We had a lot of ups and downs, but we made it through together. I would like to thank all of our members, volunteers and parents for holding on for the ride and making it a fun and successful year.

In August, we held our La Plata County Fair. Although it wasn’t like any other fair we’ve had, we still had a wonderful time getting together and seeing each other in person. Our youth members work so hard all year to make, build and raise their projects; it was a blessing they were able to see their projects through to the end.

We are all very aware of just how lucky we are to live in this community. Even though the general public wasn’t allowed to enjoy the majority of the fair with us, they still showed up and supported our youth members at the La Plata County Junior Livestock Auction, making it our largest grossing event ever!

We had 40 general projects qualify for the Colorado State Fair, and of those, we had six reserve champions, two champions, two reserve grand champions and two grand champions.

McKenzie Albright, a member of Animas Valley 4-H Club, made a beautiful scrapbook about the history and activities of her club, which won her the grand champion ribbon in scrapbooking.

Carly Piccoli, a member of Mountaineers 4-H Club, took a size 18 dress bought at a second-hand store and downsized it to a beautiful size 2 dress, painted flowers on it and won grand champion in the category of artistic clothing, upcycle your style.

Most of our other members placed in their divisions, which is very impressive because they were competing against the best of the best in the entire state.

We also had 16 4-H members take their livestock to the state fair. Of those, 11 placed in their classes, and Bristol Lesky placed first in her heavyweight crossbreed class with her pig, Rambo. This allowed her to sell at the State Fair Junior Livestock Auction, where only 25 out of more than 500 pigs qualified for the sale.

Congratulations to all of our 4-H members and their successes throughout the year.

Our new 2020-21 4-H year starts Oct. 1, when we will be continuing our purpose to help youths acquire knowledge, develop life skills and form attitudes that will enable them to become self-directing, productive members of society.

If you or your kids are interested in joining as a volunteer or 4-H member, contact me at the La Plata County Extension Office.

Angela Fountain is the La Plata County 4-H youth development agent. Reach her at [email protected] or 382-6460.

Angela Fountain

Livestock buyers

I would like to personally thank all of our livestock buyers for believing in our youth members and supporting them, year after year:
Agritek Fence, American Ag Credit, Ames Construction, Bank of Colorado, Basin Coop, Best Western Rio Grande, Bonds Construction, Buckskin Electric, C & J Gravel, C & J Redimix, Chad and Julie Waite, Coca-Cola, Colorado Construction & Restoration, Crane & Tejada, CRG Construction, Crossfire, Crossfire Aggregate Services, Durango Audiology, Eclipse DOT, Edward Tolen, Energy Inspection Services, Farmers Fresh Market, FCI Constructors, Four State Electric, Garrhs Heating & Air Conditioning, Hocker & Sons, Honnen Equipment, Horizon Environmental Services, Hornich Ranch, Jenkins Family, John Witchel, Karen Zink and Pam Patton, Konisto Companies, Koodeze Ranch, Kroegers Ace Hardware, La Plata Electric Association, Leeder Construction, Morehart-Murphy Motors, Mountain West Insurance, Quality Irrigation Solutions, Red Cedar Gathering Co., S & K Enterprises, Scalva Electric, Snooks Concrete, Southridge Construction, Southwest Women’s Health, Summit Supply, Sunnyside Farms Market, Sunnyside Meats, SW Ag & 4Corners Trailers, TBK Bank, Travis Kimmel and Witt Farm.
Angela Fountain