County 4-H members place at District 7 Roundup
By Sam Waller
Three Shackelford County 4-H members placed in their events at the District 7 Roundup, held Friday, April 28 at San Angelo.
In the senior age group, Faith Fry placed first in horse educational presentation to qualify for the State 4-H Roundup, scheduled for June 5-8 at College Station.
In the junior division, Grace Fry was second in horse educational presentation and Carly Kreitler was fifth in poetry/prose.
“Faith’s talk was on soring,” Shackelford County extension agent Kelsey Bell said. “In the show world, people will intentionally make their horses sore to create a high-stepping effect for events where that’s desired. It’s an unethical practice, and Faith’s presentation was about that.”
Kreitler read the same poem she used for UIL Oral Reading at Nancy Smith Elementary School.
“I’m going to work to get more kids to enter 4-H contests they’re already competing in through school,” Bell said.
Summer Program
Bell announced Shackelford County 4-H will conduct a Summer STEAM program starting in June.
Participants must be active 4-H members. To register online, visit v2.4honline.com.
The program will include sessions on science, technology, engineering, art, and math. Bell said most sessions will be held at The Feed Store.
“The Abilene Zoo does animal encounters where they bring animals to you. We’d like to do that for one of the science days.”
The program will be held from 1:00-4:00 p.m. on Thursdays from June 1 through Aug. 10. Bell said the program will take a break the week of July 4.
Adult leaders will be Heather Nitschke for art, Kelli Kreitler for math, Carley Howard for science, and Matt Howard for technology. Bell said the engineering leader is to be determined.
“If there’s anyone who has engineering expertise who wants to help, of course we would welcome them,” Bell said.
Photo Contest
Winners have been announced in the Shackelford County 4-H photography contest. Senior winners advance directly to state competition, while juniors move on to district.
“We can send three per category from our county,” Bell said. “We had five or six categories with more than three entries. They all did a great job.”
In the senior division, Faith Fry advanced in Elements of Design, Plant Flora, Animal (Wildlife), People, Catch-all, and Shadow/Silhouette. Riley Reames advanced in Animals (Domestic) and Landscape.
In the junior division, Carly Kreitler qualified in Food and Macro. Cody Fry advanced in Macro, Elements of Design, Plant Flora, Animals (Domestic), Theme (Reflections), Leading Line, and Catch-all.
Grace Fry is headed to district in Landscape, Shadow/Silhouette, Animals (Domestic), Elements of Design, and People.
Rainy Nitschke advanced in Landscape, Macro, Motion, Shadow/Silhouette, Plant Flora, Elements of Design, and Animal (Wildlife).
Reese Nitschke advanced in Animals (Domestic), Catch-all, Leading Line, Motion, People, and Plant Flora.
Artie Bell qualified in People, Theme (Reflections), Leading Line, and Catch-all.
Photos can be viewed on the Shackelford County 4-H Facebook page.
May Meeting
Bell said the May meeting will be held at 4:00 p.m. Sunday, May 21 at The Feed Store. Officer elections for next year will be the main focus of the meeting.
In addition, the Horse and Sewing clubs will hold a combined meeting at 3:00 p.m. to make tailbags for horses.
“I know a lot of our 4-H kids are also Fandangle participants,” Bell said, “so we’ll have a quick meeting, do officer elections, and have a taco bar to make it easy on those familes to eat supper and then go to Fandangle practice.”
