Craig County 4-H

10/17/2025

The 2025-26 year for 4-H is underway, and the Craig County Shooting Stars are looking sharp on the archery range. The club meets twice each month for practice and club planning. For now, the Shooting Stars are focused primarily on archery, preparing for local, area, and state competitions. Youth can compete in categories for Genesis, recurve, and compound bows and typically are scored at distances of 10, 15, 20, and 25 yards for juniors and 15, 20, 25, and 30 yards for seniors. If proficient, older archers can compete in national level distances up to 60 meters. In addition to archery practices, the Shooting Stars enjoy social activities like visits to the Roanoke Virtual Reality Center, pizza parties, and more. The club is open to youth, ages 9 to 19.

Equipment for the Craig County 4-H Shooting Stars is provided through NRA Foundation grant funds for youth shooting sports. The club has been very fortunate to be the recipient of those funds for many years. This allows youth the opportunity to try the club without having to make a financial investment. As members become more active with the club, they often purchase their own equipment for competitions, but this is not required. The Craig County 4-H Shooting Stars Club would like to thank the NRA Foundation for its generous contributions to the program!

The Virginia 4-H Shooting Sports program offers opportunities in many disciplines including archery, air and .22 small bore rifle, shotgun (trap and skeet), hunting skills, and muzzleloading. Programs are led by 4-H certified instructors for each respective discipline area. The only limitation to building a strong shooting sports program in Craig County is the availability of certified instructors. We are always looking for adult volunteers who want to share their passion for teaching youth life skills through VA 4-H shooting sports - life skills like goal setting, teamwork, building self-esteem, self-discipline, and more.

To learn more about enrolling youth in the 4-H Shooting Stars Club or about volunteer opportunities in the 4-H shooting sports program, contact Michelle Poff, 4-H Extension Agent, at 540-864-5812 or adickerson@vt.edu.

08/06/2025

Craig and Giles County 4-H hosted a forestry and wildlife camp yesterday. The group of 18 visited the Farm at Sinking Creek and learned about beaver habitat and then spent the afternoon in Newport where they took a forestry walk, made wildlife tracks and edible scat, and participated in a sample Wildlife Habitat Education Program (WHEP) contest. WHEP is a state and national 4-H/FFA contest for youth that tests wildlife knowledge. Teams compete in a wildlife ID contest and write wildlife management plans for specific species based on a landowners goals and objectives. Special thanks to the Frist family and The Farm at Sinking Creek and to the Southeastern Grasslands Institute for helping make this day a big success!!

07/31/2025

Our 4-H teen club just wrapped up the summer with a trip to Emerald Pointe Wet & Wild. There are lots of opportunities for leadership and fun social activities in 4-H. This year, the club participated in 4-H Day at the State Capitol, went snow tubing at Winterplace, participated in a leadership retreat at the Airfield 4-H Center with a trip to Kings Dominion, provided leadership for Junior 4-H Camp, and ended the summer with a trip to Emerald Pointe Wet & Wild. Teens interested in participating in the club for the 2025-26 year should contact Michelle Poff at adickerson@vt.edu or call at 540-864-5812.

07/24/2025

Camping season has come to a close at the W. E. Skelton 4-H Center. The Craig, Giles, Roanoke Cluster had a blast! During their week at camp, young people had the opportunity to learn new skills and hone existing ones in classes ranging from high ropes to kayaking. They learned the value of teamwork as they participated in various pack competitions including a talent show and other theme related contests (country vs. country club games, etc.). They also enjoyed dances, campfires, and the opportunity to spend time with their friends. Most importantly, campers learned or strengthened the life skills they need on their path to responsible citizenship. Craig County 4-H would like to thank all of our volunteers, scholarship sponsors, and other community supporters for helping to make our 2025 camp week a success!

We would like to thank all the volunteers who helped to supervise campers, assist in classes, set up for meals, and more. These include: Adult Volunteers – Frances Foster, George Foster, Crystal Parker, Sally Farrell, and Josh Mitchell; Teen Counselors – Austin Fowler, Alivia Fowler, Elyssa Dewease, Aspirah Rutrough, Damien Smith, Dreydin Smith, Isaac Foster, and Simon Weyant; and Counselors-in-Training – Maria Foster, Kylie Blankenship, Hunter McClanahan, Nathan Blankenship, Easton Geister, and Keaton Foster.

We would also like to thank the following individuals and businesses for their generous support to the Junior 4-H Camp Scholarship Fund:

Mrs. Marilyn Barnes
Mrs. Hazel Beeler
Bethel United Methodist Church
Charlton Associates
Craig County Fairgrounds Association
Craig County Farm Bureau Women’s Committee
Craig County Health & Dental Center
Craig Healing Springs Christian Church
Crawford Oil Company
Cross Roads Christian Church
Farmers & Merchants Bank of Craig County
Mr. & Mrs. Lanier Frantz
The Dorothy Cate & Thomas F. Frist Foundation (Senator Bill & Tracy Frist)
Blair & Erica Jones
Market Street Pharmacy
Maywood Garden Club
Mountain Castles Soil & Water Conservation District
New Castle Christian Church
New Castle Garden Club
New Castle United Methodist Church
Paitsel Funeral Home
Mrs. Cole Frantz Semones
Sisson & Ryan Quarry, LLC
Mr. & Mrs. Leonard Smith
Deborah D. Snead
Mrs. Mildred Wingate
Nadine C. Allen Excellence Fund
Arthur Taubman Scholarship Fund
Farrier Funds
Lester Funds
Smith Mountain Lake General Funds
John T. Skelton Funds

We would also like to thank the following for help in getting campers and teens, and their luggage, to the 4-H Center and back:

Craig County School Board for their loan of two school buses
Mr. George Foster and Ms. Kay Hutchison for driving the buses with our campers/teens to and from camp
The Farmers & Merchants Bank of Craig County not only provided a full camp scholarship; they also added additional support to pay the bus drivers’ fees.
Mr. Jacob Swanson for providing and driving a luggage trailer to and from camp.

07/07/2025

Craig and Giles County 4-H, with support from the Frist Family, is offering a forestry and wildlife day camp to introduce area youth to the 4-H Wildlife Habitat Education Program (WHEP) and forestry judging competitions. The camp will be held on Tuesday, August 5th at the Farm at Sinking Creek off of Highway 42. We will have lots of fun hands on activities and a hike / tour of the farm with the Southeastern Grasslands Institute. If kids and/or teens are interested following the day camp, we may put together groups for competition in the spring. Either way, it will be a fun day! Please see the attached flyer for all the details.
Register Here (first come, first served):
https://tinyurl.com/4hforestrywildlifecamp25

02/24/2025

A group of 4-H'ers traveled to Abingdon on Saturday to learn about our food challenge competition. This is a program that has a district, state, and national competition where kids work in teams of three or four. Teams receive specific ingredients and create a dish of their choice, give a presentation on the nutritional value of the dish and its cost, and get to practice a variety of culinary skills. If you have kids who are interested in this program, contact me for more information. The district competition is in May so we hope to have a few practices before then to prepare a team or teams.

02/14/2025

Pre-registration for 2025 Junior 4-H Camp (Craig, Giles, Roanoke/Salem) is now open. All the information about camp (dates, age guidelines, description, and cost) is included in the attached flyer. For convenience, the link to pre-register is here:
https://tinyurl.com/25jr4hcampcgrs

Teens who applied to be a Teen Counselor or CIT should NOT complete this registration. This is for campers only. Teen Counselor and CIT applicants have already completed their registration. If there is a teen who would like to go as Counselor or CIT, and didn’t apply, they should contact me. CITs have to be 13 years old by September 30, 2025. Teen Counselors have to be 14 years old by September 30, 2025.

02/12/2025

Late sharing this, but Craig teens had a nice visit to the State Capitol this winter. We visited the offices of Senator Christopher Head and Delegate Terry Austin, watched a legislative session from the Capitol gallery, participated in a mock vote on actual house bills, and had fun at the Virginia Science Museum. It was a great day!

02/12/2025

I hope everyone is faring well in this next round of winter weather. With all this cold, snow, and ice, summer is definitely on my mind. And with that, I have some information about summer 4-H camp. Junior 4-H Camp will be held the week of June 30 through July 4 this year. We will be camping with Roanoke County, City of Salem, and Giles County, and we are starting pre-registration this Friday (Feb. 14) around noon. I just wanted to give you a heads-up so you can check this page around that time for the flyer and the pre-registration link. Because our cluster will likely have a larger number of campers this year, we are opening registration from about noon on Friday until about noon on Monday, the 17th. Then we will close the registration for a few days to determine if we can accommodate everyone who registered over that weekend. If there are open beds after we have looked at the numbers, we will re-open registration for more campers.

Thanks. Hope to see lots of kids registering for camp this summer!

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12/02/2024

The Craig County 4-H Livestock Club recently wrapped up a successful showing and competition season. Club members showed project sheep and/or goats in local, area, and district shows including the Botetourt County, Newport, and New River Valley fairs. They also competed in skillathon competitions incorporating general knowledge quizzes, breed identification, equipment identification, conformation classes, and more. The 2024 members (Isaac Foster, Keaton Foster, Maria Foster, Kaylin Foster, Jasmine Foster, Silas Templeton, Reid Templeton, Kylie Blankenship, Makenzie Blankenship, Evie Dudding, and Layton Dudding) developed many life skills through participation in livestock projects - goal setting, responsibility, record keeping, self-discipline, problem solving, and increased self-esteem.

Two members of the club, Evie Dudding and Layton Dudding, showed sheep and goats in many events throughout the year including the State Fair of Virginia in Doswell. They were extremely successful, winning several showmanship and market classes and performing highly in skillathon competitions.

Evie Dudding’s goat, Sheldon, was named the reserve grand champion overall market goat and was sold as a part of the sale of champions. Evie had the opportunity to meet Governor Youngkin and displayed her goat during a reception with potential buyers. Sheldon was sold for $6500 thanks to gracious agriculture industry sponsors. Part of this money goes to Evie’s project animal for next year, part goes towards a college scholarship, and the remainder goes to other scholarships for youth showing in the state fair. Evie also received an additional $750 scholarship through state fair scholarship funds.

Evie’s other accomplishments at the state fair included: 3rd overall goat showman, 5th overall lamb showman, 1st place white face cross market lamb, 4th overall premier junior goat exhibitor, and reserve champion premier junior lamb exhibitor (combined score of showmanship, market, and skillathon contests, $200 scholarship). In the Virginia Showmasters Circuit, Evie was the reserve champion overall combined junior lamb/goat showman with 4th overall in lamb showman and 6th overall in goat showman.

Layton Dudding, Evie’s brother, also received numerous awards at the State Fair of Virginia. He was 4th overall goat showman, 7th overall lamb showman, and had the 3rd overall champion heavyweight breeding doe. He was the reserve champion premier intermediate goat exhibitor (combined score of showmanship, market, and skillathon contests, $200 scholarship). He received a $1400 youth livestock scholarship. In the Showmasters Circuit, he was the champion overall combined lamb/goat showman, reserve champion overall lamb showman, and reserve champion overall goat showman. In addition to his successes at the state fair, Layton showed one of his goats at the American Royal Livestock Show in Kansas City, MO. His doe placed 5th in her class.

Both Evie and Layton are showing their goats at the North American Livestock Exposition in Louisville this month, the “Super Bowl” of the showing world.

Youth participating in livestock projects demonstrate a tremendous amount of commitment and dedication. They provide the daily care for their animals (feeding, cleaning/grooming, exercising, health care, etc.), practice showmanship skills, and travel for shows and competitions throughout the length of their projects. Livestock projects teach many valuable skills that prepare youth for adult life. If you are interested in learning more about 4-H youth livestock projects, or have kids interested in the Craig County 4-H Livestock Club, please contact the local Extension office at 864-5812.

11/27/2024

Parents - need a little extra time for those last minute holiday errands? Let us watch your kids. Craig County 4-H is hosting a Christmas Camp on Saturday, December 21 from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM for ages 7 to 10 years old. The camp will be held at Lighthouse Baptist Church in New Castle. Check out the attached flyer for more information.

10/17/2024

Roanoke County 4-H is inviting Craig County youth to participate in a fun dog show on Saturday, November 2nd. If you are interested, contact Leslie Prillaman at lesliep@vt.edu. This is intended to be an opportunity for kids to show off their canine best friends in a non-intimidating show. If you have any questions, contact me, Michelle Poff (Craig County 4-H Agent), at 864-5812 or adickerson@vt.edu. I will be there that day to help with the program.