By Jasmine Franklin
4-H Club members will soon get the opportunity to show off and sell their pride and joy — their steers.
Teens have worked daily and tirelessly to ensure their animals have been raised to their full potential by paying close attention and care to feeding, trimming and grooming.
“This is all them — the kids do everything and they always want to show off their hard work for the year,” said organizer Laverne Holt-Klimec with the West Ponoka Beef Club. “Seeing the kids work so hard and help each other out is really special.”
The show and sale comprises the West, East and Central Ponoka Beef Clubs and will run at the arena May 2 and 3. The female show will be May 2 at 5:30 p.m. with a new addition this year.
“Ponoka Co-Op Oil has sponsored a cash award for a supreme champion female,” Holt-Klimec said. “This is a great incentive for kids to enter females and not only steers.”
The steer show will take place May 3 at 1 p.m. and the sale will commence at 4:30 p.m., followed by a supper provided by the clubs for buyers.
Youths will be awarded the profit they make off their animals.
“The people of Ponoka has always supported us,” Holt-Klimec said. “We have always sold all of our steer.”
This year there will be 50 animals up for sale.
The 4-H club has created a committee of seniors from all three clubs to research and investigate ways to improve their sale. The team found that focusing the beef show and sale catalogue on the youth raising the livestock rather than just the steers gave a much more personal touch.
“The catalogue is now geared toward ‘this is me, this is why I am in 4-H and thanks for coming out to support us,” Holt-Klimec said. “They also made personal phone calls thanking buyers and sent out Christmas cards — as a result, we had a much bigger turn out last year than in previous years.”
The 4-H members hope for the same this year.
To enter a steer into the show, members must learn how to raise the steer, take part in a public speaking event, complete a 4-H book that teaches the budgeting and balancing of raising a steer, be part of the community and obtain a 70 to 80 per cent meeting attendance.
“It’s a commitment and these kids work very hard,” Holt-Klimec said.
This year’s charity steer was raised by the East Ponoka Beef Club and it has yet to be determined where the profits will be donated. Holt-Klimec said her club will donate their portion of the steer sales to the Ponoka Composite High School’s Relay for Life.
Raffle tickets will also be provided for a chance to win the charity steer.
For those who can’t make the auction but would like to support the clubs, call Nanson Vold at (403) 783-0349 or Blair Vold at (403) 783-0660.