From blocks to beaver skins: Morgan County 4-H Roundup has a little of everything
Students react as they’re shown the skull of an opossum during the Morgan County 4-H Roundup at Sparkman Civic Center in Hartselle on March 19. Photos by Jeronimo Nisa.
Students learn about water quality during the Morgan County 4-H Roundup at Sparkman Civic Center in Hartselle on March 19. Photos by Jeronimo Nisa.
Judges Amy Shelton, left, and Kathleen Woodside discuss the merits of an entry in the interior design competition during the Morgan County 4-H Roundup at Sparkman Civic Center in Hartselle on March 19. Photos by Jeronimo Nisa.
Eli Linthreum talks to judges about his entry in the Blocks Rock! competition during the Morgan County 4-H Roundup at Sparkman Civic Center in Hartselle on March 19. Photos by Jeronimo Nisa.
Elizabeth Young tells a personal experience to instructor Jeffrey Calvert as he shows students the fur of a raccoon during the Morgan County 4-H Roundup at Sparkman Civic Center in Hartselle on March 19. Photos by Jeronimo Nisa.
Students dance following the prompts from a screen during the Morgan County 4-H Roundup at Sparkman Civic Center. Photos by Jeronimo Nisa.
Students react as they’re shown the skull of an opossum during the Morgan County 4-H Roundup at Sparkman Civic Center in Hartselle on March 19. Photos by Jeronimo Nisa.
Students learn about water quality during the Morgan County 4-H Roundup at Sparkman Civic Center in Hartselle on March 19. Photos by Jeronimo Nisa.
Judges Amy Shelton, left, and Kathleen Woodside discuss the merits of an entry in the interior design competition during the Morgan County 4-H Roundup at Sparkman Civic Center in Hartselle on March 19. Photos by Jeronimo Nisa.
Eli Linthreum talks to judges about his entry in the Blocks Rock! competition during the Morgan County 4-H Roundup at Sparkman Civic Center in Hartselle on March 19. Photos by Jeronimo Nisa.
Elizabeth Young tells a personal experience to instructor Jeffrey Calvert as he shows students the fur of a raccoon during the Morgan County 4-H Roundup at Sparkman Civic Center in Hartselle on March 19. Photos by Jeronimo Nisa.
Desper Dobbs yelled, “That’s messed up,” after he heard about the 50-year-old piece of litter a Limestone County Extension Service agent said she found during a recent walk near the Tennessee River.
Agent Allyson Shabel, urban regional Extension agent, described the discovery of the 1970s soda pop can during her presentation Wednesday at the Morgan County 4-H Roundup at Hartselle’s Sparkman Civic Center. Shabel was doing a presentation about watershed pollution. It was just one of many events at the roundup.
During the roundup, judges assess the kids’ 4-H projects and give them ribbons. Meanwhile, the students entertain themselves at the various presentations. Those who win first-place ribbons can go on to the regional competition on May 9 in Fayette County.
Dobbs was explaining to the 4-H members how litter is just one of many ways that waterways become polluted. She brought a diorama of a farm and watershed and let the kids drop soil, pesticide, manure and finally water on the diorama so they could see how the Tennessee River gets polluted with runoff from farmland, roads, homes and other locations. Her diorama showed how pollution mixes with rain to end up in the river, where drinking water is collected before being treated.
Demonstrations like this were held all morning throughout the 4-H event. Among the competitions going on were storytelling, interior design, a bake off, Blocks Rock!, gardening and extreme birdhouses. In another section of the building, contestants had turned into interior decorators, in another food gurus and in yet another Lego block builders. Austin Lytle had an entry in the Blocks Rock! competition, in which participants build Lego buildings and explain the setting and the details to a 4-H judge. Lytle built a gray block prison and explained to judges he was in the middle of a prison break. Lucas Feigenblatt didn’t just build a universe with his blocks; he built a multiverse titled “Multiversal Madness.” His display was a multicolor scene of controlled chaos and creativity.
On the baking front, Maura Miller made a football stadium cake with little baseball cookies on the side. Another entrant entered a Friday Night Lights stadium cake with little cupcake brownies that were “seated” in the stands.
Audrey Johnson, 13, of Danville, made an angel food cake with blueberries and strawberries on top instead of frosting. She said this was a great dessert option because angel food is lower in calories than many cakes and her substitution of fruit for frosting made for a healthier alternative than some of the other goodies at the contest.
“I got the giant strawberries at Walmart,” she said, alluding to the strawberries on the plate that were the size of lemons.
When they weren’t at their competition sites, students gathered at the various stations where they learned about everything from animal pelts to skulls and paw prints.
Nola Lee, 11, who was watching a presentation on animal pelts and craniums, said she enjoyed many aspects of the 4-H event.
“I like getting to spend time with my friends and I like the challenges of the competition,” she said as she waited for Jeffery Calvert, Extension agent for Lauderdale and Colbert counties, to continue his animal pelt and skull exhibit.
Lee said she had entered an event called Have I Got a Story.
“I wrote a fictional story about me and my friends who time travel to a forestry place,” she said.
As she was speaking, Calvert brought by a beaver skull for the audience to study. Calvert had brought with him a plethora of animal pelts and skulls. He held up each pelt and let the students feel it and try to guess which animal it came from. Some of the kids nailed the answers, especially the easy ones like deer, red fox and skunk. Others, like the otter and beaver, were a little trickier. When he gave them a few hints, like showing a cast of the webbed beaver foot, it became easier.
