Bristol’s Jack Graham Community Centre was decked out in green balloons and tablecloths for the annual Shawville 4-H Club banquet on Saturday night, where the club’s members gathered to celebrate this year’s achievements and snack on cake and ice cream sundaes.

Kasey Lafleur of Mansfield was this year’s club president. She spent the season working with a Simmental beef steer and took home the club’s intermediate beef showperson award this year.

“Last year my steer won confirmation and that was super cool, but I went into this year saying I wanted to win showmanship with my steer,” Lafleur said. “I worked with my steer every day and at the fair I won steer showmanship. I was very proud of myself and my steer.”

This year was her first time being president for the 4-H club in Shawville and she said that it was exciting to see her peers succeed.

“The first few meetings I was nervous but I got more comfortable the more I did them,” Lafleur said.

“What I enjoyed the most was watching everyone work with their projects and do a great job in the show ring.”

She said the 4-H club has taught her more than just how to work with animals.

“I used to struggle with anxiety and joining 4-H was the best thing I ever did. It got me out of my comfort zone and showed me how to trust people or animals.”

Lafleur will be passing the torch to Amy Sheppard who will take over as president of the club for 2025. Sheppard has been a part of the Shawville 4-H club for 11 years and on the executive for two years. She hopes that youth will be even more involved in the club in the coming year.

“I would love to see more youth participation,” Sheppard said. “4-H is based off a learn-to-do-by-doing [approach] and I think it’s really important that our members are learning to do the task themselves with assistance from older members and leaders.”

This year, Sheppard showed a beef heifer, a sheep, and participated in the square dancing project. She took home grand champion sheep showperson and grand champion shorthorn beef heifer at achievement day. For Sheppard, 4-H has shaped who she is and what she wants to do.

“Before I started 4-H 11 years ago, I had no direct experience with agriculture,” Sheppard said. “Being a part of this group has really opened my eyes and is why I hope to pursue a career both in law and agriculture.”

This year the club’s largest project was the square dancing project, in which 30 of the club’s 65 active members took part. The project took three teams to two competitions this past spring and at each competition, one of the Shawville 4-H members took home the calling award.

Tyler McCann is one of the square dancing teachers. He grew up square dancing with the Shawville 4-H Club and said that it was very rewarding to see the project be so successful this year.

“You’re learning about square dancing but you’re also learning about working with other people and dancing with different people,” he said. “You have to work through it and it’s a great way to learn and grow.”

The square dancing project will restart their practices early next year with the hopes of being ready for a February competition.

Kayla McCann was the overall leader for the club this year. Next year, she will take on the assistant leader role. For her, volunteering is very important for the community.

“Volunteering is very important to me because I believe if you expect something, you need to be willing to do the work to make it happen,” she said. “Something as simple as putting tables and chairs away at the end of an event is something that the kids learn.”

The Shawville 4-H club has a total of 80 members, 65 of which are active members. Kayla said that while the club has a big focus on agriculture, there’s something for everyone.

“More than half of our kids are not from farms,” she said. “We try to do as much as we can in the community also, like fundraisers and square dancing.”

Lafleur also hopes that the club will continue to thrive in the coming years.

“We have so many young members that are so driven to win,” Lafleur said. “The competition in the next few years is going to be so strong as they grow into fantastic showmen.”

Sheppard said that the banquet this year gave all the members a chance to get together outside of their projects.

“The only times when we’re able to have all our members in one place at the same time is at the fairs when we’re presenting our projects,” Sheppard said. “It’s a very busy time so the banquet is a great place to get together and have some fun.”