Mineral County 4-H accepting Christmas wreath orders

By MONTE TURNER

Mineral Independent

The records of when the 4-H Shooting Sports program in Mineral County took hold are sketchy, but Deb Regan and Jolene Dryden attended a 4-H Shooting Sports Leader training in October 1995 and were organizing meetings about 4-H shooting in August of that year.

4-H members in the air rifle and archery (and other projects) hone their skills through practice and test those skills through competitive shoots sponsored by 4-H, the Civilian Marksmanship Program, the National Rifle Association, the U.S. Army, the Junior Olympics and the American Legion. 

The equipment and expendable supplies such as targets, pellets and arrows, along with registration and travel to competitions all cost money. 

The Mineral County 4-H Shooting Sports program members raise money to offset some of these costs while other money comes from grants and direct donations.

They have tried a lot of fundraising methods, including bake sales, candy sales, Dutch Mill flower bulbs, and it appears their annual Christmas wreath sale began in 2006.

“This is my 12th year being involved and it was going on long before my time,” said Michelle Parkin, 4-H Leader and Shooting Sports instructor.

Over the years, the process has streamlined to where the wreaths are no longer made by the members but purchased from a local couple who cut the boughs from leased land and create them strictly for the 4-H Shooting Sports program.

For every sale a student makes, $6 will go into their personal accounts to help pay for the upcoming tournaments. $2 of the sale will go into the general fund of the organization.

“One year we sold 400 wreaths. Last year I think it was 285 so we don’t have a number yet. It depends on the presale which just started. But just being on Facebook, we’ve had orders for a little over 100 already,” said Parkin.

One anonymous donor wrote a check for $100 with instructions to take them to the long-term care patients in Mineral Community Hospital.

Each wreath is $20 and all orders must be prepaid. No other orders will be taken.

Orders can be placed with the 4-H members directly, or contact Michelle Parkin at 822-2148, or at the MSU Extension Office at 822-3545. 

“It looks like we’ll have a total of 16 kids this year. That includes air rifle and archery”, said Dave Brink, MSU Extension Agent.

Brink oversees all of the Mineral County 4-H programs. This includes the volunteers, instructors and protocol each one must follow.

There are many more programs that are offered through 4-H, but so much depends on interest from the members and, more importantly, adult volunteers to work alongside the youth. Their season is about to start with practice nights every week and competition events around the state when the snow begins to melt.

Combining project work with enrollment in a 4-H club, young people learn the many life skills necessary to make a successful transition to adulthood. 

That is the true goal of 4-H; increasing personal abilities and developing life skills that youth will apply to many new situations.