Hill County 4-H celebrates the year, presents awards

From Hill County 4-H

The Hill County 4-H program recently held their end-of-year celebration Sunday at the HRDC Fireside Room with 80 members, parents, leaders and community supporters in attendance.

This year's event was led by Queen Ashley Hofland and Teen Rep. Skylar Powell.

Each year the 4-H group chooses recipients of a Friend of 4-H award and a Hill County 4-H Leader of the Year award. The Friend of 4-H award recognizes businesses and/or individuals that contribute to and support the Hill County 4-H program throughout the year.

This year the selection committee chose an individual and two businesses that have contributed and supported 4-H through different modes.

The individual Friend of 4-H recipient is Ryann Preputin, a recent graduate of the Hill County 4-H program who has continued to be involved in the 4-H program assisting members throughout the fair with their swine projects. She is always eager to help 4-H members with their 4-H swine projects through swine animal selection, clipping pigs, and assisting with new members showing their projects at the fair.

Chris Preputin with Custom Collision Repair, one of two business Friend of 4-H award recipients, is one who has donated countless hours to the Hill County 4-H fair, ensuring that they had a sound system that could be heard by attendees, 4-H members and judges. This certainly helped the fair run exceptionally smooth as it allowed everyone to be able to listen to the judges, which enhances the quality of the fair. Also, because Chris had a conflicting appointment for use of his sound system during the fair, he tore down and set up the sound system again within 24 hours. The previous year, in a pinch, he willingly set up a speaker system for the livestock sale as the sound quality for a number of years has caused much confusion during the sale. The Hill County 4-H program has greatly benefited from this community-minded individual's time, equipment and willingness to support the program.

The second business chosen for the Friend of 4-H award is Western Trailer & Marine Sales. Clyde R. Thomas Jr. and his family have been longtime supporters of the Hill County 4-H program. Over the last 50 years, they have consistently supported the Hill County 4-H Livestock Sale by encouraging agricultural youth pursuits. Thus supporting these 4-H members with their post High School career goals, whether it be college, vocational school, or other training has given a jump start to these youth in their adulthood.

The Hill County 4-H Leader of the Year award is given to people who exemplify the 4-H motto "making the best better" through their actions and various support of 4-H members. This year, due to the number of nominations for Hill County 4-H Leader of the Year, the award went to two individuals.

Ron Konesky, the first 4-H Leader of the Year award winner, has been an exceptional 4-H leader for numerous years. He has taken on leadership positions such as serving as livestock committee chairman for more than four years. He has provided ample hours of volunteer work as well as personal equipment during the Great Northern Fair for the 4-H livestock shows and sale to ensure a quality program for Hill County 4-H members. He has dedicated countless hours and has consistently been a reliable, dedicated, hardworking leader exhibiting a great example for 4-H members.

The second 4-H Leader of the Year recipient is Willard Vaughn, who has been involved in 4-H for more than 20 years and has been a supporter of 4-H through his actions. Even though his own children have graduated from the Hill County 4-H program, he continues to support 4-H, whether it be through donated hand-crafted items for various events, volunteering time at the Chuckwagon during the fair, or building shadow boxes for the Sunrise community service project for the Care Center.

The Hill County 4-H program thanks the above individuals and businesses for their dedication to our 4-H program and that program is obviously a better organization because of them.