For five days, many Montgomery County fairgoers have been coming to the 4-H Exhibit Building at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds to check out the amazing projects that were made by many county 4-H members.

One of them was a chicken playground that was made by Malachi Nichols of the Coon Creek Cronies.

“That’s too cute,” said Jolene Rodgers, who is the youth program associate. “Who would think of making a chicken playground?”

There were other outstanding projects at the exhibit room such as a Hog Scrabble board by Aurora Gibson of the Kountry Kids and a baseball cross by Kolton Craven of the Middletown Meddlers.

“There are some pretty cool things,” Rodgers said.

One of the best parts of making a project is when it qualifies for state competition. Lynn Knoepflein of the Montgomery Progressors had two of her projects – a quiver and a globe – qualify for the Missouri State Fair in August. Lydia Stephan of the Coon Creek Cronies made a cake with cowboy boots and a rose on top of it and that qualified for state. Their projects were among many that were on display at the Montgomery County State Fair exhibit case.

The 11-year-old Lynn, who made 16 projects in seven different categories this year, has been a member of the Progressors for four years. Last year, she earned an Outstanding 4-H member award in the 10 and under girls division.

“I love it,” Lynn said. “It’s a lot of work, but the work does pay off.”

Lydia, who is 12, is in her third year as a member of the Coon Creek Cronies. She qualified for state competition for the second year in a row.

“I really like it when we have meetings and crafts,” Lydia said. “We like to do a lot of stuff.”

Projects were made in many different categories such as technology, arts and crafts, photography, scrapbooking, breads, foods, quilting and clowning. They were made by all six of the county’s 4-H clubs – the Montgomery Progressors, Middletown Meddlers, Coon Creek Cronies, Kountry Kids, Bellflower Boosters and the Big Spring Busy Beavers. There were also some projects made by adults.

“We had a good turnout this year,” Rodgers said. “A lot of kids put stuff in here. In some years, it seems kind of empty.”

The projects were judged on July 14, which was the first day of the fair. The judging started at 11 a.m. and lasted about three hours. Any project that has a yellow ribbon qualifies for state competition. A project with a green ribbon will be displayed at the Old Threshers Show, which is scheduled in mid-August at the fairgrounds.

Rodgers said some of the participants worked on their projects for six months.

“They plan it out and they know exactly what they’re going to do and it takes them a while,” she said. “There are some kids who have 30 projects here because they can put three projects in each category. Some kids have six categories, so they have quite a few projects here. Some kids have six or eight things over there to go to state, but they’re allowed to take only two to state, so they have to pick which ones they want to take.”

Annabelle Mayes of the Bellflower Boosters made a wooden table that was on display in the large project section in the back of the room that included a miniature golf hole and a headboard.

Annabelle said she enjoys being part of 4-H after just two years.

“It’s fun.” she said. “I can do basically any project I want.”

The Montgomery County 4-H turned in an outstanding fair week that included having 11 members earning Grand Champion and Reserve Champion honors at the Junior Livestock Auction and hosting an activity event that attracted 105 participants.

Rodgers said the organization has numerous events within the next several months, including a pirate-themed Clover Kids day camp.

“We’ve got lots of stuff going on,” Rodgers said.