Newberry County 4-H Summer 2023

September 20, 2023

Alana West
4-H Youth Development Agent
Newberry County

During the summer of 2023, Newberry County 4-H offered 8 opportunities for local youth to participate in. Some of these programs were on the local level and some were on the state level. In all, 66 Newberry County youth participated in these programs.

Our summer started with our Science of Art/Art of Science Day Camp where ten Newberry youth and one Fairfield youth explored the relationship between science and art. We studied constellations, moon phases, the color wheel, optical and sensory illusions, and more. We are grateful for the partnership with Fairfield County 4-H and the Jenkinsville Community Center.

Newberry County 4-H members learning to iron.

Next on the calendar was our Summer Engineers Day Camp. This camp took aim at recruiting youth to participate in our annual SC 4-H Engineering Challenge. The three-day camp allowed twelve youth to take a set of parameters and a list of materials and design a solution to a given problem. Participants built and tested bridges, paper airplanes, rockets, spaghetti towers, circuits, penny boats, Pringles rings, marshmallow catapults, and air boats.

The next camp was a two-day venture into forging and blacksmithing. Seven youth from Newberry and two from Fairfield traveled to Union County to glean skills and knowledge from Union County 4-H Agent, Mark Cathcart. In addition to these skills and knowledge, youth took home S-hooks, mini swords, salt spoons, knives, and other trinkets they made.

Newberry County 4-H members learning to write thank you notes and then properly address them for mail service.

In addition to these local camps, South Carolina 4-H held their annual Club Camp at Camp Long in Aiken in June. Youth in attendance were exposed to traditional summer camp activities including swimming, campfires, skits, and more.

To close out June, South Carolina 4-H held its annual 4-H State Congress, the pinnacle event for a 4-H member’s career. Three girls represented Newberry County. They attended workshops on self-defense, food safety and preservation, a makerspace, and etiquette as well as toured the Clemson dairy farm, experimental forest, cheese and ice cream labs, and planetarium. The week’s service project included packing 1,700 meals through Meals of Hope. The week was capped off with an awards banquet, with guest speaker, Newberry native Michael Mills and a dance with DJ Travis Gilliam, a Silverstreet native.

In July, we offered two rounds of our Magic in the Kitchen Day Camp, one for younger youth ages five through eight and another for older youth ages nine through fourteen. These camps were more about food science than cooking. We explored sinkers and floaters, astronaut ice cream, sugar substitutes, oil and water, popping corn, butter making, mixed drinks, dehydration, and tricked a lot of parents with our mock apple pie.

The final offering of the summer was for our older 4-Hers. A class on CPR was taught and four went home with new certifications.

Newberry County 4-H members learning to forge metal.

Throughout the summer, we also offered our first ever Summer Breakfast Club. Nine youth attended five meetings where they cooked their breakfast and then cleaned up their mess prior to learning a new life skill. Their breakfast menus included French toast roll-ups, chocolate chip pancakes, omelets, biscuits and gravy, and donuts, all homemade. They learned skills like ironing and folding laundry, checking tire pressure and plugging a tire, car maintenance, etiquette and table setting, grocery shopping skills, and how to write and mail a thank you letter.

In addition to our camps, we also had youth growing produce to compete in our Newberry County 4-H Tomato Project and our South Carolina 4-H Small Garden Project. Wrapping up the summer and kicking off the fall show season, we had one youth show his beef heifer at the Jr. Beef Round up in Clemson the first weekend of August. You may have also seen us representing at the South Carolina 4-H State Horse Show and Creative Contest in Clemson and Newberry County Soil and Water Conservation District’s Camp Conservation.

With fall livestock shows just around the corner and school busses now on the road, we look forward to starting our 2023-24 4-H club year, which runs September through August. School programs and clubs are now what’s on the calendar. Stay tuned for an update by checking our webpage: www.clemson.edu/extension/4h/county/newberry or following Newberry County 4-H on Facebook.