Richland County Health Department Named 2020 Friend of 4-H

The Friend of 4-H award is given to a business, organization, family or individual who has gone above and beyond to help the 4-H program. This year the award was given to the Richland County Health Department. The Health Department has worked diligently and exhaustively to keep our community safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Beyond that, they have proven to be true community partners for the 4-H program. They worked extensively with the leaders and staff of the 4-H program to plan and implement safe 4-H events during the year. Especially, they were extremely instrumental in the planning of the 4-H only fair, which provided the youth a much-needed event. Richland County 4-H sends a heartfelt thank you to the Health Department for all you have done this year.

Achievement Day is typically a time for 4-H members, leaders and parents to gather and celebrate all the accomplishments throughout the past 4-H year. However, this year to due to COVID-19, the event was held in a virtual format. Videos highlighting the awards and the winners were shared via social media at the beginning of December.

The Richland Aces 4-H club was named club of the year for the 2019-2020 4-H. The club of the year is decided by a variety of factors including club enrollment, member and leader participation and community service activities.

There were many different awards presented virtually to members and leaders for their dedication to 4-H throughout the year.

This year's Helping Hand Award was awarded to Becca Deming. The Helping Hand Award is presented each year to a member that shows not only great leadership, but also a willingness to go out of their way help others in the 4-H program. Becca has served as a great leader and mentor for younger youth in the program and has always been willing to help wherever and whenever needed.

The junior member achievement awards are as follows, receiving the trophies this year were: Top Jr. Beef Judge – Carly Buxbaum, Top Jr. Swine Judge –Reegan Anderson, Top Jr. Sheep Judge – Kendal Vitt, Top Goat Jr. Judge- Leddy Larson, Top Reasons- Maddie Schieber, Top Jr. Overall Judge – Maddie Schieber, Top Jr. Demonstrator – Felixe Becker, Top Crown Demonstrator – Maddie Schieber, Top Jr. Speech- Ezra Hier, Top Jr. Fashion Revue – Addison Foss and Top Jr Quilt – Sofia Dietrich-Dicken.

Shooting sports is by far the most attended activity in 4-H throughout the nation and ranks in the top 4 projects for the state of Montana. It is also a very popular project for youth in Richland County. Winners of each category are as follows: Top Sr Air Rifle-Shane Waltner, Top Intermediate Air Rifle- Dalton Bouchard, Top Jr Air Rifle- Colton Hatter, and Most Improved Air Rifle- Jude Waltner, Top Sr Archery-Shane Waltner, Top Intermediate Archery-Colt Ambo, Top Jr Archery-Colton Hatter and Most Improved Archery-Brody Swigart. Top Sr Pistol-Lily Waltner, Top Intermediate Pistol –Cayla Hanson, Top Jr Pistol-Rylan Kunick and Most Improved Pistol- Iris Waltner. In the shotgun division the winners were: Top Sr. Shotgun – Shane Waltner, Top Intermediate Shotgun- Wyatt McPherson, Top Jr Shotgun- Colton Hatter and Most Improved Shotgun- Corbin Steinbeisser.

The Horse committee presented awards to Tayen Carda the All-Around Rookie, Jake Scholthauer as the All-Around Junior and Amariah Hier as the All-Around Senior. The Silver Spur award is given to a person that has dedicated their time and skills to help make the horse program here in Richland County a better program. This year the Silver Spur award was given to Vess Hurley for all he has done for the Richland County 4-H Horse program.

The family of Brad Carnduff gives away an award in his memory to a member in the horse program. The award and recipient is chosen by the family. This year a beautiful saddle was given to Amariah Hier. The family plans to continue this memorial for years to come.

Linda Simonsen, the local poultry leader also gives an annual poultry award. This award is given to members who make efforts to improve their poultry projects and keep detailed and accurate records. This year that award was given to Ashlyn Thiessen.

The market projects are very educational and positive projects for many 4-H members. The carcass competition is the final step for the market projects. The carcass champion awards go to the top beef, lamb, hog and goat carcass from the fair in Richland County. This year the top beef carcass went to Drew Ellingson, the top lamb carcass went to Gavin Schieber, the top swine carcass went to Cloey Eide and top goat carcass went to Carly Buxbaum. There are also statewide competitions all species. The beef award is called Steer of Merit, this year Shay Severson and Drew Ellingson were awarded the Steer of Merit. for Drew Ellingson was also awarded a plaque from the Montana Stockgrowers Association for having the 4th place carcass in the state in the ultra-sound division. The sheep award is called Montana Certified Lamb, this year Becca Deming, Brynlee Deming, Carly Buxbaum and Gavin Schieber were awarded Montana Certified Lamb. The hog award is called the Symbol of Excellence for Swine, this year Cloey Eide, Sarah Helmuth, Ben Carlsen, William Sparks, Riley O'Donnell, Brooke Lien, Whitney Van Hook, Paige Carda, Rylan Watts, Shelby Reese, Jaylyn Klempel, Becca Deming and Jolee Klempel were awarded the Symbol of Excellence for Swine. The goat award is called the Goat of Merit, this year Myli Josephson and Carly Buxbaum were awarded the Goat of Merit.

The overall species champions were also awarded on the video. These awards are based on average daily gain of the market animal, live placing at the market show during the fair and the carcass data. The Overall Species champions were: Market Beef- Tana Kostelecky, Hog- Cooper McNally, Sheep- Avery LaDue and Goat- Carly Buxbaum.

Every year the clubs have 4-H displays throughout the county to celebrate National 4-H Week. The Award for Best National 4-H Week Display went to the Forever Buds 4-H Club.

The event also recognized members and leaders for their years of involvement in the program. The Richland County 4-H Scholarship winners; Becca Deming, Jenna Baxter, Colter Carda, Allyson Young, Emma Torgerson, Gabe Granada and Sarah Helmuth were also formally recognized in the video. Richland County 4-H gives out annual project grants to help any member improve a project that they are enrolled in. This year 32 grants were awarded to members to help them better their project. Richland County 4-H also awarded 180 project awards to members who truly excelled in their project work.

A few years ago, the Richland County implemented two new awards to recognize outstanding volunteers and 4-H members. The 4-H member award is called "I Am 4-H" and recognizes a member who displays outstanding 4-H spirit regardless of the age of the member. This year the I Am 4-H award was given to Ali Merritt. Ali is a true example of what a 4-H member is. She is always willing to lend a helping hand, mentor younger 4-H members, learn as much as possible from her 4-H projects and do it all with a glad heart and a smile on her face. Ali truly embodies the 4-H spirit.

This year's outstanding 4-H volunteers are Tim and Kristin Larson. Both Tim and Kristin go above and beyond to support the 4-H program. Tim has been extremely active in the livestock projects. He has aided with weigh in, animal quality workshops, jackpots and the fair. Tim also served as the livestock chairman the past four years. This year both he and Kristin aided extensively in planning, implementing and hosting the virtual live sale. Kristin serves as an organizational leader for the Richland Aces 4-H club and on the Richland County 4-H Council. She also serves on countless committees to plan events for the 4-h youth including but not limited to: communication day, fair awards, the showmanship clinic and jackpot and animal quality. Tim and Kristin are true assets to the Richland County 4-H program.

All though we were not able to gather and celebrate, Richland County 4-H has much to celebrate. The program has over come many challenges this year and the members, leaders and supporters have much to be proud of. They have proved that when all join together they can truly make the best out of any situation.