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Mariah Huge named winner of 2016 Spirit of 4-H Award
Putnam County 4-H families joined together Sunday afternoon to recognize volunteers and acknowledge the achievement and accomplishments of 4-H members.
The highest award in the local 4-H program is the Spirit of 4-H Award which is sponsored by Bittles and Hurt and Hopkins-Rector funeral homes. The 2016 winner is Mariah Huge who was presented with a framed certificate and a cash award Sunday by Eric Bell representing the sponsors.
“We are proud to annually sponsor this top 4-H award honoring an outstanding Putnam 4-H career,” Bell said.
The Spirit of 4-H award has been awarded since 1991. Typically there is one winner for this prestigious award. However, there has been twice in the history of the award that no award was given and there have been two occurrences of awarding two awards in the same year.
Huge, the daughter of Duane and Jane Huge, is a 2016 Cloverdale High School graduate and currently is a freshman studying at Purdue University. Her area of study is animal science, specifically bioscience.
Asked who had the most significant influence for her accomplishments, Huge cited, “The greatest influence in my 4-H career and biggest motivator has been my dad who always has cheered me on along with my mom. I would like to thank my 4-H club leader Mona Smith who inspired me to become more involved and stick with 4-H. I would like to thank my mom as well who has served as dog superintendent providing great memories with my dogs.”
In terms of her experience with the overall 4-H program, Huge said, “My greatest positive moment was feeling and realizing I had made a difference with younger 4-H’ers which I will continue to do after finishing my 4-H career.”
Lucky Clovers 4-H club leader, Mona Smith, was Mariah’s general 4-H club leader.
“Mariah is a remarkable 4-H’er from the first year through her 10th year,” Smith said. “She always smiles and is willing to be a mentor all and especially younger 4-H’ers.”
Putnam County 4-H Youth Educator Mark Evans said, “Mariah will certainly be missed as she helped significantly with 4-H camp and engaged in numerous Junior Leader activities. Huge served as Junior Leader co-president and provided great leadership taking the position serious through her active involvement.”
Other awards during the afternoon program included recognizing the 2016 First Year 4-H award winners who were Hunter Haddon who completed 13 projects, and Avery Stone, second in most completed projects with 10.
The top first-year Junior Leader was Kedrick Coon while the top overall Junior Leader was Lauren Harper.
The awards are based annually on the “My Record of Achievement” forms submitted by the 4-H’ers. Extension staff and 4-H Council members review forms to determine the award winners.