◆ Food and Nutrition, Fabric and Fashion and Quilting projects give members food and textile skills.

By Shar Perry, 4H/Youth Educator
UW Extension Lincoln County

The 4-H program has many projects available to youth. Sometimes the name 4-H gets associated with animal projects. We are more than just animal projects. The State 4-H programs offers many general projects (non-animal projects). Our local 4-H program is taught by local volunteers, so we do not offer all the general projects, unless we have leaders for them.

To start with I am going to highlight just a few FCS (family and Consumer Sciences) projects that we offer in this area. We currently have two clubs in the Star Valley area that offer these projects. The projects include Food and Nutrition, Fabric and Fashion, and Quilting. The skills youth learn in these projects are very valuable life skills to have.

Food and Nutrition offers a wide range of activities and skills for youth to learn. Members start with the basics of cooking and work their way up. This is a very important skill to learn. This project focuses not only on food and cooking but also nutrition and using MyPlate to guide eating, meal preparation, and planning. Many households have both parents working and teaching to cook from scratch may not be as common as it used to be. Members learn how to cook and bake while participating in this project. They learn skills that they are able to come home and share with their families. This project is great for all youth. Heidi Lawson, one of our club leaders, offered outdoor cooking for a group who wanted to learn more about Dutch Oven cooking.

Fabric and Fashion is a project that member learn about sewing, taking care of clothing, and buymanship. In Fabric and Fashion, one can learn basics like sewing a shirt or putting a zipper on a pair of pants. The advanced units will also teach one how to take the design of your choice and customize it for the perfect look, color and fit. Buymanship youth learn to explore and develop personal style for any occasion and promote self-confidence, develop financial management skills, encourage consumer decision making skills, encourage appropriate goal setting, and explore organizational systems.

The Quilting project is designed to help one learn about quilts and gain a deeper appreciation of the art of quilt making. This project lets you explore your creativity and strengthen your self-confidence while keeping alive a historical pastime tradition and craft.

At the end of the year youth will get to show off their projects at the county fair. If the projects get purple ribbons at the local 4-H contest at the fair, then the projects are eligible to go to State Fair and be judged there. Not only can they have their project judged, there is also a Fabric and Fashion modeling competition. They get to show off their outfits that they were able to create.

If you would like more information on any of these projects, please contact Shar Perry at the Afton UW Extension Office at 307-885-3132.