4Hers compete in Puyallup

Lamont

Jean Stormberger

Friday morning, Jill Swannack left with Carmen, Leah, Owen and her sister Stacy Boyden for the Washington State Fair at Puyallup to compete in the 4H Livestock Judging and Demonstration contests. Eight members of Jill’s Sprague-Lamont 4H club qualified for the State Fair contest as well as eight other Lincoln County 4Hers. Six of Jill’s 4H club members qualified to do demonstrations at the State Fair 4H contest. The demonstration contest is where individual 4Hers give a presentation on a topic and are graded for knowledge, presentation quality and answering questions on the subject presented.

Leah and Owen Swannack competed and received Blue Ribbons on their demonstrations. Jed and Josie Clemenson also received Blue Ribbons while their older sisters Sadie and Molly Clemenson received Blue Ribbons and Special Merit awards for the quality of their demonstration presentations.

Jill believes the support received from the Sprague-Lamont Livestock Booster club, where the kids receive points and money for doing demonstrations at the Spokane Junior show and the Lincoln County Fair, has encouraged the kids to try and succeed in the contest.

In the Livestock Judging contest Carmen Swannack won the FFA Sheep and FFA Goat showing divisions and both the Large and Small animal showmanship Round Robin contests at Colfax and also tied for first place in FFA livestock judging. Carmen received third place overall in the Senior division of the State 4H Livestock Judging contest. She is now one of five members of the Washington State 4H livestock judging team and will go to the National 4H Livestock judging contest at the Denver Stock Show in Denver, Colo., in January.

The Lincoln County 4H livestock team placed fifth overall in the contest. The group returned home late Saturday night.

Jill was recently notified that she is the recipient of the Lincoln County 4H Leader of the Year award and will be recognized October 14 at the State 4H Leaders Forum in Ellensburg.

The first Lamont potluck will be Sunday, Sept. 25, at the community center.

Denny O’Keefe’s sister, Colleen Thomas, and nephew, Ryan Combe, from the Boise area, came to visit at the O’Keefe home. After a tour of the Palouse country around St. John, Clint, Christi, Clara and Colton O’Keefe hosted the group at dinner. Kye and Christy Ericson also attended.

Charlotte and Bill Bowen flew Sept. 7 for nine days to visit with friends and relatives in the areas where Charlotte was born and raised. They landed at the Dulles Airport and drove to Hagerstown where they visited family and friends. They then drove to Strasstown, Pa., to visit a customer of Bill’s in the wool business. While in Virginia they had dinner with an aunt, Sarah Shamlal. They never reached their goal, Hershey, Pa., because a severe storm left water over the roads and made them impassable.

They visited Bluefield where Charlotte and her family lived and where Charlotte and Willard were married. From Bluefield, they drove to Washington, D.C., and had dinner with Bill’s cousin. In all, they traveled in five states: Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C. While flying out of Washington, D.C., they met Jim Swannack on the same plane. They arrived back in Spokane Sept. 16.