4-H State Congress

There are so many fun activities to do at Congress. Competition, get to see your captiol, the pageant, hang out with friends, awards banquet, leadership activities, and more! Depending on what you are there for, your activities will vary! If you are delegate, then you will get to do alot of "know your government" stuff on Monday, whereas if you are a winner, then you spend alot of Monday in competition. But before I get ahead of myself... I'll talk about what we do on Saturdays first.

I can't talk about Congress without discussing the elections! Congress is the State-wide event where we elect our governor, representative, and senator! Only delegates can run for an office. However, campaigning is HUGE deal! People put up banners and signs and hand out flyers and candy and all kinds of campaign items. There's even campaign speeches! It's alot of fun for the person running, as well as those who help him or her campaign! The other delegates get to vote.

All of the winners get to come up on Saturday. Once you get up there, you pretty much just chill out for a LONG time and wait for your room to get ready. It's great, though, because you get to catch up and see your 4-H friends from across the state! So there is plenty to do and catch up on while you wait. After a while, they feed you dinner. Then you get to practice for the pageant. It's alot of fun! (You should have already learned your line by the time you get up there... however.... alot of people just try to memorize it on that Saturday. Or even on that Sunday! And from personal experience, I can assure you that doesn't work very well!) After practicing on that almost all night, you finally get to go to bed at almost midnight! You're worn out, but it's a good worn out feeling. You've had a great day, and you are ready to go to sleep in that nice bed.

Once you get up and get ready for the day, you get to go to breakfast! Then after breakfast, there is an optional church meeting that you can go to! Many people go to that. It's nice to be able to still have a church service, even when you're away from home! After that, it's back to pageant practice. After lunch, you start to see the delegates arrive. Delegates are 9th and 10th graders who get to come up on the activity. They aren't competitors; they come to learn more about their government. Once the afternoon starts to wind down, you eventually go back to your rooms and get ready for dinner and the big pageant. Then you get to hang with all the newly arrived delegates! After dinner, it's the pageant! It's a great show! All the delegates watch, while all the competitors put on the show (which they've been practicing for a weekend!) Once the pageant's over, everyone pretty much goes to bed.

Monday is the hardest and longest day. For the competitors, it's competition day. This is what they're there to do! So the morning is filled with getting ready for interviews and speeches. The competition starts in the morning, and usually lasts until the afternoon. Meanwhile... the delegates watch some of the competitions in the morning, then they do some "learn about your government" activities, such as debating bills and learning how real congress actually works. After that, they sometimes get to meet their senator! Then, it's free time! This suddenly becomes the best part of Congress. The competition is OVER, which means stress is gone! (At least most of it!) After a relaxing afternoon, you get to go out and tour the city! Your group decides on a restaurant to eat at, then you just walk around and see the town! It looks great at night! After this, you usually head back to the hotel for more free time, then to bed.

This is the last full day at Congress, so there's always mixed emotions. Everyone's had a great time, but they are tired and sad that it's the last day. After breakfast, everyone helps out with leadership activities. There's usually a bunch of different activities to choose from, so you can find something that you would like to do! After working on this, it's lunch time. The delegates vote for governor and senator or representative. Then, the competitors go to awards ceremony practice. After this, it's free time! During this free time, though, everyone is getting ready for the formal awards ceremony and dinner. It is at this dinner that the current 4-H governor gives his farewell address. This is followed by more free time, then the dance. Or a movie! Your choice. Then after partying the night away, everyone eventually goes to bed.

By Wednesday, everyone is exhausted and ready to go home (usually), even though they have had a great week. In the morning, everyone packs up their stuff and heads to breakfast. After breakfast, there is an open assembly meeting, which is the last and final meeting of Congress. It is in this meeting that Congress is adjourned. Everyone says their goodbyes and "Look me up on Facebook!" and "text me!". Then, everyone gets on their busses and heads back home.

(PS- The busses aren't quite as cool as the ones in the pic. But they are very nice busses! They have bucket seats and tv's! So it's not like your riding a regular school bus.)