We had so much fun hosting Laura Kahler and the Gregory County 4-Her's this past week at the Market. We're 4-H super fans over here at BAFM for lots of reasons, but one of the them is because they offer an incredible number and variety of activities and programs for our local kids.

Did you know that 4-H is the largest youth organization in America, open to anyone ages 8-18? Members develop leadership, citizenship, and life skills by working with their club and through involvement in the project areas they choose.

Here in Gregory County, there are 140 members and 8 clubs. Members have over 70 project areas to choose from ranging from more traditional project areas like Livestock Species, Horse, Horticulture, Foods & Nutrition, Visual Arts and Clothing, to newer project areas like Rockets, Graphic Design, Electricity, Theater and Dog.

In Gregory County, the robotics project area has really grown over the past year. Adult volunteers completed a robotics training on the LEGO Mindstorm robotics, and they then lead several workshops through the summer during which area youth built and programmed robots to complete challenges. Three Gregory County members also took their new training to the State Fair, where they worked as a team to program their robot for various tasks.

The pictures below show local 4-Her's at the September 22nd Farmers Market demonstrating how a robot can be programmed to complete the challenge they designed.