BUCKHANNON – The WVU Extension Office introduces youth to shooting sports, agriculture and summer camps.
Craig Presar and Tasha Harris, representing the WVU Upshur County Extension Office in Upshur County, attended the March 30 Upshur County Commission meeting to outline their various programs and upcoming opportunities. Presar, the Extension Agent for 4-H Youth Development, said some of their most popular programs are their shooting sports, including archery and air rifle.
“This past year, we had 21 youth participating in air rifle, and we took the kids to the state air rifle tournament, and a junior from the high school has qualified to be one of the four people representing West Virginia at the National 4-H air rifle competition,” Presar said. “She’ll travel to Nebraska at the end of June to take part in that competition.”
The Buckhannon-Upshur archery program saw 114 archers complete the season this year.
“Our middle school team qualified to be at the state tournament and placed fourth in the state, and we also had four high school students and four elementary students qualified individually for that, and we had a total of four kids qualified for the national competition as well,” Presar said. “Eli Bryant, who is a senior, is currently ranked in the top five shooters in the country, and he’s expected to go down to Kentucky for the National Archery in the Schools Program tournament and do very well.”
4-H camps will kick off for members 13 years and older June 4; the camp for children nine to 12 will start June 11; and there will be two sessions of camp for children ages five to eight at the end of June.
“We appreciate the support that you give the 4-H program and the support you’ve given to the Youth Camp leaders to make these camp experiences possible,” Presar said. “I also worked with the CEOS program in Upshur County. We still have five very active clubs, so that’s an aging group across the state, but Upshur County is one of the counties that still has a fairly strong program.”
Harris, the Extension Agent for Agriculture and Natural Resources, said she works with youth and adults across Upshur County to get them involved in agriculture.
“We just finished up Small Farms Conference last month, so we got producers across the state, and we featured their foods they’re growing, and that conference is open to anybody across the state; it’s good for beginners or seasoned farmers, anything along those lines,” Harris said. “I’m currently working with Harrison County, Barbour County, Randolph County and Tucker County on a beginner farmer program that is held in Harrison and Barbour counties, and it’s a great program for farmers or producers that either want to start farming or are just beginning to start farming.”
Harris said she wanted to specifically highlight their Upshur County Livestock program from 2022.
“We had 42 exhibitors with 106 projects, and the sale had a total of $100,700 in sales,” Harris said. “A couple of years ago, across the state, we did a research project to see where that money’s going with those kids. We just assumed it was going to college, and I don’t have the exact numbers in front of me, but the majority of that money is going to secondary education, whether it’s college or trade schools.”
“The kids are also putting that money back into their projects or in the breeding stock, so you’ve had a lot of kids start farming from this program,” she added.
