Kevin Tatum, County Extension Coordinator
On Saturday, March 20, Coffee County 4-H Shotgun Team members traveled to Macon to the Meadows Gun Club to compete in the Georgia 4-H Sporting Clay Match. 4-H members competing included Alex Dunn, Gavin Grantham, Cara Lott, Hudson Lott, Michael Roberts, and Weston Vickers, and coaches who attended the match included Emily Purvis and Jody Ridlehoover. Emily Purvis also shot in the adult competition.
Alex Dunn was recognized as the first place senior 4-H winner with a score of 96 out of 100 and Hudson Lott as the fifth place senior 4-H winner with a score of 89. In the adult division, Emily Purvis was awarded first place with a score of 90. Congratulations to these award winners and to all of the participants for a successful shoot.
BEEKEEPING ESSAY
The Georgia 4-H Annual Beekeeping Essay Contest is an exciting opportunity for 4-H members to showcase their writing skills as well as learn something new about honey bees and why they are so important to Georgia’s environment. This contest is open to all active Georgia 4-H members in 4th through 12th grade.
This year’s topic is “Immunity: Threats to Bee Colonies and Methods to Defend Against the Threats.” The deadline to submit a 750-1,000 word essay is Friday, April 2. Cash prizes will be awarded to the first, second and third place winners in the state contest; $250 for 1st place, $100 for 2nd place and $50 for 3rd place. The first place Georgia essay winner will advance to the national contest and will also be eligible for additional prizes and awards. State winners will be announced by Wednesday, April 14. For a copy of the national rules, or more information, you can visit the Georgia 4-H website at www.georgia4h.org/beekeeping or contact the Coffee County 4-H office Monday through Friday, 8 AM through 5 PM (closed 12-1 for lunch).
JUNIOR/SENIOR PROJECT ACHIEVEMENT
We are looking forward to getting to hold our annual Junior/Senior DPA in person this year. It was originally planned to be held in February, but COVID-19 put a damper on those plans. Therefore, this year’s Junior/Senior DPA dates have been shortened to be only one night and two days provided we are able to have a face-to-face competition. The proposed options for DPA include either a regular DPA held on May 31-June 1 at Rock Eagle, or virtual demonstrations with some type of face-to-face celebration during the May 31-June 1 time frame, or all virtual event. State 4-H Congress dates are still set for July 20-23 in Atlanta or if necessary, a virtual event will be held. State 4-H Congress is the event where senior 4-H members compete for state honors if they win at DPA.
For a DPA project, a junior 4-H speech should be at least eight to ten minutes but no more than ten minutes long while senior 4-H speeches should be between ten and twelve minutes. Both junior and senior DPA projects cover a wide variety of topics.
The 4-H office will schedule an appointment for you to come record your presentation in case we have to upload virtual presentations. If a partial or full virtual format must be followed, videos must be uploaded by April 1. Therefore it is imperative that 4-H members complete their demonstration as soon as possible to be ready to record it.
Junior DPA participants include Devin Bohannon, Kayden Davis, May Belle Davis, Jake Grantham, Brianna Moreno, Florence Shealy, and Caroline Spivey. Senior DPA participants include Ashton Ates, Sophie Bird, Jeremiah Brantley, Nathan Cooper, Amelia Crockett, Kilee Davis, Terryanna Harris, Hayden McDonald, Muskan Minhas, Glenn O’Steen, Alexandra Rivero, Destiny Russ, Ishika Sadarangani, Austin Strickland, Justin Strickland, Janilla Warren, Sariah Wells, and Carlee Woods.
If you would like to learn how you can become more involved with the Coffee County 4-H program, please contact the Coffee County Extension office at (912) 384-1402 or visit our website at http://coffee4h.org.