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During this time of extended health safety precautions, Southwest District 4-H provided a virtual Cloverleaf Project Achievement competition for 4th-6th grade 4-H’ers. The 4-H Project Achievement competition helps youth develop leadership, creativity, public speaking skills and a deep understanding of their desired project area. Eighteen southwest Georgia counties and 139 students participated in this virtual competition including 27 Decatur County students.

Youth select from 62 project focus categories and prepare presentations on the area levels. When competing on the district level, participants prepare and are judged on a four- to six-minute presentation about their selected subject, a four minute performance or snack food preparation. For the online contest, youth uploaded a video of their presentation and their work was evaluated virtually by UGA Extension staff and volunteer judges.

Decatur County 4-H’ers worked hard from mid-February through March in preparation for the contest and represented our county very well. First place awards went to Scott Ross Hayes, Agriculture Awareness; Marissa Brantley, Between Meal Snacks (5th grade); Zaina Abueisheh, Between Meal Snacks (6th grade); Margaret Chastain, Dairy; AnnaClaire Moore, Food Safety and Preservation; TaMyrin Hubert, Food Fare; Henry Lee, General Science (5th grade); Kylaha Hughes, General Science (6th grade); Bennett Earnest, Health; Hayleigh Johns, Historic Places and Events (5th grade); Jacob Moore, Historic Places and Events (6th grade); Carrington Smith, Paleontology; Leighanna Howard, Performing Arts General; Justis Ingram, Performing Arts Instrumental; and Preston Lynn, Swine. Second place winners were Khamari Debron, Food Fare; My’liah Johnson, Performing Arts General; Caden Ethridge, Performing Arts Instrumental; Chloe Meredith, Performing Arts Vocal and Sophia Gilstrap, Poultry. Receiving third place honors were Zy’Kiah Donaldson, Between Meal Snacks; Maddie Chapman, General Recreation and Taylor Johnson, Food Fare. Fourth place award winners were Emerson Huggins, Arts; Noah Jarrett, General Recreation and Evynn Huggins, Between Meal Snacks. Participating youth were celebrated through a statewide video posted to the Georgia 4-H YouTube channel.

Certified 4-H Teen Leaders Omarion Smart, Corbin Austin, Samantha Floyd and Kinsey Ward met with the 4-H’ers to help with demonstrations, posters and videoing.

Decatur County Extension appreciates the opportunity to partner with Decatur County schools to provide 4-H Project Achievement and other educational programming. Georgia 4-H empowers youth to become true leaders by developing necessary life skills, positive relationships and community awareness. As the largest youth leadership organization in the state, 4-H reaches more than 242,000 people annually through University of Georgia Cooperative Extension offices and 4-H facilities. For more information, contact your local Extension office at https://extension.uga.edu/county-offices/decatur.html or teadkins@uga.edu or lacey.west@uga.edu .