Western 4-H Family and Consumer Science Show, October 11-12

The 57th Annual Western 4-H Family and Consumer Science Show will be held October 11th and 12th at the Central States Fairgrounds in Rapid City, South Dakota. While this is called a show, it consists of various contests for developing life skills that 4-Hers, youth and adults may participate in.

The event kicks off with an 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Burger Bust sponsored by the Rapid City Ag Chamber. The contests begin on Friday, October 12 at 9 a.m. with bread baking and other contests running from noon to 6 p.m. Some contests will continue from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday. More information may be found by emailing w4hfcshow@gmail.com or on Facebook under the show name. A complete show catalog is also available there.

New participants and youth group members are encouraged to come and do not need to pre-register. Contestants may come from outside the state of South Dakota and may enter as many contests as they wish but in only one age category. Board members and volunteers are available to assist any newcomers to the show. The contests are bread baking, meat identification, family life photo, scrapbook pages, home living, place setting, fashion revue both sewn and purchased, public presentation, ingredient measuring, family and consumer sciences judging, produce identification and judging and a family and consumer sciences skill-a-thon. The public may view the exhibits after the contests. The Saturday contests are followed by an honoree tea, public fashion show and awards presentation at 3 p.m. in the Walter Taylor Building on the edge of the fairgrounds.

This year, the board of dbirectors of the Western 4-H Family and Consumer Sciences Show is pleased to recognize as their honorees the past, present and future Central States Fairgrounds Board of Directors. The Central States Fair, Inc. is a non-profit member driven organization which manages the Pennington County Fairgrounds and produces the Central States Fair and the Black Hills Stock Show and Rodeo. This non-profit supports many community organizations including the Western Junior Livestock Show and Western 4-H Family and Consumer Sciences Show each year. They proudly salute those visionaries from the past, the present board and those who will follow to support the event and the youth from many states who participate.

Organizers invite all past and present Central States Fairground board members to join them at the honoree tea at 3 p.m. on Saturday, October 12 in the Walter Taylor Building,

The Western Junior Home Economics Show which is now referred to as the Western 4-H Family and Consumer Sciences Show was started in 1962 as a companion show to the Western Junior Livestock Show. The livestock show was 25 years old at the time. The first contests were a dairy food demonstration and dress revue. It has grown with the help of 4-Hers, parents, extension personnel and volunteers to be a two-day show participated in by youth and adults from many states. Likewise, many people have been donors and have helped provide funding for the annual show.