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| Students in 4-H Judging Contest (courtesy photo) |
DOVER –
Taking a critical look at the quality of items is just the
beginning for those 4-H youth at this year’s Stratham Fair who took up the Consumer Home Economics 4-H
Judging Contest challenge held in the Lynn Garland 4-H Exhibit Building. Many classes required not only making
the decision of ranking a class of four similar items but also writing reasons
explaining the decisions for their placement classes. In other classes, there were knowledge quizzes based on 4-H
project manuals.
This year the placement classes featured: sewn vet tech
shirts for the Clothing and Textiles Project area; Chewy Chocolate Chip Bars
for Foods and Nutrition; knitted dishcloths and decorated pens for Arts and
Crafts; Lupine Festival and 4-H’ers showing Cows at Stratham Fair for the
Photography and Sun Room designs for the Home Improvement section. In addition there were seventeen toys
that had to be scrutinized for safety and age appropriateness if you were
babysitting an almost 5-year-old girl.
Another class featured a situation analyzing ten different ads for a
bedding set for a full-size bed within a given budget.
An engraved plaque is presented by Stratham Fair to the
highest scoring individual in each of the 4-H age groupings. This year’s highest scoring individuals
were Nathan James, 10, from Exeter, for the Novice Class for 4-H youth ages
8-13 who were new to the judging
program. Capturing top honors in the Junior Division for youth ages 9-10
was Muriel Bennett, 10, from Epping.
Turner Jennings won the Intermediate Division for 11-13 year olds and
Brandie Rice, 18, Fremont, topped the senior division for those 14-18 years
old.
Other 4-H’ers taking part in the Novice Division where youth
had to judge three different project classes in the competition were: AJ
Robidas, 13, Barrington; Chris Garcia, 13, Strafford; Patrick Marcoux, 10,
Brentwood; Samantha Marcoux, 9, Brentwood; and Joe Garcia, 10, Strafford.
Participants in the Intermediate Division, who had to judge
five different project classes,
were Emily Gibson, 13, Lee; Jolene Levesque, 13, Fremont; Ryan Crouch,
13, Lee; Sammy Merrill, 12, Stratham; Jacob Scruton, 13, Farmington; Cole
Atherton, 12, Lee; and Riley Johnson, 11, East Kingston.
Involved in the Senior Division with having to place two
classes in four different project groupings were Gillian Robidas, 15,
Barrington; Deanna Scruton, 16, Farmington; Justin Frones, 18, Madbury; Chris
St. Pierre, 16, Lee; Jenny Elwell, 15, Stratham; Christine La More, 15,
Newmarket; Tristan Baker, 15, Exeter; Mary Claire Attisano, 14, Lee; and Zander
Allen 14, Rochester.
4-H youth at the fairs have the projects they create judged
by volunteers but in the consumer judging program youth become the judges and
have to look closely at items to determine what they feel is the best, second
best, third best and bottom of each placement class. All knowledge quizzes are corrected and returned to the
4-H’ers to help them continue to learn by doing through their 4-H experiences
too.
For information on participating in 4-H programs that help
youth develop skills, knowledge and confidence should contact the Rockingham
County 4-H program in Brentwood at 679-5616 or the Strafford County 4-H program
in Dover at 749-4445. 4-H is the
youth development program of UNH Cooperative Extension, an equal opportunity
employer and educator. For more
information, check out the Extension website at www.extension.unh.edu.
