Shar Perry, 4-H Youth Educator for the UW Extension Office in Star Valley, stepped into the SVI Radio studio on Wednesday, October 1. Perry promoted registration opening for local 4-H clubs, National 4-H Week and the carnival fundraiser taking place towards the end of October.

(0:00) Joining me live in studio right now is Char Perry. Char is the 4-H youth educator in Star Valley (0:06) as part of the UW-Extension through the Lincoln County 4-H. Char, good morning, how are you today? (0:11) Good morning, thank you, I am well.

I appreciate you stopping by to talk 4-H. (0:15) First of October and maybe people not having 4-H on their minds this time of year, but they should (0:23) because registration is actually open now, right? Yes, today, October 1st, we start our new year (0:29) of enrollment, so everybody can jump online and sign up. Excellent, and just to reiterate, (0:36) we’ve talked about this before, I think there is so much to do in 4-H, even here locally that people (0:42) can sign up for.

Maybe give us just a quick snapshot of what kind of activities and clubs (0:47) are here locally available. Yeah, definitely. So most people think of 4-H as livestock animals, (0:52) but we offer a whole bunch of other projects besides livestock.

We have a really good (0:58) shooting sports club, we have what we call our general club, which is non-animals, so cooking, (1:05) sewing, crafting, lots, lots available to kids out there. We might not have projects for or leaders (1:12) for every project offered, but the kids can work on them at home too, so. And the great thing about (1:18) it is a kid can be as involved as much or as little as they want, right? It’s not an all or nothing (1:24) thing.

Nope, and that’s one thing we kind of pride ourselves about with 4-H is there’s something for (1:29) everybody in 4-H, so like you said, all in or, you know, just a little bit. Some people joined (1:36) us for 4-H camps, some want to do the national trips, the state trips, whatever their spark is, (1:41) we will help find it and let them do it. Absolutely, so signups are open now.

How do (1:47) people do that? How do people find out what’s available and get registered? So 4h.zsuite.org (1:54) is the signup online, but if they have questions on clubs and placings, they can just call us at the (1:59) extension office for more help. Perfect. Sharp Perry is in studio this morning, the 4-H youth (2:04) educator for the Lincoln County 4-H.

It’s also 4-H week next week, correct? Yes. What happens with (2:11) that? Yeah, so national 4-H week is the 5th through the 11th. We have a couple state things going on (2:18) this year that’s new.

We have a state bingo. They can come in and get a bingo card from (2:24) the extension office, fill it out, and return it, and that will get them in for some prizes from (2:29) the state 4-H office. We’re also encouraging our clubs to do thank you cards and care baskets (2:35) for our local health care workers, and then just more on a local, we’ve got our social media flyers.

(2:44) We’ll have little 4-H flyers that we’ll take around to the pieces, places, and the grocery (2:49) stores, and then we encourage people to take a picture of the flyer they got and post it, and (2:53) we’ll put them in a drawing for that. Wednesday, we’re doing our wear it Wednesday 4-H shirt, so if (2:59) the kids or anybody wears a 4-H shirt, they can post it on our social media and get in or to win (3:04) a prize too. And then, of course, we’ve got the famous guess the number of candies in the jar at (3:09) our office that they can stop in and guess.

Oh, very cool, and so those are all happening just (3:15) all next week, and it’s just for anybody, right? Everybody, yeah. Yep, just to get 4-H out (3:21) there and share the word. Very cool, so that’s happening next week, and that’ll be (3:26) around some state of Wyoming things and some local ones in the Star Valley area as well.

And, of (3:32) course, the Star Valley Club always hosts a big Halloween festival at the end of October. That’s (3:38) happening again this year? Yes, so October 27th from 5 to 8 at the fairgrounds, we’ll have our (3:44) Halloween festival. Our clubs have really stepped up this year.

They’ve come up with some new games (3:48) and ideas, so we’re excited to see how it all plays out. Very cool, and give us the dates again (3:53) on that. Yeah, so it’s October 27th, and all the proceeds that we make from this fundraiser goes (3:59) to pay the kids 4-H fees, so it’s free for kids to join 4-H, so it’s an important fundraiser for us.

(4:06) Very cool, this is always such a cool event. There’s so much to do, and it’s always at the (4:10) fairgrounds, I assume, again this year, correct? Right, so stay tuned for more details on that, (4:15) and it’ll be towards the end of October once again for that 4-H event. Shara Perry, 4-H Youth (4:21) Educator in Studio.

Shara, you’ve been involved with 4-H, and you’ve been the educator for a (4:26) number of years. Obviously, it’s a passion for you. It’s been a family project for you guys as well, (4:32) to say the least.

Why do you love it so much? What is it about 4-H that keeps you going on (4:36) these types of things? So, 4-H is the largest youth education program out of school available (4:43) for kids, and the fun thing about 4-H is they get to learn by what they want. It’s something that’s (4:48) self-driven, so I think it’s great. There’s so many opportunities.

If a kid wants to do it, (4:54) we’ll find a way for them to do it, so it’s just helping them find their spark in life and (4:59) getting them ready to be productive young adults. Very cool, so again, registration is open now. Is (5:04) there a deadline to get registered? So, some clubs will have deadlines and numbers just for (5:09) safety enrollment, so the sooner they get signed up, the better, but the livestock obviously have (5:16) deadlines too, just because they have to be tagged, but for the most part, there is not a deadline.

(5:21) Gotcha. All right, well, Shara, as always, really appreciate it. We should mention, (5:26) next week for 4-H week, we’re going to be doing some great things here on the radio.

Tell us what (5:30) we’ll have next week. Yes, so next week, we’re going to have some 4-H kids come in, and we’re (5:34) have them give a 4-H trivia question, and then if you get the question right, you can get a prize. (5:42) Very cool.

All right, so it’ll be each day next week. Looking forward to it. Anything we missed, (5:45) Shara, we need to touch on today.

No, I’m just excited for another year. If you guys have any (5:49) questions on 4-H, please reach out to the Extension Office. We’re here to help, and (5:53) we’re always looking for volunteers if anybody wants to help give back to the youth.

That’s the (5:57) 4-H youth educator in Star Valley, Shara Perry, this morning with the Lincoln County 4-H. It’s (6:02) all part of the weekday wake-up on SVI Radio.