A choice of a pork loin or chicken entree with sides of mashed potatoes, corn, a roll and a choice of dessert was served by 4-H members.
The keynote speaker was Kacie Clark, 2023-2024 Arkansas 4-H Vice President and current agricultural business student at Arkansas State University, who told of taking part in competitive speaking at 4-H poster presentations from the time she was five years old, struggling through nerves the first time but pushing through with her talk on rabbit care when her mother told her the reward would be a pack of gum.
Winning a purple ribbon for the effort didn’t satisfy Kacie, though. She told of several further attempts at winning a blue one over the years, finally taking one home when she was 14, but only due to lacking any competitor that year. At 15, she developed a talk on Celiac Disease. This time the competition was more fierce.
“They called third place. I didn't get third place,” Clark said. “They called second place. Didn't get second place. That moment I realized I either did a really good job, and I was going to get first place, or I did a really bad job and I didn’t place. But you know what, they called my name, and I got that blue ribbon. But the funny thing about me setting that goal whenever I was five years old is that I began loving speaking about things that I was passionate about, or going to competitions and hearing what everybody else was passionate about.”
Clark told the attendees that her achievements and experiences in 4-H were owed to goal-setting, adaptation to circumstances and learning from failures. Through repeatedly placing herself in social situations that she dreaded and learning to focus on others’ experiences rather than her own discomfort, Clark said she found herself more able to perform to her expectations in public settings and even in singing on stage, eventually performing the national anthem at a Farm Bureau convention in 2024.
Special entertainment, just before Clark’s talk was provided by Madilynn Townsend who sang a rendition of “Traveling Solider,” a song by Bruce Robison that the Dixie Chicks made a number one hit in 2002.
County Extension Agent Betty Wingfield, after providing an account of the Hempstead County 4-H members’ activities and awards won announced the overall awards for 4-H members in three age categories. “The criteria were based on offices held; county, district, state participation; if you gave talks or demonstrations; community service, and we had a rubric from which we judged those applications,” Wingfield said.
The winners for 2024 were:
Aftyn Rowe - Beginner (ages 9-12)
Madie Comer - Intermediate (ages 13-15)
Kassidy Beasley - Advanced Senior (ages 16-19)
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