Amy and Caroline Richardson

“Find Your Spark” is the theme for this year’s National 4-H Week, which can be used to describe many of Washington County 4-H members and volunteers’ experiences in a variety of areas.

An interest in archery sparked Caroline Richardson of Ainsworth to join the Bows and Bullets 4-H Club, with her brother also joining and her mother Amy becoming a club leader. Amy shares how the club features shooting sports, “The specialty area comes in when we talk about those shooting sports and we use the skills and disciplines of shooting and archery to help young leaders kind of dial in to learn knowledge not just about firearms, but firearm safety, hunting safety, natural resources, conservation. There’s a lot of science but there’s also a lot of fun and there’s competitions. And that’s one of the things that maybe my kids don’t necessarily seek out is the competitive side but for any youth who’s interested in shooting competitively, it’s another avenue for that.”

Caroline says joining 4-H has expanded her activities from not just shooting sports but to showing rabbits and other projects, “I’ve grown in so many ways like creativity. All I used to do was draw and that was my way of being creative but now I did static projects and I painted and I did visual arts and communications. I’ve learned how to speak in front of people better and I’ve learned how to take care of animals in a way that’s good for the animals’ health and my health.”

Caroline recommends to any youth interested in joining 4-H to contact the Extension office to see which club is meeting next and go attend the club, regardless of particular interests. You can hear more from Caroline and Amy during today’s Halcyon House Washington Page on air and at kciiradio.com.