ask many questions relating to their livestock projects. • Bi-County Fair - this is a joint fair conducted for youth in both Cibola and McKinley Counties. The Fair runs five days and members exhibit their animals as well as indoor entries for the entire length of the fair. The fair celebrated is 42nd year this past September. Over 78 members (from both counties) exhibited 4-H animal projects (200 large animals entries) - 58 entries qualify for the Junior Livestock sale that brought in over $86,000 dollars. The agent assisted many members while at the fair and assisted with shows and performed many odd jobs during the week. Members at the county fair exhibited 347 indoor 4-H projects – this is an increase of over 100 projects this year. • 4-H Shooting Sports McKinley County has a growing shooting sports program. Disciplines include shotgun, .22 rifle, .22 pistol, and air rifle, compound archery and recurve archery. Our shooting sports program begins in late November with an organizational meeting presented by the agent and volunteer leaders. The agent is responsible for finding leaders in each discipline and working with the Gallup Shooters and the Archery Club to schedule practices at the only range in the county. Every member is required to receive safety training and the agent always recruits leaders that emphasize safety above everything else. Bi-weekly practices are held as the weather allows – the archery youth are allowed to practice at the indoor archery range. 22 members participated in practices throughout the year and members participated in county contests as well as district for the novice and junior members and state for the senior members. 4-H Rocketry Project This year a 4-H group did nothing but rockets. 29 youth built and decorated their rockets. The agents and leaders educated them on various safety guidelines for the rockets and they also learned to work together and help the younger members. We are waiting to set a launch date for these rockets. State Events This year four members and one agent participated in Senior Leadership Retreat in Albuquerque. Members learned many valuable leadership skills that they brought back to the county program. The also got a chance to meet and socialize with other 4-H members throughout the state. Seven members and two leaders participated in Youth Get-Away at Camp In low this year. All the members had a great time and learned communication and team building skills. The also got a chance to get to know other members throughout the state. 15 members and four parents attended and participated in the Northwest/Northeast District 4-H Contest. These youth were able to compete in various contests over the two-day period. One member and one agent got a chance to participate in State 4-H Conference. These members judged at the state level and got to be a part of the State 4-H Council and electing a new leadership team. One member and a parent were also able to attend Home Ec School. This was a great training for this youth, usually very shy and sort of a loner, she came home full of ideas for not only her home economic projects, but also how to make her club better and to get more youth involved. The parent learned so much from other parents and leaders that he wants to go back next year with more kids. Home Ec School gives youth a chance to learn about basic sewing, scrapbooking, quilting, and canning just to name a few things – this school is great because sometimes in a county setting if they are the only ones interested they don’t get the full picture of the project. 5 youth and their parents attended the state shooting sports – it was a good experience for all. Two leaders went to the leaders certification workshop for shooting sports in Farmington; they each came home certified in 2 different areas. This training has benefitted them as leaders, as well as, they youth participant in shooting sports – even cloverbud members are being taught the safety rules for handling bb gun and small archery equipment (bows with suction cup arrows). Thanks to the training and work with the youth we had a very successful year at district contest winning most of the team awards and high point individual awards. Expanded 4-H The agent is responsible for delivering the YCC Master Gardener Program to the member of the youth conservation core run by the city of Gallup. This is a program that teaches the basics of plant growth including soil, seeds, plant nutrient needs, and insects, as well as, water resources and conservation and riparian management. A different approach was taken this year with the students instead of classroom teaching; we did hands on teaching with local gardeners. This was great for the students to actually work in backyard garden along side the gardener themselves. They learned about growing the product and then selling it at the farms market. These youth were also involved with the local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) group – they assisted in growing the crops and maintaining the gardens. Other Phone Calls Agent has answered over 33 calls throughout the year with individuals asking about lawns, rose bushes, trees and insect. This is a normal call load for this past year – could be more calls related to the amount of rain we got compared to other years. Agent has been able to utilize NMSU specialist, other extension agents and publications to assist in answering many questions. District Horse Show 2010 The agent hosted and organized the annual horse show. This event is rotated between the 7 counties in the Northwest 4-H District and is open to those 4-H members. Due to low attendance for the 2009 district horse shows state-wide last year, the agent opened up this years show to any 4-H member in the state and agreed to host in a central location instead of in their home county. Youth from every district participated in this horse show in June – Northwest District had 28 participants, Southwest District had 13 participants, Southeast District had 2 participants and the Northeast had 1 participant. It was a challenge for the 4-H agent and leaders to organize this event happening 200 miles from home, but other county agents helped with getting the needed equipment and the day of the event parents helped when they weren’t busy with their own kids. Parents and kids expressed thanks that the event was moved to a more central location and that they didn’t have to travel so far to participate. Over 44 youth participated in 32 events, the event started at 8 am and ended by 4 pm – it was an extremely successful show – the youth said they had fun and made new friends.