By Holly Nine

4H camp for 2015 has come and gone with a memorable closing. Each year, Clay County 4H spends a week at Camp Shepard in Roane County. This year there were 133 kids who attended camp and 24 adults who helped supervise and make camp enjoyable for all. This year, campers got to enjoy many different classes each day. There were several to choose from, including Rocketry, STEM & fishing, archery, and crafting.
STEM ambassador, Morgan McMinn attended camp also. She was sponsored by the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation for 10 weeks in Clay County, including the week of 4H camp. A big thank you goes out to the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation for that sponsorship.
During 4H camp, children learn to do many different things in the classes that they choose to take. They learn about working together as a team, or tribe as 4Hers call it, they have a safe environment for the week and have excellent councilors throughout the week to help them with anything they might need.
The campers get to have fun activities as well. They have games and a dance, they get to make a trip to the pool on Wednesday evenings, they have council circle every night to end the day.
There are four different tribes at 4H camp, Cherokee, Seneca, Mingo and Delaware. Each tribe has a Chief and a Sag. Cherokee’s Chief was Johnny Casey and the Sag was Kyle Salisbury. Seneca’s Chief was Megan Johnston and Sag was Hailey Jones. Delaware’s Chief was Mariah Duffield and Sag was Drina Kearns. Mingo’s Chief was Rebecca Nicholas and Sag was Emmy Cottrell.
Throughout the week, there are many different competitive activities and each tribe competes for the spirit stick. The spirit stick starts out as a blank sanded down stick, as each tribe gets the spirit stick after each activity they add the color for their tribe to the spirit stick. At the end of the week, they have a final council circle and awards are presented..
The ECI’s this year were Stella Burgloilous and Ryan Cool, who presented the awards. The awards that are given out at final council circle are the 4H’s. Health was given to Hailey Jones, Hands was given to Alexander Dozer, Heart was given to Mariah Duffield and Head was given to Drina Kearns. Spirit of Camp was given to Zachary Philips. Cherokee Tribe was the winner of the Spirit Stick for the week!
There were two charters this year, Gage Bass and Zach Philips. This year, there were two councilors in training, Harmony Duffield and Elizabeth Remias.
A big thank you goes out to all of the councilors and all who helped make 4H Camp 2015 a huge success. Thank you to Charleston Gazette for sponsoring a child to go to camp this year. Children who are interested in attending camp next year can contact the Extension office or when school starts ask your teacher how you can join 4H. Children must be in 3rd grade or 9 years old to be able to attend 4H camp. 4H camp is a very wonderful experience for children, teens and adults alike. Everyone hates to see the week end and they have a wonderful time. I encourage you to encourage your children to join 4H and to attend camp. They will have wonderful memories forever to look back on.