Hi, my name is Gradey McNally and I am a first year member of the Melvern Jr. Highline 4-H Club. For my first year in 4-H I wanted to do beef, swine, visual arts and foods and nutrition.
In my beef project i bought two steers, Big Red, who was my Red Angus, and Herf, my Hereford. I was able to show them at the Melvern, Osage City and Overbrook fairs. For my pigs, I had two that I was able to show at the Osage City and Overbrook fairs.
With this being my first year of showing in 4-H, I had so much fun working with my animals and showing them as well as meeting other kids who had the same projects that I did in the barns.
For cooking I made one of my favorite kinds of cookies, No Bakes, and got purples each time I entered them! For visual arts, I put a Lego kit together and entered that at two of the local fairs.
Besides the fairs, one of my major highlights was getting to go to 4-H Camp at Rock Springs! While at camp I had so much fun crawdad fishing, swimming and playing gaga ball! I also got to go to our district wide judging day, where I learned a lot about 4-H and different project areas such as FCS, horticulture, photography and the Skill-a-thon contest!
A few other activities I attended were our district’s officers training, since I was one of our club’s song and recreation leaders, County Club Days, where I gave a demonstration on how to read a pig’s ear notch, then I got to go onto Regional Club Days where I gave it again.
When I went to the to the southeast area contests, in Emporia, I was able to participate in the horticulture, FCS and crops contests! I have also had the opportunity to attend the livestock judging contests that we were offered in the Frontier District.
I also participated in my club’s local activities such as our annual East Egg hunt, Christmas caroling, making Christmas packages for local men and women who are deployed overseas, and helping with the annual Melvern Thanksgiving dinner and our local Trunk or Treat. I cannot wait to start my second year of 4-H and continue having fun while learning about my projects!
Celebrating National 4-H Week, Oct. 6-12, 2019
