Over 110 members of the Cape May County 4-H Youth Development Program participated in the 2022 4-H Public Presentations held from March 14th – 19th in the classrooms of Atlantic Cape Community College and at the Lockwood 4-H Youth Center. This is the first time since 2019 that in-person presentations took place. In 2020 and 2021, 4-H Public Presentations were held virtually due to COVID-19 restrictions and safety concerns. 4-H’ers delivered their presentations before volunteer judges from the community, their fellow 4-H club members, and adult leaders.
4-H members are required to do a presentation each year. They may choose from four types of presentations: demonstration, illustrated talk, formal speech and performing arts. Even the youngest members of the 4-H family – Cloverbuds, kindergarten through third grade, are given the opportunity to try their hands at speaking in front of a group. Teen members who achieved a score of excellent from the judges were invited to compete at the 4-H State Public Presentations Program on Rutgers’ Cook/Douglass Campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick.
4-H Public Presentations have long been an integral part of the 4-H “Learning by Doing” approach to youth development. “We were excited to return to in-person public presentations, after two years of virtual presentations, to provide our members with the most realistic public speaking experience,” said Linda Horner, Cape May County 4-H Program Coordinator. Cape May County 4-H wants to thank Atlantic Cape Community College for generously donating their facility so that our members could experience presenting in their state-of-the-art classrooms.
See the entire special 2022 4-H Section in an e-edition.
