4H youth compete at Fruita

RANGELY I Four Panther Country 4-H Members from Rangely attended the Colorado Cattlewomen public speaking contest at Fruita-Monument High School in Fruita, Colo., April 18.
Destinee Bland, Tristan Hall, Raelynn Norman and Kaylee Mecham worked diligently on their respective speeches. Bland’s topic was about child vegetarians, Hall’s was about the child labor act, Norman also touched on the child labor act and what it’s like being raised in a rural setting, and Mecham’s speech was on the effects of drought on the beef industry.
The kids were greeted by Fran Hill. She and her husband, Jon D. Hill, are big supporters of the kids’ efforts and like to sit in on the speech, judging and quiz bowl contests the kids are nationally involved in. They have been a great cheering section in Denver, Nashville and Fruita, and I am sure we will see them in Tampa in 2013.
At the end of the contest, after questions and tallying scores, Shane and Kathy Mecham’s daughter Kaylee Mecham, 12, of Rangely, was named the Colorado Cattlewomen’s junior beef spokesperson.
Mecham has been very involved in her improvement from the Denver NCBA contest. She took a class through Cheryl Blackburn on public speaking, gave a speech in Nashville, Tenn., and has been working on her latest speech for awhile.
Mecham has the option to attend and give her speech at the summer banquet in Loveland in June or the National Western Stock Show banquet in January.
All the kids received beautiful certificates and BEEF bumper stickers. Afterward they ate at Chili’s restaurant in Grand Junction to celebrate.
All the kids will pick new topics and get ready for Tampa, Fla., in February 2013. They are all active Rio Blanco 4-H livestock judging members and will be competing in the judging contest as well.