Once the fair is all over, there is still a recognition program to attend in the fall. This year it will be on October 29, 2018. This is where you can receive any of the following pins: bronze, silver, gold, leadership, community service, and public speaking. If you receive the last four pins I listed, you are in the running for the outstanding 4-Her of the year award. I do have enough points for the gold, public speaking, community service, and the leadership pins, so I am in the running. I filled out the application needed to be qualified for this award, but I will not know if I won this award until October. I cannot wait to see what happens.
This is my second project that got to go to the state fair. This project is my Star Spangled Foods project. I had to present this project at 9:00 a.m. I had to wake up pretty early because I do not live that close. Once I got there, I checked in. This is nutrition day, so the judging is different. First you have to take a tie beaker quiz, then you have to take a MyPlate quiz, then you have to go to the portfolio station, and then you have to go to the interview station. Once they told us what we had to do, I was able to go into the judging circle.
When I was in there, I took the tie breaker quiz first. I felt really good on this quiz because I knew all of the answers. Then, I went to the MyPlate quiz station. This was a lot harder, so I made sure to take my time and to stay calm. I did not have the greatest feeling about this quiz, but I feel like I had logical answers. After that quiz, I went to the portfolio station. This is where a judge looks at your portfolio and asks you questions on what you did. Finally, I got to go to the interview station. This is where a different judge asks you questions on your book. These questions are very random, so you have to know your book by heart. Thankfully, I flew by these questions. When I was done judging, I got to leave the circle with a participation ribbon. Judging took an hour, so I still had six hours until awards. They were going to be presented at 4:45 p.m. My mom and I walked around the fair for a while. Then we left the fair to go get some food and then we headed back for awards. Once the time came around, I went to go stand by the entree way before the awards. It took them an extra 45 minutes before we were allowed to enter the circle. Then we sat there for another 10 minutes. They finally started the awards. I did not think that I would win anything, so I was there to support the people from Franklin County. Once they got to my group, they called up the two people who were in the top 20%. I was one of those people. I have never received this award before, so I was very excited. Then they called the clock trophy winner. I won the clock trophy! I was so surprised and so happy that I could not wait to show my mom. It was a great way to end a long fair week with an acknowledgement of all of the hard work I put into my projects. Today was a very exciting day. It is the day that I get to take my Club Leadership 2 project to the state fair. When I got there, I had to check in. I was the first person that got to present my project. At state fair, their judging circle is a lot bigger than the one we have at our county fair. I have been to state fair before, but every time I go, it is a whole new experience.
Once I got checked in, I headed into the circle. Then we had to wait until our number was pulled up. I was J-303. When they got to my number, I set my board on the table and I put the binder on the table. Then I shook the judge's hand. Once I sat down, I started my speech. I only had seven minutes to present my project. Then the judge would ask about my project and what extras I did to extend past the project. After I was done, the judge handed me my score sheet and a participation ribbon. Unfortunately, before I left the judging circle I saw that I got docked points because I was nervous. So at that time I knew that I was not in the running for the top 20% or the clock trophy. Out of every group, they give the top 20% a ribbon and whoever is the winner, they give them a clock trophy. My judging was at 1:00 p.m. and awards were not until 4:30 p.m. so I had time to spend walking around the state fair. I walked around the fair grounds with my family until the awards. Then, when it was time to come back for the awards, we went back to the 4-H building. All of the 4-Her's were then called back into the circle to sit down. Then they started the awards for each of the groups. When they came upon my group, they called the two people who were in the top 20%. I was not called, therefor I was not in the running for the clock trophy. In the end, I was glad that I had the experience at the state fair and I will definitely use this as a learning experience for the future. Today was very rainy day. We were supposed to have a Horse Less Horse Fun Show, where everyone could participate in fun games and win ribbons. One of the games that we had was a wheel barrel race. You do not have to be in 4-H to participate. This event unfortunately got canceled due to the rain. So instead of having that event, there was also a pork dinner that we could go to. My family went to this dinner and we got to eat under a tent due to the rain. It was nice to have a dinner with my family to end the fair week. I did not have anything to do on Wednesday so I got to stay home. Today, all I have to do is spend time with my club. We start the day with watching the Ganyard building. It is still the same as before, we make sure it stays clean and that no one steals anything. Since we were watching the building with the Ropes N' Reins club, we had a longer session because we have a smaller club.
After we were done watching the building, we went to our adviser's camper and had a club pot luck. We all brought food and we had a fun time talking to each other and relaxing. When we were done with the pot luck, some of the members went to a karaoke stage. Two of the members got up on the stage and sang a song and it was so much fun. It was a nice end to a long fair week. Since all of my big projects are done, all I have left are extras and more building watches and pop stand shifts. Today, I started with an hour at the pop stand. I had to sell the items that we have at the pop stand and that was basically it.
When I was done doing that, I went over to see Kaleigh's speech at the fair office. She did a very good job. She was so good that she got selected to go to state fair with her speech. After her speech, I did not have anything until 7:00 p.m. so I got to go home for a couple of hours. Once it was time to go back to fair I got scissors and a ruler so that I would be ready for my flower arrangement challenge. I got to the fair and I got called into the circle. For the flower arrangement, they give you a bunch of flowers, so that you can make an arrangement that sits on a table. There were six of us in the circle. Then they counted us down and we had 15 minutes to make our arrangement. Once we were done, the judge came over to judge our arrangements. When he was done, they announced the awards. I tied for fifth place with my friend Brooke. This challenge was so much fun, I cannot wait to do it again. Today is nutrition day and it is also the last day that I have a project to do. I had to get here early in the morning because I had to present my Star Spangled Foods project. Once I signed in I was the first one to go in the judging circle. I presented my project very well, but then the judge started to ask questions. I blanked out on most of the questions and I cold not remember what happened in my book. I got marked off two points, which is still bad because every point counts towards getting state fair. Once I was done, I handed in my judging sheet and got a blue ribbon and an outstanding ribbon.
After judging I had to go watch the Ganyard Building. This is part of what we have to do as a club. Since I am in two clubs, I have to do everything twice. Watching this building is only to make sure that no one steels anything and that it is clean. We only have to watch this building for an hour. Once I was done watching the building, I had to go work the pop stand. This is just where you can get food and drinks that are reasonably priced at the fair. It is very easy to work and it is also a great place to get to know your members better. So if you are at the Franklin County Fair and you want cheaper food or drinks come to the 4-H pop stand. Finally, once I was done with the pop stand, there were awards for the projects. I was not expecting anything, but I still went just in case. Turns out when they got to my group, they called me for State Fair Selection. I was very surprised because I knew that I did not do well. I got State Fair Selection because I was the only one in my group, but I knew that I needed to know the book by heart if I wanted to win the clock trophy at the state fair. This morning I started out with a photography contest. I only entered a black and white photo. I did not receive anything from this contest, but it was so much fun and cannot wait to do this again. After I turned in the picture, the model horse show started. The first event that I entered in was the showmanship category. I did very well in this category and I placed first. Then the next category was a trail category. This is where we followed a pattern while going through obstacles on the table. I placed third in this category. Next, was the final table event. We had to jump over obstacles and then we had to answer a few questions. I placed seventh in this event. I placed last in this event because I forgot part of the pattern that I was supposed to follow. Then there was a saddle category. We had to make a homemade saddle for our plastic horse. I placed sixth in this category. Finally, the last category that I had to compete in was a costume contest. My horse was Mickey Mouse and I was Minnie Mouse. I came in fifth place. This was so much fun that I cannot wait to do it again next year. After the model horse show, I had to change very quickly into a dress so that I was ready to show my next project. My next project was the Self-Determined Paper Craft. I was so excited to present this project because it was really fun folding my book into the word "family". I also did origami, paper embroidery, and homemade cards. When they called me up, I was ready to tell the judge all about my project. She thought that I did a really good job and she really loved my book. After I was done in the judging circle, I turned in my judging sheet and I received a blue ribbon and a superior ribbon. This means that I am in the running for state fair. Once I came out of the judging circle, I had to turn in my two scrapbook pages for the extra judging. it did not take them that long for them to judge these pages, so the awards were really soon. I won forth place on one page and nothing for the other page. This was my first year ever getting anything for any one of my pages, so I was very surprised and happy. After those awards were done, they started to announce the project awards. I was very nervous because I really wanted to go to state fair in this project. Once they got to my project, they called me up to the podium and I won Best of Class and State Fair Alternate. I was a little bummed with winning alternate, but I knew that I had one more chance tomorrow to go to state fair. Then at 6:00 p.m. when all the awards were done, Kaleigh, Jordan, and I went to the grand stands for the Bath Tub Races. This is where you have one person in the tub and the other two people push the wheel barrel to a cone. You have to keep switching partners every time you stop at a cone. So all of your partners will have a chance to be in the wheel barrel. The catch is that we also have to have two gallons of water in the barrel. We were finally up to go through the course. Kaleigh was in the wheel barrel and Jordan and I were pushing it. When they said go, we pushed it to the first cone. While we were doing that, we accidentally ran over all the small cones that outlined the course. Then we stopped, Kaleigh got out, I got in, and Kaleigh and Jordan pushed me to the next cone. Half way there, they dumped me out of the wheel barrel and all of the water fell out as well. Once I got back in, they pushed me the rest of the way to the cone. Then I jumped out and Jordan jumped in. Then all Kaleigh and I had to do was push her to the finish line. About half way to the finish line something happened to the right side of the barrel. All of the weight tilted to the right side and we had a hard veer to the right. We missed the finish line and we left the track. Not only that, but we also almost hit the microphone. We were laughing so hard that we did not care if we missed the finish line. After everyone went through the course, awards started. Out of six teams we placed forth and we got to split $70 among the three of us. I was shocked that we placed and it was so much fun that we are going to do it again next year. Next time, we are going to try to stay on the course. Today was the first day at fair. I had three projects to present they included: Science Fun With Kitchen Chemistry, Club Leadership 2, and The Truth About Tobacco. I started the day with Science Fun With Kitchen Chemistry, I went into judging. I thought that it went very well. Once I was done I turned in my score sheet and I received a blue ribbon and a superior ribbon. This means that I am in the running for State Fair Selection. Then once I came out of the judging circle, I put my board down and I picked up my Nutritional Poster. This poster is just an extra activity that you can enter while you are in 4-H. After I turned in the poster, I came back to my seat to get my second project ready. Then they called me for The Truth About Tobacco. I went into the circle and I presented my project. I did pretty well, but I got docked points. So when I went to turn in my score sheet, I received a blue ribbon and an outstanding ribbon. This is still pretty good, but now I have less of a chance of being selected for state fair. The next project that they called me for was the Club Leadership 2 project. I felt like this was my best project because I answered all of the questions correctly and I worked very hard on this project. Once I was done, the judge said that I did a very good job. Then she handed me my score sheet and I went to turn it in. Once I turned it in, I received a blue ribbon and a superior ribbon. Once I was done with this project, all I had to do was wait for the awards. At 6:00 p.m. the awards for the day started. I was very excited because I really wanted to go to state fair. They first announced the Nutrition Poster Winners. I won second place with my poster. Then they started on the bigger awards. They called my name for State Fair Alternate for The Truth About Tobacco. Then they called my name again for State Fair Alternate for Science Fun With Kitchen Chemistry. Finally, they called my name for State Fair Selection for the Club Leadership 2 project. This means that I get to present my project again, but this time it will be at the State Fair. Once awards were over, I still had one more extra that I had to do. I entered the Scarecrow contest. So as soon as the awards were done, we put my scarecrow into the circle. Unfortunately, I did not win anything, but it was fine because it was my first time making a scarecrow. Today is booth set up. This is where our club gets together and sets up a booth where we will be putting all of our projects and ribbons in. This year for my Ropes N' Reins club our theme was the 150th birthday of A.B. Graham. If you do not know who that is, he is the founder of 4-H. So we all worked together to make the booth. We put the back boards together and then we decorated the inside. Now we are ready for the Franklin County Fair.
Pre-fair is where we have some judging before our fair. Today is the day for the creative baking and the decorative cupcake judging. I entered both categories. First I checked in my peanut butter brownies for the creative baking contest. I will not know the results until after the cupcake decorating contest.
When I was done turning in my brownies, I registered for the cupcake contest. This is where they would give you a theme and you have to decorate your cupcake based on the theme. Our theme was super heroes. Then we had 15 minutes to decorate a cupcake. The person in front of me did Captain America, my friend did the Incredible's, and the third person at my table did the Flash. These are three of my favorite super heroes and I did not want to copy anyone. They also had no black, so I could not do some super heroes like Batman, Spider-man, or Iron-man. I was stuck. My parents have always told me to think outside of the box. So I did. I made Abraham Lincoln as my super hero. This is correct of what you are reading. It is really outside of the box, but I did not care. When the judge walked over she asked me who I made. I said "Abraham Lincoln, he is a super hero because he freed slaves in America". Then they judge all of our cupcakes. I knew I was not getting anything, but it was to much fun I cannot wait to do it again next year. When they started calling awards, I clapped for everyone they called. Then they called my name for forth place and I was so shocked I had no idea what to do. My friends and family laughed at me so hard. Then they found out I placed and the laughed harder. When the awards were over they announced awards for the creative baking contest. I did not get anything for my brownies. It was a long strange day, but I cannot wait to do it all again. Buckeye Leadership Workshop is a camp where people from all over the world come to, so they can gain more leadership skills. I received a scholarship to go to this camp. This camp was a five day overnight camp starting on April 4, 2018 and ending on April 8, 2018. This camp is located in Ohio, so for me, it was only an hour drive. Also, since it is Ohio, it was also snowing and there was ice everywhere.
Once I got there, they had this huge camp kick off. They told us that we need to go to our classes and then we would have some free time to try other activities as well. Unfortunately, there were no phones allowed at this camp, so I do not have any pictures to show you what I did. After the first night, we got up the next morning bright and early to eat and then go to our classes. I had two classes S.T.E.M. with arts and personality circle. I had never been to this camp before, so I had no idea what to expect. I went to my first class and learned all about S.T.E.M. and how you can take these activities back to you counties camp. In that class we did a lot of experiments and we were taught how and why they worked and what they taught children. Then I went to my next class. This class was much more calm. We got to take a whole bunch of different personality tests. Then we took those tests and compared the answers to the whole group. I really liked this class because it taught me more about myself and how I can work with other people with different personalities. They taught us to use different approaches to different personalities. Once we got all of our classes done, we got to do fun activities with the whole camp. We were placed in groups of people that we did not know and we had to work together with other groups to solve one big problem. We had to do this every night. I actually loved doing this because as a leader you have to learn how to work with the people you are paired with and then you have to work as one big group to solve the over all problem. We continued these classes and activities for four straight days. I learned a lot about myself and I learned a lot about working with different people and different groups to solve one big problem that everyone has. I would definitely recommend this camp to anyone who really wants to take a leap and learn a whole bunch of leadership skills. I can definitely say that these skills will not only be useful in 4-H, they will also be very useful in my future career. Today is winter fair. This is where people from all across Franklin County can come and see which projects they want to take to the fair during the summer. They have people at this fair to show projects to everyone who comes to the fair. I was one of those presenters because I was a State Fair Selection from the previous year in 4-H.
I got to have my Pantry Panic project on the table and if anyone had questions, they could ask me. It was really cool seeing all of the projects and how everyone completed them. Not a lot of people came to my table, but I was fine with that because at least some people knew about my project. While I was with my project I had my mom look at the other projects to see which ones she thought that I could do. She said that one of the projects that I should do is Club Leadership 2 because I took the first project the year before. It was a really fun day and I am glad that I got to show people my project and find new projects to take to the upcoming fair. This is the start to the new 4-H year. I am in two clubs, the Ropes N' Reins club and the Shooting Stars club. Ropes N' Reins meets once a month on the first Monday. Shooting Stars meets every other Thursday. Before going to the county fair in July, there are a lot of things that need to happen first. To start off the year, each of the club's needs to select new officer's. So we dedicate a meeting for choosing new offices. Everyone needs to give a small speech on why they would be good for the office they are running for. At the end of this process, I got to be the Treasurer in my Ropes N' Reins club and the Assistant Treasurer in my Shooting Stars club. I was glad that I got to hold an office in each club.
The next thing that we have to do is run meetings and prepare for the upcoming fair. We have to decide which books and extras everyone wants to take to fair. Then we have to decide on a booth theme and how we are going to decorate it. Once we find that out, we have to see who is bringing what materials and when we should meet to set up the booth for the fair. After that, we may want to do some extra things for our club's. For instance, we should decide if we are going to try to make our club an honors club. Shooting Stars is already an honors club and the advisers take care of all of the work. Since one of my club's is an honors club, I wanted Ropes N' Reins to be an honors club as well. So I gathered up all of the paper work and throughout all of the meetings I collected officer reports. We also went on a field trip and we collected food for the local food bank for our honors club requirements. Then I put all of the information together in a book. This will then be shipped off to the Franklin County Extension Office. We will know if we got the honors club in the fall. This year in 4-H I wanted to set goals for myself. I want to be a better leader, so I joined the county Junior Fair Board and the Teen Leaders Council. I also won a scholarship to go to a Buckeye Leadership Workshop in April so that I can boost my leadership skills. I also want to make my club an honors club. I think that we are capable of doing this. All we need is someone to lead the club into having the requirements completed and the finished book turned in. These are my goals and I cannot wait for the year to come. |
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Stephanie caple |