2021 Newberry County 4-H Summer Re-Cap

September 7, 2021

While the summer of 2021 didn’t look like summers of the past, 4-H was able to offer some in-person programming. Newberry County 4-H stuck with offering life-skills workshops for youth ages 8-14. Due to the COVID situation, workshops were limited in spacing due to social distancing. Some workshops offered more than one session to accommodate those interested. Each participant received their own equipment.

Our Needlework’s Workshop taught youth the basics of hand stitching, including terminology, skills, and equipment, as well as how to replace a button. Ten youth participated and took home a completed sampler demonstrating stitches such as the split stitch, straight stitch, and cross stitch as well as some more difficult skills like French knot and a woven wheel. Each participant was also given a pillowcase and supplies ready for embroidering their name.

Our Journey to Mars Mini Camp was a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) workshop with a Mars Rover theme. Six youth participated in eight modules covering concepts as binary code, algorithms, orbits, propulsion and thrust, stop-motion animation, remote sensing, circuits, and robotics. These youth also had their name added to the list of others whose names will fly into space on the next Mars mission.

Our final summer workshop was the most popular. Nineteen kids registered for our Cake Decorating Workshop. Participants got hands-on with buttercream, learning different icing techniques from a former 4-H Agent and now retail grocery store chain cake decorator. Each participant went home with an 8” single-layer cake decorated to their liking as well as a starter kit for icing cakes.

Over the last year and a half, 4-H has gone the extra mile to make sure we are able to offer opportunities for our youth while keeping them safe at the same time. Moving forward, we make that some promise and will continue to make the best better.