By Kendall Patterson
Staff Writer
On Wednesday, October 7, the Chester County University of Tennesee Extension Center hosted their first 4-H Fair.
At the fair, there were a variety of stations children at Chester County Middle School could visit and and learn from. Examples are: a Hydration/ Exercise Station, an arts and crafts station, a Citizenship and Leadership Station a Station of horses and more.
At the fair, high schoolers and even a few junior high and middle school children taught the younger middle school children about what they do in 4-H. That was one of the highlights from the event according to Steve Rickman, Chester County Extension Center agent.
The purpose of the fair was to introduce the children to all that 4-H has to offer.
“This is something we really wanted to do… 4-H starts in the fourth grade so our ideal of doing this was to have a 4-H Fair and to show these kids what 4-H is all about,” Rickamn said. “This is our way of doing hands-on activities that included a lot of different things.”
The fair took place to also encourage students to get more involved.
“What we are trying to do is create more excitement for 4-H, FFA and agriculture. Just get these kids interested in doing something besides playing video games and or being on the phone. You can see, you get them involved in something, it’s not that they’re not going to do that stuff, but they have a new interest.”
Rickman mentioned how he loved the children of all ages participating so much.
“To me the highlight of the day was seeing all those high school kids, all the kids that participated; that’s what made the day special. It didn’t have anything to do with us. We were just the ones that planned the event, but they’re the ones that made it happen.”
Teachers from the middle school liked this aspect of the fair as well.
“I think the best response we got from the middle school is that teachers there like seeing their past, former students teaching, so we were really glad that we got that involved.”
Another reason this event was a success was from the help of Chester County High School’s Future Farmers of America club.
The UT Extension Center, Chester County 4-H and the FFA program have worked well together this year, especially with the help that Mrs. Crouse has brought. Crouse is a greenhouse and agriculture teacher at CCHS.
Crouse is bringing the CCHS Agriculture program and FFA prgram to new levels, and Rickman praised her for all she has done and working with the 4-H program.
Overall, Rickman was proud with how it turned out.
“ I think it went great. It was probably much better than we expected,” he said.
