4H Regional Day

I've been on the county 4H Foundation board for quite a while, and somehow have never been been an evaluator at Regional Day, which was held this past Saturday. Folks were needed to evaluate, so off I went to the middle school in Burlington where the event was held. It was so much fun!

Six of us were there to evaluate tabletops. I think I was the only one who hadn't been to evaluate at Regional Day previously; there were actually a few "pros" who come every year because they enjoy it so much. We broke into pairs and each pair of evaluators looked at roughly 7-8 projects. 

We had a sheet with criteria to measure on a point spread, and looked at things like use of space, design, whether they included the sources or not, neatness, etc. We looked at the age of the 4H member in order to assess their work and also read their written reflection on their project that include their goals and what they learned.

My co-evaluator Elaine and I spent about 20 minutes with each project. We'd give it the once-over, then work our way through the criteria with quite a bit of discussion. 

Projects ranged from model barn plans to robotics to items needed for hunting to facts about polo. Honestly, all the projects were really well done and informative. In fact, we gave every project we looked at a blue ribbon (although since they were scored with a point system, while they all fell into the blue ribbon category, some received more points than others). 

I enjoyed the little touches, like  a particularly beautiful color scheme or the model barn project that even had a little water in the tiny horse trough! I especially loved the fact that a couple of the horse businesses developed as tabletops (a summer camp and a rescue horse barn) even had references to checking out the business on social media. :)

Not that I needed a reminder about what a wonderful organization 4H is, but being part of the day underscored to me again how many opportunities 4H membership offers kids. It was really great to see the kids in action. Nothing like all that energy and enthusiasm to refresh my perspective on our monthly business meetings!