Wednesday in the 4-H pavilions at the state fairgrounds was hectic. Cathleen Taylor is trying to manage it all. She’s with OSU Extension’s 4-H youth development program, but prefers a different title.
“I like to call myself the chaos coordinator here at the 4-H exhibits of the Oklahoma State Fair,” she said.
And there’s plenty to coordinate.
“We have all of our 4-H educators from across the state. 47 different counties exhibit here at Oklahoma City. The other 30 exhibit at the Tulsa State Fair,” Taylor said. “And there are 487 classes in 4-H indoor static exhibits that a 4-H member can do. We typically have between 6,500 and 7,000 exhibits here in the building.”
The exhibits aren’t necessarily what you might expect. It’s not just students showing off their prized pigs. They include everything from the pumpkins they’ve grown to the robots and Lego models they’ve built… bread baking, even exhibits related to child care and leadership lessons they’ve learned.
“It’s really fun to see how creative these kids are and the different things they come up with,” Taylor said.
Edmond North High School junior Dani McTague is a 4-H student leader with several entries of her own. As she walks along the displays — giant watermelons, animal tracks in plaster, fishing knots set behind glass, she talked about what 4-H has meant to her.
“I started 4-H when I was a clover bud at 5 years old. But you can’t become a real 4-H member until you’re 8 years old. So, basically 11 years. But basically, my whole life,” McTague said. “Through 4-H I’ve learned so many life skills, like, public speaking, communication skills, leadership skills that I can use in my future to become a better person and a better leader.”
On the other side of this building, students from the Kellyville Alternative Academy spent the morning herding goats into their enclosure.
“We just wrangled the goats. It was actually great,” Kirsten Whitehead said. “Please support Kellyville Alternative, we’re really great kids.”
There was a lot of buzz in the building, and a lot of fun. But it’s also serious business when it comes time to judge the exhibits. The state forestry department’s Riley Coy judged framed displays of preserved leaves from various trees found in Oklahoma. And he did it with a very critical eye.
“The little details, that’s ultimately what it all comes down to,” Coy said. “You might have two identical ones, but one word was misspelled on one and the other one got that word right. So that’s how it kind of ultimately ends up.”
The hard work these 4-H students did will be on display, including those earning ribbons, in the coming weeks both in Oklahoma City and then more later at the Tulsa State Fair.
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