Antelope County 4-H Program Announces Achievements

Jon Meis and Bailey Carpenter, 2014 Outstanding 4-H Members

The Rowdy Bunch, 2014 Outstanding 4-H Club

First-year members

Fifth-year members

Ninth-year members

First-year 4-H leaders

Twenty-year 4-H leaders

2014 Members of the 4-H Committee

Mason Vleck and Brittany McConnell talk about their experiences at 4-H Camp.

The Antelope County 4-H Program celebrated its annual 4-H Achievement and potluck on Sunday, Nov. 9 at the Fairgrounds in Neligh. 4-Hers from the county were honored for their many accomplishments during the 2014 4-H year. 

Several highlights of the 4-H year announced throughout the evening. One was the naming of Bailey Carpenter, Neligh, and Jon Meis, Elgin, as the Outstanding 4-H members for the 2014 4-H year.  

Bailey is the 18-year-old daughter of Jerry and Char Carpenter.  She graduated from Elgin Public High School in May 2014.  She is currently attending Northeast Community College in Norfolk, NE, pursuing a major in Animal Science. 

Bailey is an 11 year member of 4-H. Bailey has shown great leadership skills in many roles as Merry Maids & Muscles Vice President, Secretary, and Reporter during her 4-H career. Bailey was a big asset getting things ready for the fairs, as she prepared and cleaned the rabbit barn, helped at pre and post fair clean ups, and was a big help on entry and judging day as she assisted the food judges. She is a very positive person that always has a smile on her face and that is why she is so good at helping other 4-H members. Bailey has been a positive role model as she helped future 4-H members in teen showmanship in rabbits and poultry. In her 4-H career, she attended the 4-H Citizenship Washington Focus trip and attended state archery tournaments in 2010-2014. Bailey is an exceptional 4-Her as she has earned many awards in the areas of: photography, heritage, home environment, foods, cat, shooting sports, and many more. Bailey has been an active member of 4-H through her projects, club, and at the county level. She has entered many projects and shown animals for years. Going beyond the local archery contests, she has competed in many State 4-H Indoor and outdoor archery contests held in Columbus, Norfolk, Grand Island, and Broken Bow. She is always willing to help 4-H youth get started in rabbits or other projects. 4-H has always been an important part of Bailey’s life and she exemplifies what 4-H is all about!

Jon is the 18-year-old son of James and Anne Meis and is a senior at Pope John Central Catholic High School in Elgin. 


Jon is a 10-year member of 4-H. During his years of 4-H, he has been very busy providing leadership to the 4-H Committee from 2012-2014, serving in the roles of Treasurer, Vice-President, and now currently President of the Cedar Creek club. As a club project each year, Cedar Creek grows a garden together and he volunteered to till the garden several times during the year. Jon is a big help with pre and post fair clean ups. He is a confident and knowledgeable young gentleman that many 4-Hers look up to. Jon has helped with teen help showmanship in rabbits, poultry, and beef for many years. He was instrumental in helping to strengthen the Antelope County Archery Club by inviting new families to join and help them learn the skill. Jon shows leadership by volunteering, encouraging others, and being responsible. He has been a very active 4-H member as he participated in many areas of 4-H and received numerous Grand Champions in Shooting Sports, esp. Archery, Bucket Calf, Rabbit, Poultry, Crops, Welding, & Engineering. His involvement with 4-H  goes beyond the fair as he attended a 4-H summer camp in Halsey in 2010 and also attended Range Camp for the past 3 years. Range Camp has helped Jon develop better practices on his own farm and his range judging skills in FFA. 
4-H has been an important part of Jon’s life. He has demonstrated this by his enthusiasm he has brought to the meetings and has spent a good part of his summers planning and preparing for county fair. Jon has an exceptional character and models what 4-H is all about. 

The Mark Hughes Memorial Award goes to 4-Hers that have exhibited exceptional projects at the county fair. This year’s winners are Alexis Lind and Ian Larson both of Tilden. Ian was named one of the recipients because he did an incredible job with his first year Entomology project, which is a project area that does not get represented very much. Alexis learned an outstanding amount about her Conservation Wildlife project as she went through the 4-H curriculum project manual and tailored her project to make an educational bird display poster. 

The Rowdy Bunch of Neligh, with 12 busy members, was announced as the Outstanding 4-H Club of 2014. This past year was a busy one for this newly chartered 4-H club! In their first year as a club, they have done numerous club projects including making tie-dye t-shirts, making leather bracelets, and learning about photography. They are currently making Christmas decorations and ornaments for the residents at the Willows and rest homes. 

Community service was important to this new club. They took initiative as they went to the park board and asked if they needed any help cleaning up the park. As a result, the club volunteered to clean up the creek that runs through the park over by the fairgrounds a few times this summer. They also went to the fair board and ask them if they needed any help. The fair board needed the announcer stands painted both at the horse arena and in the livestock barn, so their whole club got together and painted them before the fair so they looked nice and sharp during fair time!

The Rowdy Bunch was also helped run the concession stand at the District Horse Show that was held in June and assisted the Wortman’s in the food stand at the fair. The Rowdy Bunch hit the ground running when they created their club this past January. They are full of energy and enthusiasm for 
4-H and are willing to help out and do anything that is asked of them. “This club is looking forward to next year and what they can do to help themselves, others, and the community,” Alisha Carr stated. 

Antelope County 4-H members recognized for their years of membership in 2014 were: 

1st Years: Joe Ahlers (Clearwater), Emily Ahlers (Clearwater),Carson Anderson (Meadow Grove),Carney Black (Tilden), Taylor A. Bolling (Clearwater),Lena Bolling (Clearwater),Josey Booth (Neligh), Alyssa Burenheide (Elgin), Baylee Busteed (Elgin), Makenzy Cheatum (Long Pine), Audrey Chvala (Meadow Grove), Daniel Chvala (Meadow Grove),Gavyn Clause (Tilden), Jacob Cleveland (Tilden),Aubrey Dexter-Menke (Neligh), David Durre (Elgin),Keyera Eisenhauer (Elgin), Anneka Furstenau (Tilden), Chase Furstenau (Neligh), Walter Furstenau (Tilden), Landon Givens (Plainview), Trevin Hanson (Tilden), Delilah Harper (Tilden), Xavier Hart (Neligh), Samuel Hemenway (Neligh), Jailee Hogancamp (Tilden), Aubrea Howard (Meadow Grove), Montana Howard (Meadow Grove), Luke Jacobsen (Neligh), Nevaeh Jockens (Oakdale),Corbin Kinney (Elgin), Austin Klabenes (Neligh), Ian Larson (Tilden), Alexis Lind (Tilden), Gavin Longsdorf (Neligh), Alyssa Maughan (Meadow Grove), Brianna Maughan (Meadow Grove), Nicolas Maughan (Meadow Grove), Jordan Mavis (Tilden), Jazmine McNally (Neligh), Ike Myers (Tilden), Olivia Nall (Tilden), Stevie Nelson (Tilden), Ben Ofe (Neligh), Blake Ofe (Neligh), Dominic Ottis (Meadow Grove), Gracie Park (Ewing), Adrienne Parker (Neligh), Dylan Parks (Clearwater), Brandon Peitzmeier (Neligh), Shelby Pitzer (Oakdale), Trenton Reel (Elgin), Zane Richardson (Tilden), Cameron Schindler (Neligh), Noah Schmidt (Neligh), Ethan Schoenenberger (Neligh), Wyatt Schoenenberger (Neligh), Damien Smith (Tilden), Tristan Smith (Tilden), Sam Talero (Martell), Alex Thiele (Clearwater), Justice Tighe (Tilden), Chase Vleck (Neligh), Mason Vleck (Neligh), Carter Voorhees (Neligh), Elyse Warnke (Elgin), Carson Whitesel (Neligh), Brooke Wilcox (Tilden), and Elissa Wright (Tilden). 

5th Year: Erin  Beckman (Elgin), Breanna  Carr (Oakdale), Bailey Frey (Tilden), Collin Gale (Neligh), Isaiah  Greenhalgh (Tilden), Madi  Grosserode (Neligh), Kasi  Grosserode (Neligh), Nikki Grosserode (Neligh),Luke  Henn (Elgin), Chris  Kester (Clearwater), Damien  Knight (Neligh), Alyssa  Moser (Clearwater), and Codey  Snider (Clearwater). 

8th Year: Nicole  Beckman (Elgin), Chad Bode (Elgin), Morgan  Carpenter (Neligh), Jayson  Larson (Tilden), Tyler  Miller (Tilden), Alyssa  Rood (Meadow Grove), Tia  Smith (Neligh), and Riley  Snider (Clearwater). 

9th Year: Trey Baum (Elgin), Krystal Carr (Neligh),Lydia Fry (Ewing), Blake Heithoff (Neligh), Audrey Kester (Neligh), Blake Kester (Clearwater), Kayla Nelson (Oakdale), Joseph O'Brien (Tilden), and  Anna Stineman (Tilden). 

10th Year: McKenzie Brozek (Plainview), Cassidy Curtis (Royal), Catelyn Hall (Neligh), Justine Hetihoff (Elgin), Jonathon Meis (Elgin), and Courtney Pellatz (Neligh). 

11th and Final Year: Devon Baum (Elgin), Allison Beckman (Elgin), Bailey Carpenter (Neligh), Jamie Dittrich (Tilden), Billy O'Brien (Tilden), and John O'Brien (Tilden). 

4-H leaders were also recognized for their honored years of service to the youth of the county.  Leaders recognized included;  1st YEAR: Alisha Carr (Neligh), Jennifer Carr (Oakdale), and Dawn Nelson (Tilden). 5 YEARS: Mark and Julie Eggers (Tilden). 15 YEARS:  Tom and Peggy Dittrich (Tilden). 20 YEARS: Tim and Kandi Hart (Tilden), and Craig Sprout (Elgin).  

The Antelope County Extension would like to thank all of the hard working 4-H Volunteers and Leaders that make 4-H possible and help youth be the leaders of tomorrow! 

Antelope County 4-H Clover Kids certificates were presented to the following youth: Daley Bearinger (Clearwater), Irelyn Bearinger (Clearwater), Christian Behnk (Clearwater), JJ Black (Tilden),  Logan Black (Tilden), Ella Bolling (Clearwater), John Bolling (Clearwater), Cassidy Booth (Neligh), Eliza Borer (Elgin), Aliya Bos (Norfolk), Karlee Broberg (Tilden), Natalie Burenheide (Elgin), Kyndal Busteed (Elgin), Darby Carstens (Elgin), Abbey Chipps (Elgin), Paxton Cleveland (Tilden), Adam Dexter (Neligh), Ashlynn Dexter (Neligh), Robert Dugan (Neligh), Samantha Durre (Elgin), Dylan Furstenau (Tilden), Kate Furstenau (Neligh), Carissa Gale (Neligh), Kinley Givens (Plainview), Brian Heithoff (Elgin), Isaac Hemenway (Neligh), Andrew Henery (Neligh), Jacob Henery (Neligh), Kaden Howard (Meadow Grove), Jonah Johnson (Tilden), Tristan Kallhoff (Meadow Grove), Dane Kilday (Elgin), Drew Kilday (Elgin), Lucille Koinzan (Neligh), Joslynn Larson (Tilden), Pavan Larson (Tilden), Jacob Lind (Tilden), Grace Longsdorf (Neligh), Taylor Mavis (Tilden), Juliana McNally (Neligh), Layton Meyer (Tilden), Deacon Myers (Tilden), Olivia Ottis (Meadow Grove), Aubrey Parker (Neligh), Emerson Penne (Tilden), Kennedy Penne (Tilden), Kenny Petersen (Tilden), Isabelle Pitzer (Oakdale), Emma Qualset (Meadow Grove), Tyler Suckstorf (Newman Grove), Jesse Thiele (Clearwater), Merinee Vaughn (Tilden), Landyn Veik (Elgin), and Paul Warnke (Elgin). 

Certificates of appreciation were presented to the 2014 Antelope County 4-H Committee.  Persons receiving the certificates were:  Adults:  Chris Baum (Elgin), Rhonda Meyer (Neligh) Corey Curtis (Royal), Linda Grosserode (Oakdale), Jan Henn (Elgin), Anne Meis (Elgin),  Erin Whitesel (Neligh), Lori Beckman (Elgin), and Sandi Henn (Elgin). Youth representatives include:  Erin Beckman (Elgin), Jon Meis (Elgin), Karissa Dicke (Ewing), Kaitlyn McKirdy (Neligh), Cassidy Curtis (Royal), Riley Snider (Clearwater), and Trey Baum (Elgin).

At the closing of the event the new Antelope County 4-H Committee members were announced. The adult representatives elected will serve a three year term and are as follows:  Amanda Greenhalgh (Tilden), Kristen Zegers (Elgin), and Chris Baum (Elgin). Youth representatives elected to the 4-H Committee for a one year term include: Rachel Higgins (Neligh), Jon Meis (Elgin), Marie Meis (Elgin), Karissa Dicke (Ewing), Mason Vleck (Neligh), Krystal Carr (Neligh), Geoffrey Carr (Oakdale), Brittany McConnell (Neligh), Erin Beckman (Elgin), and Trey Baum (Elgin). 

Congratulations to all the Antelope County 4-Hers for working hard throughout the year!