69TH ANNUAL 4-H DRAMA FESTIVAL A HUGE SUCCESS!

On April 11th, the 69th Annual Missoula 4-H Drama Festival was held in Potomac, MT, at the Potomac-Greenough Community Center.  The Potomac Valley 4-H Club hosted the event, sold concessions and ran the pie auction.  The judges, all UM students with varying degrees of theater arts backgrounds, did a great job and were all really excited to see the young talent we have in Missoula 4-H.

Below is a history of the Drama Festival, and a listing of the awards from this year's festival.  I'll post more photos as I receive them.  -CB

(Sorry about the photo.  New camera is junk - being replaced very soon).  -cb

DRAMA FESTIVAL HISTORY 

The Missoula County 4-H Drama Festival was the brainchild of county agent Tony Rollin.  It may be the only one of its kind in the United States. Tony, when asked why he was so interested in the Drama Festival, once said he was raised in an orphanage in Minnesota.  At the orphanage they had a program of putting plays together and presenting them, which in Tony’s mind helped him build the confidence he would need later in life.

The first Drama Festival was organized in 1947.  The plays were all conducted at the Orchard Homes Country Life Club.  The name of the winning play that year was “The Blue Teapot” and was by the Orchard Homes 4-H Club.  As interest in the Drama Festival increased, more clubs got involved.  Up to 16 plays would be in the festival at its peak.  They were evening events on consecutive nights, and the top few plays competed in the finals for the coveted county awards.

Due to Tony’s instigation, the Kiwanis Club sponsored the awards and usually the winning plays were invited to a Kiwanis luncheon and sometimes even performed at the luncheon.

At the Finals, a community leader served as the Master of Ceremonies.  Charlie Deschamps’ dad, Por Deschamps, a state senator and fair Beef Superintendent, was one of the MC’s for a number of years.

2015 DRAMA FESTIVAL CLUB AWARDS

Bear Creek Buckaroos 

• Outstanding Actor – Kian Mahoney

• Outstanding Supporting Actress – Ashlyn Kneib

• Certificate of Achievement for Use of Stage / Special Effects

Potomac Valley

• Outstanding Actor – Cole Johnson

• Ensemble Acting – The Presenters: Sydney McDaniel & Marie Sainsbury

• Outstanding Performance – The Judges: Cole Johnson, Kyla Nelson, William Philliber, Mallory Philliber

• Certificate of Achievement for Design (Costume and Set)

Mullan Trail Mustangs

• Ensemble Acting – The Senators: Madison Miotke, Lauren Magnuson, Josh Miotke, Alexus Wagner

• Judge’s Choice Award for Sound Design

• Certificate of Achievement for Enthusiasm

• Certificate of Achievement for Outstanding Dedication (to Michaela Zimmerman)

 

2015 DRAMA FESTIVAL OVERALL AWARDS

• Overall Outstanding Play – Potomac Valley: Den of Dragons
• Overall Outstanding Actor – William Philliber
• Overall Outstanding Actress – Amber Voss
• Overall Outstanding Supporting Actor – Corbin Weltzein
• Overall Outstanding Supporting Actress – Lindy Kolb
• Overall Ensemble Acting – Bear Creek Buckaroos
• Overall Judge’s Choice for Best Adaptation – Bear Creek Buckaroos

Notes for your April 4-H Club Meetings

Animal Nutrition Clinic

• At Murdoch’s in Missoula – This Wednesday, April 8^th, at 6pm, Purina feed reps will give a presentation on market animal nutrition, and will answer questions.

Drama Festival

• The 69^th Annual 4-H Drama Festival will be held Saturday, April 11^th, starting at 10am at the Potomac-Greenough Community Center in Potomac, MT.  So far, we have 3 clubs confirmed to do plays (Potomac, Mullan Trail and Bear Creek).

• Come watch (especially if your club is thinking about doing a play next year) and participate in the pie auction.  You’ll love it!

Montana 4-H Week of Service: April 12-19

• The Montana 4-H Ambassador Officer Team (2 of whom are Missoula 4-H members) challenge you to participate in the first annual Montana 4-H Week of Service. This is an initiative to encourage Montana 4-H youth to make a positive impact within their communities and share what they are doing.
  

• During the week of April 12-19, 2015, we encourage each county to join together and illustrate how BIG a difference Montana 4-H can make by participating in community service projects of their choice. These projects can be as simple as volunteering with a local organization or as extravagant as a full scale community-wide project.  For more information, click the image below:

Market Hog Tagging

• This will be done just like last year.  4:30pm-7pm at the Missoula Fairgrounds on Thursday, April 16^th.  Come in the South Ave entrance, and head for the infield of the race track.

• We will line up along that path (see image below – tagging will be where the star is, then we will exit over the track and out the road that goes by the YMCA and puts you out on Russell Street).

• We will have all the equipment and disinfectant, and will ask you to handle/tag your own hogs if possible, so we reduce the chance of potential disease spread from truck to truck. 

 (click to enlarge)

Quality Assurance Trainings

• The final QA Training will be this Friday, April 10^th, 6-8pm at the Extension Office.        

• Members who plan to sell a market animal at the 2015 Western Montana Fair need to be up-to-date on their QA Training.

• Members need to attend once as a Junior Member (age 8-13 on October 1^st, 2014) and once as a Senior Member (age 14+ on October 1, 2014).

Livestock Judging Contest

• Saturday, April 18^th, at the Ag Education Center starting with check-in at 8:30am.  Click the image below for a registration form online.

• Top Junior, Senior and FFA judge will receive a buckle, and the top Novice judge will receive an embroidered duffle bag.  Registration is $10 and includes lunch.

Senior 4-H Scholarships

• Graduating Senior 4-H members can apply for Missoula 4-H Scholarships.  Click the image below for an application online.

• They are due April 24^th, and interviews will be held May 5^th.

4-H Extravaganza

• This annual event, scheduled for May 7th, this year, has been held for decades – with support from the Chamber of Commerce’s Agri-Business Committee – who provides dinner for the event at no cost to 4-H.  Dinner starts at 5:30pm.  Workshops start at 6pm.

• Held at the MCPS Ag Education Center on South Avenue (just west of Big Sky HS), there is the opportunity for members to experience 3 or 4 workshops on a variety of topics (past workshops included Animal Nutrition, Showmanship for all livestock species, 4-H Records, Dance, Public Speaking, Horse Vet Basics, Roping, etc.).

• The 4-H Club with the most members present, as well as the Club with the highest percentage of members present, will receive $100 from the 4-H Council.  There will be door prizes as well.

4-H Ambassador Applications

• We select the 2015-16 Ambassador Team in May, and members serve through next July.

• Applications are due May 15^th, and interviews will be held May 27^th.  Click the image below for an application online.

Horse Project

• May 17^th – It’s been a few years, but we’re bringing back the “Mandatory May Clinic.”  Members who are new to 4-H Horse, older members who have a new project horse, older members who are starting in a new project area (i.e. Ranch Horse, Packing, Western Games), or members who want to skip a level (e.g. Western Horsemanship 2 to 4) should plan to attend.

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Montana 4-H Foundation $5.00 per Member Donation

• The 4-H Foundation requests every year that Counties make a $5 per member donation.  In addition to 4-H Scholarships, the Foundation contributes to many statewide 4-H events annually.  In recent years, Missoula 4-H has not been a consistent contributor to this effort.  The Missoula 4-H Council voted recently to turn to the 4-H Clubs to help meet this commitment.  Clubs could decide whether to charge a $5 per member fee, do a special fundraiser to cover the donation, or cover the donation through the fundraisers you already do. 

• The 4-H Ambassadors have been making the rounds speaking to 4-H Clubs about the benefits of contributing to the 4-H Foundation, and about opportunities available to 4-H members statewide.  If you would like the Ambassadors to visit your club, please contact Shana Duffalo.

• Checks should be made to the Montana 4-H Foundation, and sent to Colleen at the Missoula office and we will mail them all to Bozeman.  Contributions made by May 31^st will recognized at Montana 4-H Congress in July.  If you have questions, contact a 4-H Council Board member, or the Missoula Extension Office. 

4-H Calendar online

• If you don’t have it bookmarked, just Google “Missoula 4-H,” then click the 4-H Calendar of Events link on the bottom left of the 4-H page.

• All of these dates and many more are on the Missoula 4-H calendar online.  Click the image below to go to the Calendar, and you can click on any event for more information.

County-wide Project meetings

There are currently county-wide project meetings going on for the following projects.  Anyone enrolled (or interested in) the project can attend these meetings.

• Dog (8^th and 22^nd of April)
• Robotics (April dates not set yet)
• Poultry (3^rd Tuesday) 
• Meat Goat (3^rd Wednesday) 
• Horse (3^rd Thursday) 
• Rabbit (4^th Thursday)

County 4-H Committee meetings

These committees that plan events and discuss the rules and policies surrounding them meet monthly.  Anyone can attend these meetings.

• 4-H Council Board (1^st Wednesday, 6pm at the Extension Office)
• 4-H Shooting Sports Committee (1^st Thursday, 6pm at the Extension Office)
• 4-H Horse Committee (2^nd Wednesday, 7pm at the Extension Office)
• 4-H Livestock Committee (2^nd Thursday, 7pm at the Extension Office)