(Photo provided) Johnson County Mini 4-H’ers participated in the 4-H Mini Camp earlier this week. The Minis completed various activities, such as crafting, building structures, and even roping pretend cattle (hay bales or plastic pipe with plastic bull heads on them). The Johnson County 4-H Fair is scheduled for July 13-19.
By HANNAH GUNNELL
The Johnson County Purdue Extension Office has been busy the last few weeks as 4-H Youth Development Directer Heather Dougherty and her staff prepare for the Johnson County Fair next month.
The fair is set for July 13-19 at the Johnson County Fairgrounds in Franklin. This will be Dougherty’s tenth year as Youth Development Director, and it’s going to be a special one.
“I would definitely have to say the kids, working with the 4-H’ers for sure [are the reason I stick with it],” she said. “We had a long time 4-H volunteer named Max Fitzpatrick, he passed away a few years ago but was instrumental in our program, and last year we celebrated 100 years of 4H in our county and did a year long celebration, so … we established the 100 Club, and if you signed up to be in the club you gave a $100 donation — we turned that into a 100 year monument that we’re getting it installed next week at Centennial Park. It’s fun to celebrate 100 years and to do it in memory of Max. That’s one of my most recent favorite memories.”
An unveiling of the statue will be held on the Sunday of fair week. A time is still being finalized, and invitations will be sent out soon.
The week itself will be full of static and livestock projects submitted by many of Johnson County’s 1,171 4-H members (minus the 270 mini 4-H’ers, who are not yet old enough to participate in the regular program).
Dougherty said this number is down about 30 students from last year, but that number doesn’t scare her.
“You also have to factor in how many kids were seniors the year before and graduated,” she said. “The kids that are leaving the program this year because they’re seniors is 68 kids. Last year we had 63 seniors, so if we’re down 30 that’s not terrible. … A lot of other counties are seeing a huge decline in their enrollment numbers for the traditional 4-H setting so being down 30 doesn’t scare me too much.”
And though the number of students who participate in the traditional 4-H setting — meaning they complete projects or raise livestock and submit them to the fair for judging — the number of students participating in new 4-H programs is rising.
“4-H looks a little different than it did for some people,” Dougherty said. “I did 4-H and grew up in the traditional setting, so I did projects and showed animals. Now we offer a lot of trips for 4-H, like summer camps. We just finished mini 4-H camps yesterday [June 25], and at the beginning of the month we had regular 4-H camp. … If a kid wants their 4-H experience to be just camp, they’re able to do that now. They don’t have to do a project and bring it to the fair anymore, it just opens the door for more kids to be involved.”
Regardless of if a 4-H’er participates in the traditional sense or not, these programs allow students the opportunity to learn various life skills that used to be taught during a regular school day, she said.
“I used to be a teacher, so I really feel like with the way that schools have had to change and the way funding is for schools now, kids are not getting educated on life skills anymore,” she said. “Whether its agriculture or family consumer science, cooking classes, a lot of the schools are getting rid of those programs because of budget cuts. But kids have to learn. If they aren’t getting it at home or don’t have support to get that at home then they aren’t learning that. They have to have general life skills to be a functional adult, so I feel like 4-H is where they pick up those pieces.”
Students can sign up for 4-H at any time; however most of the deadlines to participate in projects for this year’s Johnson County Fair have passed. More information on how to sign up is available at https://extension.purdue.edu/county/johnson/4-H/4H-Johnson-County.html.
The 4-H schedule of events can be found in the 4-H handbook, which is also posted on the Purdue Extension website.
