NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
A6
Wednesday, August 12, 2020
4-H and FFA leaders, volunteers and officials pull
together to hold in-person youth livestock shows
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
Local kids in 4-H and FFA
showed off their hard work Sunday
as a masked, modified and spaced-
out iteration of the Grant County
Fair’s livestock show kicked off in
the Heritage Barn. Fair activities
continue through Saturday.
Wayne Suchorski, FFA advisor
and Grant Union High School’s ag
shop teacher, said half of all Ore-
gon’s livestock shows canceled or
moved to an online-only format.
The community, he said, is
small enough to hold an in-person
event safely and within the state’s
guidelines.
“These kids still need that con-
tact and need to understand that the
people in our community want to see
them,” he said. “A lot of these kids
just need to know someone cares
about them.”
Suchorski said many kids come
from supportive families with par-
ents who help and encourage them as
they raise their animals.
“But other kids are doing it on
their own,” he said. “They are put-
ting the money in on their own, and
they’re putting the effort in on their
own, and they need someone to tell
them they’re doing a good job and
the end of the rainbow is coming
soon.”
Brady Dole, a junior at Grant
Union High School, is one of those
students Suchorski was referring to.
The second-year FFA mem-
ber said he was grateful to have the
chance to show his lamb at the fair.
He said selling his lamb at the fair
could net him double the market
value.
John Day resident and 4-H volun-
teer Doug Cox said Dole personally
thanked him last week and expressed
how much it meant to have the oppor-
tunity to show his animal in person.
“It wouldn’t have been the same
online,” he said. “And if it was not for
everything they did to make this hap-
pen, I wouldn’t have had the chance,
and I wanted to let them know how
grateful I was.”
Cox moved to John Day two years
ago after he retired from automotive
management. His corporate position
allowed him to donate to kids in 4-H,
but because of the travel demands of
his job, he could not volunteer and
work with kids.
Cox said the Oregon State Uni-
versity Extension Office 4-H team
has been awesome to work with,
especially in putting together a plan
that met the state’s guidelines to hold
the livestock shows.
“I just show up, and they tell me
what to do,” he said.
Carol Waggoner, OSU Exten-
sion Office coordinator, said it was
important the community held some
type of event.
“It would have been easy to can-
cel the events and put them online,”
she said.
Waggoner said the Grant County
Health Department at one point
assisted with the plan, and Christal
Culley, 4-H education program assis-
tant, said the Emergency Operations
Center, when it was fully staffed,
contributed to the plan as well.
Waggoner said Grant County
Commissioner Jim Hamsher, the
fair’s county liaison, shared updates
Maggie Justice, right, an intern with
the Grant County Oregon State Uni-
versity Extension Office’s 4-H pro-
gram, gives Emilie Updegrave a cou-
ple of pointers Sunday before the
lamb show at the Grant County Fair-
grounds Heritage Barn.
Eagle photos/Steven Mitchell
Paige Gerry, left, and Emilie Updegrave show their lambs at the Grant County Fairgrounds Sunday during a youth live-
stock show. Local 4-H and FFA leaders and volunteers made the modified event a reality.
Carol Waggoner, Oregon State University Extension Of-
fice coordinator, puts together pens for the animals Sat-
urday at the Grant County Fairgrounds Heritage Barn.
Youth show their animals Sunday during the lamb show at
the Grant County Fairgrounds Heritage Barn. The yearly
event, modified, masked and socially distanced to meet
the state’s guidelines, gave the kids an opportunity to
show off all of their hard work.
Fair board member Jake Taylor moves wood chips to the Heritage Barn at the Grant County Fairgrounds Saturday ahead
of the youth livestock show. Les Schwab lent the organizers the tractor, according to volunteer Doug Cox.
from the state. She said both County
Judge Scott Myers and County Com-
missioner Sam Palmer have also
been supportive.
Culley said the uncertainty of the
process and “fear of the unknown”
were difficult to overcome at times.
Culley said intern Maggie Justice,
who grew up in Grant County and
participated in 4-H and FFA, helped
keep everyone’s spirits up with her
positive attitude.
Morris said the kids in her group
were able to adapt to staying in con-
tact through text messages, a Face-
book group and Zoom meetings.
Morris, who teaches food pres-
ervation and leathercraft, posted an
assignment for the kids to cook an
item and then have a family member
review it.
She said as a leader she gets close
to her kids and it is “heartbreaking”
when they have setbacks or fall short
“That might not sound like much,
but its huge, and she has been awe-
some,” Culley said.
Culley said, as a local, Justice was
also a familiar face for parents and
kids.
Kelly Morris, superintendent of
the static 4-H displays, said the group
builds lifelong skills that kids take
into adulthood. Morris said the kids
learn to see a project through until it’s
finished.
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with a project.
Morris said she had a student who
was disappointed with how a food
preservation project turned out. She
said while it was hard for the student,
they looked at what went well, what
went wrong and what they can do
next year.
Another challenge due to the pan-
demic, she said, was the cancellation
of clinics she started holding for the
kids to help them fine-tune their proj-
ects ahead of the exhibition.
“COVID stopped us from having
clinics,” she said. “That was our big-
gest thing is the challenges with not
being able to do these clinics with the
kids.”
Laura Brown, leader of of the
Canyon Creek 4-H group, said not
being able to connect with her kids
face to face was a huge challenge.
She said she had the option to
video conference with her group, but
the internet connection where she
lives is unreliable, as it is for some in
her group as well.
While the youth might benefit
financially at the end of their projects
if they earn a high enough ribbon, the
main purpose and value of the FFA
and 4-H is youth development.
“It’s about youth development
and getting these kids educated in
whatever projects they’re doing right
that’s number one,” she said. “I know
a lot of families that were put on the
back burner while they figured out
distance education to finish out the
rest of the year. And this detracted
from the 4-H and the youth develop-
ment program we have here.”
For volunteer Randy Cearns of
Mt. Vernon, whose two grandchil-
dren showed lambs this year, said the
lack of in-person meetings was tough
on his younger grandaughter Mad-
ilyne Cearns, 10, since this was her
first year.
Cearns, who has volunteered in
the past, was asked to help this year.
“I am happy to help,” he said.
“The kids have put a lot of time into
raising their animals.”
He said he is grateful, with this
being his granddaughter’s first year,
that the community was able pull off
the event.
“We didn’t know from one day to
the next if they’d be able to do it,” he
said. “We are so grateful they were
able to make it happen. I don’t care if
I have to wear a mask. I just want to
be here for the kids.”
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