Hello my name is Mason Teeple. I am the secretary for the Rainy River District 4-H Associations Animal Friends Project. Our club name is The GOATs! Our club members include Aysnley Teeple, Melaina Olson, Kinley Gross, Charlie Pelletier, Jacob Bodnar, and myself! Aynsley is our youth leader, Melaina is our President, Kinley is our Vice President and I am the Secretary and Press Reporter. Our Leaders are Kaitlyn Hay and Chantelle Teeple. We say the 4-H Pledge at the beginning of every meeting, “I pledge my head to clearer thinking, my heart to greater loyalty, my hands to larger service, my health to better living, for our club, our community, our country, and our world.” The 4-H motto is – learn to do by doing.
Our first meeting was on May 16 at Katie’s house where we talked about what we were going to learn in the club, we got our project materials, got to know each other, and then learned a bit about club positions. We also planned some future meetings. We also got to meet Katie’s two guinea pigs!
Our second meeting was June 2 at the Dead End Ranch Trail Rides. Melissa Teeple was our host. This was probably my favorite meeting. Melissa taught us all about her horses! We had a lesson on riding the horses and worked in groups to brush and saddle a horse. We got to ride the horses and then brush them and put them away. Melissa answered all our horse related questions. It was lots of fun!
Our third meeting was June 23 where we got to meet BriAnne Richards and some of her rabbits that she breeds, shows, and cares for. This was also a great meeting! She had a lot of information about rabbits and showing rabbits that we didn’t know. Her rabbits were so soft and it was very interesting.
At our fourth meeting we met some horses, donkeys, goats and dogs at the Hay Residence! We learned more about caring for animals and started our display board. We also planned our Fun Day!
Our fifth meeting and Fun Day were combined. We completed more of our project books and got to enjoy a nice sunny day at Bass Lake Park in Nestor Falls. Our final meeting is happening this week on August 8th where we will all hopefully have our project books almost complete, and work on our display board for the Emo Fair. Every 4-H club must make a display board to enter the 4-H Exhibition Hall at the Rainy River Valley Agricultural Fall Fair. The display boards show each member of the clubs and also show people what we learned in the club. Our project books we got to complete based on a pet we choose to take care of. Some of us used animals we already had and some of us pretended we had a pet that we were taking care of. Aynsley and Charlie made their books about their 4-H cattle project animal that they are caring for in their Beef project. Kinley and Jacob used their family dogs. Melaina has a pet bunny that she used in her book. I really want a guinea pig like Katie has so I made up one to use in my book!
The Animal Friends Project was a lot of fun! Thank you to the leaders, parents, our club guests- Melissa and BriAnne, and hosts- Katie, Mr & Mrs Hay, and the Olson’s too! It would not have been as great without you!
