The 2014 Blanco County Youth Show turned out to be a fun and meaningful experience for the youth of Blanco County due to the help of countless volunteers and the Blanco County 4-H and FFA Youth Council board. Students, parents and other volunteers showed up for two workdays prior to the show to begin barn preparations.
This fall awards were ordered including buckles, chairs, boot bags, and jacket certificates and buyer appreciation gifts for the buyers. Generous local businesses and individuals sponsored the 85 awards. Buyer’s mugs were donated by Blanco County Wild Game Dinner – 1st Saturday in October. Johnson City Bank donated the champion buyer’s caps. Ribbons and prize money were sorted for placing turkeys, broilers, rabbits, goats, sheep, swine, cattle and shop projects.
During the show, Thursday and Friday, Jim Meadows did an excellent job announcing, Keitha Johnson assisted the superintendents and managed the awards, ribbons and prize money. While students volunteered in the show ring to distribute the awards to the deserving exhibitors. Kids under the age of 9 had fun participating in the Little Britches Goat Show on Friday judged by the PJ Pickett and these kids each received a participant ribbon and a gold dollar. On Friday of the show the Board made a decision to delay the start of the show for the safety of the exhibitors and their families.
This year’s judges and classifiers did an excellent job, along with the superintendents that supervised each activity. Office staff, along with Youth Council secretary Keitha Johnson, worked non-stop on computer entry in preparation for Saturday’s Sale. Rhonda Stell donated her time to copy hundreds of Sale Programs.
Exhibitors completed the show and began work cleaning up and readying the barn for Saturdays sale. Volunteers stayed late Friday night lending their muscle to create the setup for Saturday’s sale.
Entries for the Salsa contest arrived Saturday morning and judging began at 11:30. The 2014 Best Blanco County Salsa Maker was announced at the end of the sale and the winner, Brenda Haynes, was presented with the engraved cutting board. The winning jar was auctioned as the final sale unit and raised $6000 for the Blanco County Youth Council Scholarship!
The hospitality room for Saturday’s sale was organized by Suree Birck. Suree along with Dee Schumann and Jessica Saylor worked the many hours of the sale working in the hospitality room.
The Blanco County Battered Men’s Shelter sponsored the complimentary buyer’s lunch of pork steaks, beans and potato salad and S&T Ranch Services sponsored the buyer’s evening meal of Sirloin steaks, baked potatoes, and salad. Lone Oak Bar B Que, Chris Welch owner, Ed Crawford, Melvin Sultemeier, Frank and Brenda Haynes, Rylee, Dusti and Blaze Welch did a tremendous job preparing the food this year for the lunch and dinner meals.
Nela Guinn and Kelly Gombert organized the buyer registration table. Katie Baker and Martha Danz did a great job of taking care of buyer cards for the kids, and assisting the Auctioneer.
Auctioneer, Charles Jones, Jr., along with ring assistants, Randy Sultemeier, Doug Smith, Tim Jeans and Kip Thompson, kept the 7+ hour sale fun and entertaining. The sale generated $397,480 and buyers added $90,855 for a total of $488,335 for the county’s youth, including the add-ons made by the Blanco County Wild Game Dinner (Sale Committee). This year’s sale was an unbelievable record breaking year with no sale item selling for less than $1000. The community was well represented and their support is as always greatly appreciated. If you were unable to make it to the sale and would still like to contribute to the Scholarship Fund or to general show costs, you may call Keitha Johnson at 830-833-4138 or send an e-mail toBCYC78@gmail.com.
The top 5 Business / Group Buyers were Tech Con Trenching, South Texas Friends, Hye (PMI) Metropolitan Buyers Group, KBE Inc., and Johnson City Bank. The top 5 Individual Buyers were Debby Elsbury, David O’Bannon, Manny & Tina Sasko, Robby & Dawn Robinson, and Matt & Leandy Pletcher.
From start to finish the Blanco County Youth Show is such a successful event due to many, many volunteers and generous contributors. This year before the show ever began there were several improvements made to the show barn including new restrooms, lighting in the front of the barn, steer wash rack and new show ring panels. The Board is always looking at ways improvements can be made to the barn to make it better for the show and for the community as a whole.
The Blanco County 4-H and FFA Youth Council invites all members and other interested persons to attend the Annual Meeting, scheduled for 7pm on March 26, 2014 at the Blanco County Show Barn in Johnson City. This is the annual meeting where items may be brought before the Board of Directors for consideration of a rule or policy change. Other suggestions for improvement of the Youth Show will also be discussed. In addition, Directors positions whose terms are expiring will be up for election. Nominations to fill these positions will be made from the Nominating Committee and will also be accepted from the floor. Directors who are elected must be current paid members of the Youth Council. Also, in order to vote at the annual meeting you must be a current paid member. “Dues for membership in the council shall be $5.00 per person per year ($30 per person, $50 per couple, for lifetime membership). This membership fee is due seven days prior to the annual meeting (3/19/2014)”. Please contact Keitha Johnson at 833-4138 or e-mail to BCYC78@gmail.com for more information.
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