4-H'er practices core beliefs
SUMMIT TWP — Larissa Edinboro, the 17-year-old daughter of Kenneth and Judith Edinboro, isn't someone who might be called a “traditional” 4-H member. Her wide variety of interests might come as a surprise since nowhere on her 4-H resume will you find showing animals or sewing a skirt.
Larissa belongs to the Bull's Eye Club, the Butler County shooting sports 4-H club, where she focuses on archery. Members also can participate in air rifle, rifle and shotgun.
With more than 30 members, the club meets as a group monthly. Members then gather at the Butler City Hunting and Fishing Club in East Butler during different times of the year to hone their shooting skills under the tutelage of certified instructors.
All Bull's Eye members complete a 4-H project book and can enter it and a poster specific to that shooting discipline to be judged at the 4-H round up at the Butler Farm Show.
Larissa has earned several blue and red ribbons on her archery projects during her four-year 4-H career, and she cites completing her archery project with her own bow as her most rewarding 4-H experience.
How did she get involved in shooting sports? It's thanks to Larissa's younger brother Mark.
“Mark was first interested in the Bull's Eye Club, and we all went to his first meeting to see what it was like,” she said. “The next thing you know, my older brother Kenneth and I were also signed up and picking our shooting disciplines.”
Larissa serves as the club's news reporter, providing monthly articles for the Butler County 4-H Clover Chronicle newsletter.
And she was recently elected as news reporter for the newly formed Media Arts 4-H Club. While her true interests and talents lie in drawing and sketching, she's learning more about photography through this club.
In the new year, she will represent her fellow media arts members on the county Youth Council, the teen leader group that has two representatives from all the county 4-H clubs.Larissa also has a green thumb. She took an independent 4-H strawberry project and captured a blue ribbon at the Butler Farm Show.For the first time, she also entered her projects in the Big Butler Fair in 2014.“I was pleased with the results,” she said. “I earned blue ribbons for my archery project, a pencil drawing and my 4-H strawberry project.”To top off the week, she received a Big Butler Fair Youth Award.The award-winning project year capped off at the annual 4-H Achievement Banquet in November where Larissa received the senior division Outstanding 4-H Project Award in Environmental and Earth Sciences for her strawberry project. She also got a second place ribbon in the individual scrapbook competition.Larissa will graduate this year from the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School where she is a member of the Art Club and National Honor Society. She also attends Butler County Community College and is working to get an associate degree in biology.After that, she plans to attend a four-year university to study marine biology.Her other activities include playing basketball and soccer for the Butler First Baptist Christian School as well as playing volleyball and golf.Larissa also is working on her Gold Award in Girl Scouts, a group she has been a member of since kindergarten, and she is active in the First Baptist Church youth group.Larissa is breaking the mold of the traditional 4-H'er yet still holding true to the core beliefs of the program: “To make the best better.”For information about 4-H, contact Jean Kummer at the county 4-H Extension Office at 724-287-4761.
