4-H’ers elect officers for new year

By Sam Waller

Shackelford County 4-Hwrapped up its year Sunday, May 21, with officer elections at its final meeting at The Feed Store.

Officers will begin their duties when the 2023-24 school year begins.

“All the candidates gave speeches,” Shackelford County extension agent Kelsey Bell said. “Each office was uncontested. We had as many candidates as positions available, which worked out great. We followed parliamentary procedure to vote them into office uncontested.”

Senior officers will be Riley Reames, president; Faith Fry, vice president; Madailein Beard, secretary; Landon Kreitler, treasurer; Grace Fry, reporter, and Connor Smith, parliamentarian.

Junior officers will be Luke Smith, president; Rainy Nitschke, first vice president; Artie Bell, second vice president; Reese Nitschke, secretary; Ayers Bezner, treasurer; Carly Kreitler, reporter, and Cody Fry, parliamentarian.

“I like that so many of our members want to be in a leadership role, and I certainly want them to be,” Kelsey Bell said, adding that the schedule becomes much lighter over the next two months.

“We’ll have our summer programs and a couple of district contests,” she said.
The district horse show is in June and district record book judging is in July. We have the horse judging team and Faith Fry in equine educational presentation going to State Roundup in June.”

Also, Faith Fry and Reames have entries in the state photography contest, which will be judged in June.

The meeting served as a farewell for graduating club member Leddie Leech, who was presented a scholarship from the club.

Bell said one item on the agenda for June is to again set up and remove seating for the Fort Griffin Fandangle. She said the work will probably be done the week of June 5.

“I’ll schedule three days, but last year we did it in two,” Bell said. “It just depends on how many people show up to help. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get it done in two again.”

STEAM Program

Although the 4-H school year is basically completed, the organization’s Summer STEAM program will offer weekly activities for children who have completed kindergarten and up.

The Summer STEAM program will kick off Thursday, June 1 and have two five-week sections with sessions dedicated to science, technology, engineering, art, and math rotating through the schedule. The program will take a break the week of July 4.

Shackelford County extension agent Kelsey Bell said the STEAM program is open to children who have completed kindergarten and older.  Participants must be active members of 4-H or Clover Kids, which is open to children in kindergarten through second grade. To register online, visit v2.4honline.com.

“Membership in Clover Kids is free,” Bell said. “Membership for third grade and up for 4-H is $30 at this point in the year, but the STEAM program will be free after that.”

Bell said most sessions will be held at The Feed Store.

The program will be held from 1:00-4:00 p.m. on Thursdays through Aug. 10.

For more information, contact Bell at 325-762-9435.