2015 4H & FFA Tab

Publication of the Daily Record

4-H & FFA 2015 Kittitas County

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Learning life lessons on the range

Bonnie Davidson / For the Daily Record

From left, leader Andrew Hall, Alexandra Hall, Chloe Clyburn, Kathryn “Katie” Gabriel, Dominick Woolsey, Zach Gabriel and Vicente Hall line up and practice their stances at the Armory Building.

4-H shooting club teaches local kids safety and sportsmanship

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By BONNIE DAVIDSON For the Daily Record

icente Hall, 15, has been involved with the On Target 4-H Shooting Club in Kittitas County for seven years, starting in third grade. He said that he’s grown into the sport for most of his life.

“It’s a great opportunity to learn about firearms and safety,” he said.

The 4-H year begins in October and about 45 kids signed up to participate in the club last year. Closer to 20 kids consistently show up to compete.

Glenna Maskal, the adult leader of the club, said 4-Hers from third grade through high school participate in archery, air rifle, air pistol, rifle and

shotgun competitions. They meet up to two times a month to practice and talk a lot about safety.

Thirteen of the 4-Hers performed well at the state championship in May in Eatonville. A few qualified for nationals in June, but no one went this year.

The club has been around for 10 years. About 10 leaders help teach proper etiquette, proper stance and proper safety when taking part in their chosen shooting sport.

“The first thing we work on is safety, we want to develop our youth to be safe,” said Andrew Hall, one of the club leaders.

See Shooting, Page 5

Bonnie Davidson / For the Daily Record

Zach Gabriel, 14, in the prone position, practices shooting skills.

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Bonnie Davidson / For the Daily Record

Instructor and leader Andrew Hall teaches his daughter, Alexandra Hall, 11, the proper technique to shoot her arrow.

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SHOOTING Continued from Page 3 “The next goal is good shooting techniques and that leads to good marksmanship.”

Currently there’s no range in the county to help out with practice, so participants travel to get in shooting time. They use a mobile range for air rifles and pistols and archery.

Maskal said the group has been fortunate to have received more than $10,000 in funding for equipment from Friends of the National Rifle Association.

Very recently, the former Ellensburg Trap and Skeet Club, which disbanded due to the loss of its range, donated $6,000 to the club.

Maskal has continued to write grants to help the club continue with equipment, and possibly one day a range.

Leaders explained that there haven’t been a lot of difficulties, but it’s always a challenge to get the kids to focus in the beginning. Anthony Gabriel, another leader, said teaching 4-Hers to act as if every gun is loaded is a big focus. Hall added 4-Hers have to memorize rules before they are able to fire.

Hall said his favorite moments are when the kids are able to shoot well and safely. He gets to watch the kids get a look of satisfaction as they shoot well. Hall said that the kids sometimes teach their parents.

Gabriel said seeing the older kids jump in and start to teach the younger kids is also rewarding.

“Them gaining confidence and watching

Bonnie Davidson / For the Daily Record

Vicente Hall, 15, takes aim for the On Target 4-H Shooting Sport Club at the Armory Building. the amount of improvement in every child is rewarding,” Gabriel said.

Chloe Clyburn, 10, a member of the group who is involved in archery, said she enjoys shooting on a 3D range. A 3D range is where animals and objects are set up in challenges.

Kathryn “Katie” Gabriel, 16, the president of the club, said she also enjoyed the 3D range. You don’t have a distance given to you so you have to take a guess, but it’s possible to do better than others with

From 11 AM -4 PM Daily

better and more expensive equipment, she said.

Alexandra Hall, 11, has been shooting a .22 rifle and the air rifle. She said she has enjoyed shooting the silhouettes and making her mark when taking her shot.

One thing all the kids seem to agree on, no matter what their choice of shooting sport, it was a good way to learn about sportsmanship. One of the parents added that the local club was known in neighboring counties for good sportsmanship.

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4-H, family and community

Bonnie Davidson / For the Daily Record

Marie Riegel points to her mom, Mary Matthews, in a photo from her early 4-H years as a member back in the 1950s.

Mary Matthews has been involved with 4-H for six decades

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By BONNIE DAVIDSON For the Daily Record

ngaging youth and promoting leadership, learning and community involvement are all things Kittitas County 4-H does. But the true story behind the organization lies with the people who make it happen.

One of the names that is synonymous with 4-H in Kittitas County is Mary Matthews.

Matthews is the second generation in her family to participate in the program. Her father, Ivan Hutchinson, was possibly in the program during the beginning when it was called the Boys and Girls Club in 1918. Matthews’

parents met in Pullman at a club event.

Mary followed suit in 4-H at age 10 in 1947. Her first project was raising a sheep.

She continued as a member in the club for 11 years before moving on into a leadership role. Her six children were all involved in 4-H throughout the years, and so are five of her grandchil-

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dren. This year will be Matthews’ 56th year as a leader. But after adding her years involved as a youth, she’s spent six decades involved in the program.

“I just kept going on year after year, and the kids just all stuck with it,” Matthews said. “The boys have kind of petered out over the years, and some of them (family) have been more into it than others.”

See Matthews, Page 8

Bonnie Davidson / For the Daily Record

Mary Matthews getting ready to show her sheep. She noted her hair was pinned because she was also prepping for the fashion show and modeling her sewing work back in the 1950s.

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MATTHEWS Continued from Page 6

While Matthews was involved with livestock in her younger years, now she’s much more involved in sewing.

Her daughter, Marie Riegel, is involved with food and clothing projects. Riegel and her siblings all have clippings from the local paper of their days involved in 4-H. Riegel never really got involved in livestock, but always had a passion for the home economic activities.

Matthews’ husband, the late John “Buck” Matthews, also was involved and was a fair superintendent.

“I’ve done almost all categories, but the judging has been a big change over the years,” Mary Matthews said.

Changes over the years

In one change, youth have to know all the parts of their animals.

Record-keeping also plays a more important role. Kids involved in 4-H are required to keep a book that tracks all their expenses, all their progress and also tells a little bit of their own story. Those books are due before the fair this year and the clubs are all working on turning in

the books.

The books help youth log their progress, their challenges, their goals and things they’ve learned. In essence these books help them reflect on all their experience. It’s something Matthews said there wasn’t as much focus on in the past.

The books don’t have to be updated after the fair, but progress does need to be logged and turned in after the fair to receive medals and awards. Matthews now has a big part in looking over these books and judging.

As she’s been around for a few years and volunteered thousands of hours, she’s probably the perfect candidate to read through the triumphs and challenges of the many kids involved in Kittitas County 4-H. She’s no stranger to service, and also has volunteered for the FISH food bank. A few years ago she was named volunteer of the year by the Ellensburg Noon Rotary Club. Currently there 100 volunteer leaders who participate with local 4-H youth.

When asked why she’s continued to volunteer over the years, she jokes there aren’t volunteers to take her place. In reality, she said it’s just something she does.

Bonnie Davidson / For the Daily Record

Marie Riegel poses for a photo with her mother, Mary Matthews. Matthews has been involved with 4-H for more than 60 years.

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4-H family takes on swine

Bonnie Davidson / For the Daily Record

Cassidy Gay, 12, and Chance Allemand, 18, show off their swine before the fair season this year. This year will be Allemand’s 10th and final year involved in the 4-H swine category.

Livestock projects a tradition for Kittitas family

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By BONNIE DAVIDSON For the Daily Record

hance Allemand, 18, is finishing up his 10th and final year in 4-H. He’s president of the Wild Hogs 4-H Club and has been raising hogs for all 10 years.

He also recently graduated from

Kittitas High School and is looking toward the future. He might attend college at Yakima Valley Community College, where he’ll be looking at fire science classes, but is willing to take a variety of classes to see what he really enjoys. His raising and selling hogs in 4-H will help him pay for the first two years of college.

“When it comes to dinner time, you just don’t think about it,” Allemand said, about eating homegrown pork after the 4-H season is over.

Swine has been a popular venture for 4-Hers in Kittitas County the past few years. The category peaked in 2013 with 163 kids entering into the category, but that number dropped to 158 kids in

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2014 and is down to 144 this year. That’s roughly a third of the 390 kids enrolled in 4-H this year.

Allemand’s mother, Shelley Gay, said the rising costs of feed and cost of buying a pig could possibly be a reason that numbers are falling somewhat, but she added that sports programs and other activities have been pulling kids away, along with kids graduating out of the program.

Shelley Gay participated in 4-H with rabbits when she was younger and

when her children came of age to enter into the program, they thought it might be good to get Allemand involved. He and his sister have raised the pigs on their uncle’s place in Kittitas and at one point were raising sows and feeding orphaned piglets.

Allemand’s sister, Cassidy Gay, 12, is in her fourth year of 4-H swine projects.

Allemand said it can be a little sad at the end of the year when the pigs are sold in the market. Only one of two animals can be auctioned, while the other is sold at cost. Often times they’ll put the meat in the freezer after the fair season comes to an end. Shelley Gay said that the first year butchering their pigs was difficult on Allemand, but eventually he got used to the process.

The reason they chose swine over other livestock animals had a lot to do with costs and commitment.

“Steers are a huge commitment, they get them in October or November,” Shelley Gay said. “The feed is much more expensive and you don’t make as much money on them.”

Over the past 10 years they’ve been involved, costs for steer and swine have risen.

Pigs are only about a five-month commitment. They receive the piglets

when they’re about six to eight weeks old, usually sometime around Mother’s Day. The focus in the beginning is a lot about making sure they’re fed properly and they grow up healthy. This year they purchased two pigs locally, and then bought two from Oregon.

With only a few more weeks until the fair, the focus will be on hitting the right weight mark, which is somewhere around 270-300 pounds. Allemand said this is often one of the biggest challenges in raising swine. Most of the grand champs are 280 pounds and over.

Allemand has won reserve grand champ for fitting and showing twice.

The first time he took the title was in his first year in 2005; he took that title again in 2011. He also took the top 15 in market in his first year. Chelsey Gay took top 13 in market last year for her swine.

Beyond the experience of raising livestock, Allemand says he’s taken away other lessons from his time in 4-H. One of those lessons is responsibility, especially during fair week, where the kids often spend 12 to 15 hours a day on the fairgrounds taking care of their animals and preparing for show and the market sale.

“It’s easy to just think about yourself

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and care about yourself, but with an animal you have more to think about,” Allemand said. Part of that responsibility is checking on the animals every day, making sure they are fed and watered and they aren’t sick.

Shelley Gay said youth learn a lot about public speaking and community service being involved in 4-H. While Allemand has also been involved in sports and other activities, he has shined in 4-H. Gay said the record books and presentations they’ve done, as well as the community service projects, like adopting a family for Christmas and planting flowers with seniors, have all been good lessons.

When asked if he was sad to see the last year come, Allemand said that the last year is a blessing and a curse. He’ll miss taking care of the animals and working in the community, but he said it’s a lot of work and he’ll be looking forward to a little more free time and focusing on school in the year ahead.

“This community is so generous with the local kids,” Shelley Gay said.

“They’re much more supportive than in other counties and we appreciate those people that come out and support these kids.”

Bonnie Davidson / For the Daily Record

Chance Allemand, 18, feeds his swine that will be entered in the fair this year for his 10th and final year in 4-H. His sister Cassidy Gay, 12, will also have two hogs entered into the market this year.

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Contributed

Members of the Ellensburg High School FFA participating in the Kittitas County Elementary Ag Appreciation Day sponsored by Kittitas County WSU-Extension.

Contributed

Alexis Andrews, left, District IV FFA officer for 2015-2016, and Ethan Shields, right, District IV FFA Officer 2014-2015.

Contributed

Front from left, Alexis Andrews, Jannell Montgomery, Cade Lyyski. Back: From left is Ethan Shields, Morgan Harding, Moira Turner.

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An overview of Ellensburg FFA in 2014-2015

By STEVE RUSSELL For the Daily Record

I

t was a busy year for Ellensburg High School’s FFA. EHS had 42 members involved this year and 21 attended the state convention in May. Nationals will wrap things up in the fall before the start of a new year.

State competitions this year concluded with EHS taking sixth in livestock evaluation, third in horse evaluation, sixth in farm and third in creed in sub-state (Karlee Hanson).

In districts the EHS crew took second in parliamentary procedure and first in novice parliamentary procedure.

Contributed Morgan and Ethan Shields received the State FFA Third place winners State Horse Evaluation, from left, are Katie Duncan, Annie Vincent, Julie Hillemann, Megan Ray and Tatum Najar.

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