For the 86th year, 4-H members from across Tennessee will gather at the University of Tennessee, Martin for State 4-H Roundup and All Star Conference.

The annual event, which takes place July 20-24, recognizes the outstanding project work and leadership accomplishments of senior high 4-H members.

Approximately 400 high school age 4-H’ers from across Tennessee will meet for several days on the UT Martin campus. 4-H’ers compete in projects such as communication and public speaking, livestock, computers and technology and photography for college scholarship money and trips to the National 4-H Congress in Atlanta. The theme for this meeting and for all 4-H programs in 2009 is “Tennessee 4-H: Your Voice is the Driving Force.”

Teens from all over Tennessee come together, compete in their project areas, learn life skills such as leadership and citizenship, make lifelong friends and have a great time,” said Randall Kimes, Clay County 4-H Agent. “Roundup is one of the highlights for our 4-H program. Delegates who attend have spent years of work in their respective project areas.”

In addition to project competition, delegates participate in a number of other activities including the 4-H All Star Conference, Vol State Ceremony, the election of the 2010 State Council officers and a service-learning project.

This year’s service-learning project is collecting items to assemble emergency preparedness kits. This project was designed to benefit families in West Tennessee affected by disasters. Additionally, several 4-H Roundup delegates will spend Tuesday morning playing games and swimming with local military youth affected by deployment.

“Service-learning opportunities are a very important component of the 4-H program,” said Steve Sutton, Interim Director, 4-H Youth Development. “Last year, 4-H’ers statewide performed more than 100-thousand hours of community service at an estimated value of 1.8 million dollars.”

“Through the service-learning projects, our 4-H’ers learn that they can really make a difference in their communities.”

Representing Clay County at State 4-H RoundUp this year will be Kayla Kimes in the Sheep Project and Margaret Cody in the Line and Design.

4-H is the Youth Development program for University of Tennessee Extension. 4-H teaches leadership, citizenship and service learning to more than 335,000 youth in the fourth through twelfth grades. 4-H also has more than 15,000 adult volunteers. UT Extension is one of four units in the UT Institute of Agriculture.