Two members of the Orleans County 4-H horse program took part in the Region 1 Horse Communications event via Zoom on Saturday, June 6. Twelve-year-old Ella Zelazny, of Brockport, and 11-year-old Grace Goodrich, of Medina, qualified for the regional competition during Orleans County 4-H Public Presentations in February. The face-to-face regional horse communications event had been scheduled for early April but canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 4-H educators in Region 1, which encompasses Orleans, Niagara, Erie, Wyoming, Allegany, Cattaraugus, and Chautauqua counties, decided to offer the virtual option for youth who qualified at the county level.
Both Ella and Grace competed in the Junior Division. They said the virtual event was “fun.”
“I was a little nervous at first,” Grace said, but once she got into her presentation, she said it was fine. Ella presented on “Parasites in Horses,” and Grace presented on “Plants That are Poisonous for Horses.” Both were praised by their evaluators for doing excellent jobs, especially in the unfamiliar format of Zoom. “You have a presence,” evaluator Joanne Campbell told Grace Goodrich. Evaluators also commended Ella’s and Grace’s parents for doing great “camera work.”
New York State 4-H Horse Communications provides an opportunity for youth involved in horse programs, “to learn and practice public speaking skills,” said Kristina Gabalski, Orleans County CCE 4-H Program Coordinator. “Youth can present on a variety of horse-related topics. In a typical year, youth can move on to the state and national levels of competition.”
Ella and Grace noted that they enjoyed watching 4-H youth from other counties in western New York make their presentations.
Conservation Field Days
COVID-19 also forced the cancellation of this year’s Conservation Field Days at the 4-H Fairgrounds. The annual event hosts sixth-graders from around Orleans County. It features a variety of educational stations where students learn about the environment, conservation, nutrition, animal science, renewable energy, outdoor safety, and more. The event has been held in May for more than 50 years.
“We are working to make materials and resources available on the Orleans County Cornell Cooperative Extension website for local educators and families,” Gabalski says. “There are nutrition resources from our SNAP educator, materials from our horticulture educator on composting, and information about Braddock Bay Raptor Research, which brings live birds of prey to Conservation Field Days. I will continue to add resources as they become available,” Gabalski says.
Also included are links to the Cornell Botanic Gardens and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology websites – places that typically don’t participate in Conservation Field Days, but whose resources are useful and interesting for youth and families alike.
Visit http://orleans.cce.cornell.edu/4-h-youth-development/conservation-field-days to view the resources that are available.
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