Snow threatened but didn’t stop Multi-County 4-H Days Saturday at Meadowbrook Mall.
The annual event brings together 4-H’ers from Cherokee, Crawford, Labette, Montgomery and Neosho Counties. Participants were selected from competitions held earlier in their home counties.
“We had a lot from Montgomery County who couldn’t make it, and some from Labette County, especially some staff,” said Phyllis Kriesel, Cherokee County Extension 4-H Agent. “We had to recruit some volunteers to keep things happening.”
Glendolyn Neely and Macy Flowers, members of the Willing Workers 4-H Club, came all the way from Neosho County.
“We saw a truck go off in a ditch on the way here, but we made it,” Neely said.
Competitions included talent, dance and music categories in the central court, demonstrations in the south walkway, and talks in the north walkway.
Natalee Brake, Girard, of the Bone Creek 4-H Club, gave a demonstration on making tissue flowers. For this she created a board with pictures showing the steps of making the flowers.
“I showed people the board and then I made a flower,” she said.
Dusti Henderson of the Spring Valley Sparklers 4-H Club, Baxter Springs, made her own bouncy balls, explaining that she took special sprinkles and water, and put them in a mold.
“You let it sit for two minutes, then take the mold out of the water and let it sit for three minutes,” the youngster said. “Then you remove the ball from the mold and let it sit on wax paper for 20 minutes, and you have a bouncy ball.”
Her older sister, Skyler Henderson, demonstrated how to make seven-layer bean dip, a family favorite for football games and special occasions. “It has refried beans, guacamole, sour cream, chopped lettuce, shredded cheese, chopped tomatoes and black olives,” she said.
Other siblings taking part were Joshua Wyckoff and brother Jake Wyckoff, Cherokee, who are members of the Priairie Ramblers 4-H Club of Cherokee County.
“I made an egg candler out of junk,” Joshua said.
His brother gave a presentation on wild turkeys.
Neely and Flowers gave a talk on horse showmanship. Their topic was “How to Dress for Showmanship,” with Neely modeling a navy blue riding jacket with stars and Flowers in a gray jacket with rhinestone trim on the collar.
“You can buy these, but my mother and I made these jackets,” Neely said.
She and Flowers show horses together. “We do Western Pleasure and horsemanship, and Glendolyn also does some barrel racing,” Flowers said.
“But I don’t wear an outfit like this when I race,” Neely added.
All in all, Multi-County 4-H Days went pretty well, according to Kriesel.
“The motto of 4-H is ‘Making the Best Better’, and that’s what we did,” she said. “We just kept going.”
