Teton Co. 4-H Demo Day Results

Nineteen 4-H youth ages 7-16 spent Saturday teaching and entertaining a crowd of about 65 people with their 4-H presentations.  There were 18 presentations, as one was a team presentation.  Half of the presentations were from first-time participants at the Teton County 4-H Presentation event.  Because of the high quality of the presentations, one would not have known the 4-H members were novices.  The 4-H members were composed and prepared.  Each gave a presentation and handled questions from the audience.

Competing in the senior speech category was Abigail Konen, who in addition to her speech on government, was required to prepare an impromptu speech with just three minutes of preparation time.  Abigail received a purple rating for her efforts.  Watson Snyder competed in senior demonstrations and showed how to make an economical coyote call.  Delaney Rixford was the only Cloverbud member doing a presentation and charmed the audience with simple steps for making a piñata.

The pre-junior division, ages 8-10,m was the largest group.  Golden Holmquist demonstrated how to make a homemade lip balm with all natural ingredients.  Taylor Asselstine did not wait on Mother Nature and instead made her own paper carnations.  Presley Holmquist put a sock in it, with her sock hair bun.  Madeline Konen made mouths water as she showed how to make a peach cobbler.  Adelena Long shared how she used the winter months to tie flies and prepare for fly-fishing season.   Sunny Woodhouse showed how to make a play dough to be used for crafts and babysitting.  Bellamy Beadle demonstrated a permanent marker dyeing technique.  Molly and Sophia Huhn demonstrated a delicious and nutritious pizza using barbecue sauce, pineapple and goat cheese.  Nolan Forseth shared how to show a chicken using a stuffed turkey.  Justin Forseth rounded out the pre-junior group with his demonstration on the parts of a four-cycle engine.  The judges, Sheryl and Randy Knowles of Great Falls and Alice Burchak from Shelby, had their work cut out for them selecting a top winner from such a well-prepared bunch.  Madeline Konen and Bellamy Beadle tied for the top honors in the pre-junior division.

The junior division was a smaller group, but exceptionally polished.  Luke Ostberg started off the event by getting everyone all tied up in knots.  He showed a number of different knot-tying techniques.  Nicholas Konen demonstrated how to lay tile.  He had several audience members thinking they could re-tile their own projects, or hire Nicholas.  Daniel Asselstine was on the “straight and arrow” as he demonstrated how to repair fletchings on arrows.  Delaynie Beadle taught how to use a canning jar to make a one-cup on-the-go smoothie in three different flavors.  Hannah Konen rounded out the junior division asking people to “give peas a chance.”  Chick peas, that is.  Hannah’s hummus was delicious to sample.  The judges picked Nicholas Konen as the top winner in this group.

The presentation event is designed to help youth hone their public speaking skills.  To that end, there were communication games for the audience and 4-H members to play between presentations, as judges finished their score sheets.  The group was entertained by impromptu speeches by several audience members, creating the suggestion that there be an adult division at the presentation event.  There was Pictionary play dough, charades and paper-bag demonstrations.  Besides building communication skills, the event also helps youth develop useful life-long skills.  It was noted that these youth could someday grow up to host their own do-it-yourself channels on a variety of platforms that may be available in the future.  Many of the presentations were of economic value, from learning how to make products at home for a fraction of the cost to learning how to fix engines or tile a bathroom.  The youth have developed impressive and practical skills, in addition to honing research, organization and public speaking abilities.

The demonstration committee, made up solely of youth members – Daniel Asselstine, Sarah Hodgskiss, Abigail Konen, Hannah Konen and Sunny Woodhouse, planned and organized the event with assistance from the MSU Teton County Extension Office.  The event was held at the Choteau Baptist Church.  Following the presentations, family, audience and judges enjoyed a baked potato bar, dessert and more active games.