Middle School Students Attend 4-H Junior Conference
Five middle school Gordon County 4- H’ers attended 4- H Junior Conference on November 4 and 5 at Rock Eagle 4-H Center. Junior Conference is a statewide conference for 6th- 8th graders and nearly 900 people attended, including adults, teen leaders, and participants. The 4- H’ers attending from Gordon County were Christopher Camp, Devany Camp, Kennedy Chambers, Bobby Hicks, and Dalton Lowery. The youth took classes about healthy relationships and science, including weather and climate, bridge building, and catapult- making. Forty- eight high school teen leaders from across the state were chosen to teach the classes, and Bryson Smith, a 9th grader at Calhoun High School was one of those selected teen leaders. He taught a catapult- making class to four groups of middle school 4- H’ers. In addition to classes, the 4- H’ers also got take part in a choice of eighteen different recreation activities including canoeing, flag football, talent show, softball, and others. They also completed multiple service projects including assembling birthday packages for youth in foster care, decorating rocks to spread happiness in communities around the state, making 150 dog toys for animal shelters, creating non- slip socks for nursing homes and children’s hospitals, writing thank you notes to community helpers and military, and making sensory bottles and cards for the Shriner’s Hospital. Counties brought in over 1000 solar eclipse glasses to be sent to Astronomers without Borders by Bibb County, 2400 items for Operation: Veteran Smiles, and $ 664 to be donated to hurricane relief efforts through 4- H.
Each year at Junior Conference, counties turn in collected pop tabs to be recycled and the money received is donated to Ronald McDonald House Charities. Nearly 11,000 pounds of pop tabs were donated by Georgia 4- H’ers this year, putting Georgia 4- H over $ 100,000 donated to Ronald McDonald House Charities in the last 15 years.
The 4- H’ers also got to hear from multiple speakers throughout the weekend, including several senior 4- H’ers presenting their STEMrelated projects, and Dr. Ashley Hosey, a Cobb County principal and Polk County 4- H alumnus, challenging 4- H’ers to make the best better.