4-H Project Skills Day Showcases the Talents of Dixon, Solano County Youths

By Kathy Keatley Garvey

Special to Dixon Patch

Four Dixon 4-H’ers were among the 16 youths who won showmanship medals at the annual Solano County 4-H Project Skills Day, a day set aside for 4-H’ers to show what they’ve learned in their projects and to test their showmanship skills. 

The event, which took place in the B. Gale Wilson Elementary School, Fairfield, drew several dozen participants representing Solano County’s 11 4-H clubs.

The Suisun Valley 4-H Club and Westwind 4-H Club of Fairfield-Suisun hosted the Project Skills Day. 

Dixon's medal winners were Teigen Johnson and Cooper Johnson, both of the Roving Clovers 4-H Club; and Jennifer Giron and Spencer Currey, both of the Wolfskill 4-H Club.

Projects included such topics as photography, arts and crafts, guitar, sewing, rabbits, horses, swine, cavies (guinea pigs), poultry, gun safety, woodworking and jewelry.  Food prepared for the displays ranged from deviled eggs, chili, potato soup, and barbecued chicken sandwiches to candy cane cake, French bread, chocolate chip cookie.

Judges scored the youths on knowledge of their subject and their presentation. Project Skills Day chairman Francine Carlson and Danea Gemmell, deputy chairman, declared the youths “all winners.”

Receiving showmanship medals were:

Teigen Johnson, Roving Clovers 4-H Club, Dixon, for her foods and nutrition project, grades 4-5, “Holiday Pumpkin Roll” 

Cooper Jane Johnson, Roving Clovers, for her foods and nutrition project, grades 6-8, “Zesty Cheese Crackers” 

Annette Josol, Rio Vista 4-H Club, foods and nutrition project, grades 9-12, for her “Annette’s Three C’s Chili.” 

Jennifer Giron, Wolfskill 4-H Club, Dixon, food-livestock project, grade 5, for her “It’s a Devil of an Egg” 

Halie Pringle, Vaca Valley 4-H Club, Vacaville, foods-livestock project, grades 6-8 for her “Barbecue Chicken Sandwiches.” 

Jasmine Gonzalez, Sherwood Forest 4-H Club, Vallejo, for her livestock/animals project, grade 4, “Longeing a Horse” 

Amanda Kant, Sherwood Forest 4-H Club, livestock/animals project, grade 5, “Tacking a Horse”

DeLisa Fracchia, Elmira 4-H Club, livestock/animals project, grades 6-7, for her “How to Barrel Race” 

Hunter Schaufel, Suisun Valley 4-H Club, for a livestock/animals project, grades 6-7, “Bits and Pieces” 

Josephine Linan, Sherwood Forest 4-H Club, livestock/animals project, grade 8, for her “Loading and Unloading Your Horse” 

Spencer Currey, Wolfskill 4-H Club, Dixon, for his livestock/animals project, grades 9-12, “Biggest Gainer” 

Justin Ward, Suisun Valley 4-H Club, “All Other Projects” category, grades 4-5, “Making a Gun Holster” 

Samantha DeOsuna, Vaca Valley 4-H Club, “All Other Projects” category, Grades 6-8, “Cake Creations” 

Riley Morris-Hagan, Vaca Valley 4-H Club, “All Other Projects” category, grades 6-8, for “Riley’s Anatomy” 

Jessica Galdo, Vaca Valley 4-H Club, “All Other Projects” category, Grade 9, “Snap, Flash and Dazzle” 

Savanah San Nicolas,Vaca Valley, “All Other Projects” category, Grade 11, “How to Make a Meret”

The Chili Birds, a team from the Vaca Valley 4-H Club, won the Chili Cook-off with a chicken chili dish they’d made for the first time. It was based on a recipe from the internet but with their own touches. The team included Emma Couvillion, Courtney Curtis, Toni DeTomasi and Halie Pringle.  They competed with seven other clubs to win the championship.

Scores of other 4-H’ers received participation certificates:

Elmira 4-H Club: Jessica Cawley, “Banana Streusel Muffins”; Adele Phillips, ANZAC Biscuits,” Ty Cawley, “Round French Load”; Nicole Smith, “Candy Cane Cake”; and Sean Barnett, “Matting Pictures.”

Roving Clovers 4-H Club, Dixon: Lilya Gardner for her “Christmas Peppermint Fudge”;  and Wyatt Currie for his “Poultry Combs”

Wolfskill 4-H Club, Dixon:Siera Giron, for “Eggstravagana”; Skylar Bruce for “How to Make God’s Eye” (crochet work); Radek Hungler, “Greeting from Tom Turkey”; Charlie Jeannot, “The American Flag”; Madeline Giron, “Fly Away Home, Little Birdie”; Kiarra Ko-Madden, “Glass Tile Pendants”; Daniela Setka, “How to Make a Cornhusk Angel”; Riley Currey, “Boom, Pow Power.”

Rio Vista 4-H Club: Mikayla Hagan, “Honey Muffins”; Jake Hagan, “Honey Peanut Butter Fudge”;  and Carlin Cline, “Upcycled Bowls.” 

Vaca Valley 4-H Club: Lauren Bowen, “Peanut Butter Balls,”  “Elizabeth Bowen, “Potato Soup”; Samantha Lovejoy, “Beading with 4-H’; Charlyn Agbayani, “Tools for Treasures”; Sydney Bourne, “Rabbitology”; and Emma Couvillion, “Picky Chickies.”

Sherwood Forest 4-H Club, Vallejo: Kaleigh Kant, “Minor Wounds of a Horse”: Saah Bowen, “Clipping a Horse: and Haley Tillett, “Blanketing and Unblanketing a Horse.”

Suisun Valley 4-H Club: Clairese Wright, “How Does Your Cooking Measure Up?”; Samantha Forbes, “Crazy about Cavies”; Olivia Frenkel, “Horse Sports”; Harrison Schaufel, “To the Horse’s Mouth”; Jessica Ward, “Difference Between English and Western Riding”; Clay Ellison, “Guitar 101”; Robert Wright, “The Right Tools for the Wright Job”; Anthony Vogliano, “How to Be a Junior Leader”; Aubree Ellison, “How to Prepare for an Interview”; and Emma Vogliano, “Animal Stamping.”

Several kindergarten-through-third grade participants entered non-competitive projects. They were Trinity Roach, Westwind 4-H Club, “How to Make and Color Buttercream Frosting”; Sweetpea Vieira, Wolfskill, “Yumm!” (lemon bars); Cole Jeannot, Wolfskill, “Chocolate Chip Cookies” and Clairese Wright, Suisun Valley 4-H Club, “How Does Your Cooking Measure Up?”

Competing in the chili cookoff were:

Red Hot Chili Mamas and Red Hot Chili Daddy, Elmira 4-H Club: Jessica Cawley, Adele Phillips, Nicole Smith

Red Hot Chili Peppers, Suisun Valley: Kaylee Christianson, Olivia Frenkel and Tiffany Lum

The Chili Birds, Vaca Valley: Emma Couvillion, Courtney Curtis, Toni DeTomasi and Halie Pringle

Chili Crackers, Vaca Valley: Marley Hadwick, Carly Kotsk and Emma Ryder

Fire House Chili 1, Westwind: Grace Gribi and Ryan Liu

Firehouse Chili 2: Westwind: Radek Hungler, Trinity Roach and Malaki Santistevan

Rockabilly, Wolfskill: Hannah Crawford-Stewart, Kiarra Ko-Madden, Maddie Pitto and Katie Polik

Two and a Half Beans, Wolfskill: Riley Currey, Spencer Currey and Ricardo Setka

Solano County has 11 4-H clubs with a total membership of some 400 youths. They are  Maine Prairie, Dixon Ridge, Roving Clovers, Tremont and Wolfskill, five clubs from Dixon; Vaca Valley 4-H Club and Elmira 4-H Club, all of Vacaville; Westwind 4-H Club and Suisun Valley 4-H Club of Fairfield-Suisun; Sherwood Forest 4-H Club of Vallejo; and Rio Vista 4-H Club of Rio Vista.

More information about the 4-H program is available from Valerie Williams, Solano County 4-H program representative at (707) 784-1319 or vawilliams@ucdavis.edu or by accessing the Web site at http://cesolano.ucdavis.edu.