And The Winner Is...

 

                Lawrence County Teen Council’s Hunger Games Challenge retreat last weekend was a success! Nine different districts competed in a number of challenges and participated in workshops over the weekend, but only one participant could be the winner…

                September 21^st – 23^rd, my county’s Teen Council invited all of Pennsylvania 4-H and local non-members to participate in our second annual fall retreat. This year we used the theme, “Hunger Games Challenge,” and it was a great time! The districts (groups of five or six people) competed against each other in challenges such as fly-fishing and obstacle courses. Points were awarded to the districts in order of their placings in each challenge and the district with the most points at the end of the weekend had to go through the final challenge to find the winner. There was even a “would you rather” challenge, where one brave member of each district was blindfolded and offered two different food choices for either five or ten points. Their choices were things like a pig’s eye (grape) or tongue (apricot).

               I had a blast both planning and participating in the retreat! Although my district wasn’t the winning district, we all gained something. We were randomly placed into groups and immediately had to work as a team. We learned a lot about each other and various helpful skills in just a few short days. The workshops I got the most out of were the different ways to build fires and first aid skills.

                At the end of the weekend I had a few of the non-members ask me how to join 4-H! One of them is even going to join our Teen Council. I’m looking forward to seeing our new member at the next meeting! I was so proud to think that the weekend we planned had spurred that much interest in the 4-H program. Hopefully, we will keep opening up the retreat to non-members and keep 4-H growing.

                It was so great to see such an increase in interest in our retreat after just two years. Hopefully, next year we’ll have to move it to a location with more space for the participants! If you came this year, I hope to see you again next year! If you didn’t, look for the information in August next year! I’m sure you’ll make some wonderful memories.