Kentucky 4-H believes that all youth should have opportunities for positive youth development in our four guiding concepts: mastery, belonging, independence, and generosity. The Kentucky 4-H Shooting Sports program prides itself on providing a safe environment for youth to learn and grow in.   The Nelson County 4-H Shooting Sports program was uniquely affected by Covid 19 restrictions. In the spring of 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic abruptly ended their ability to meet as a club.  The member had completed half of their educational sessions and were preparing for Shooting sports camp.  Camp and in-person meetings were cancelled.  4-H Shooting Sports was classified as a low contact sport, so meetings were able to resume outdoors following Sports Covid guidelines and a year end mail-in KY 4-H State Shooting Sports Tournament was planned.  

Independence:

The first year members still needed their first year range training and orange card certifications to safely participate on the range and the full club needed their minimum range practice to qualify for state, and guidelines were constantly changing.  Volunteers stepped up and, and even though they had the option to just wait until next year, they committed to finishing out the program year.  With a short turn around time, CES Agent for 4-H Youth Development, Danielle Hagler worked closely with club leaders to schedule coaches that ran safe and effective trainings and range practices for members.

Mastery:

When the state in-person tournament was converted to a mail in type tournament, county volunteers under the direction of the county 4-H Agent, planned and coordinated a two day county based competition as a culminating event for the youth to demonstrate their skills. The club was able to have 21 youth meet requirements and complete the mail-in state tournament, with the second place air pistol team (9-11), 1st Place shotgun 12-14, 3rd Place .22 Sport Rifle (9-11), 3rd place Archery Bowhunter 12-14,  and several top 3 placing individuals!

Belonging:

When Covid numbers again began to increase, all face-to-face meetings again came to a halt.  The shooting sports club leaders, youth officers and families once again pulled together to create meaningful online meetings and educational sessions.  Club officers and leaders took time to learn how to use the Zoom meeting platform and were able to independently lead meetings after learning the technology.   Educational  grab-and-go kits were created to have a hands-on components with each meeting. Local leaders in law enforcement and the military served as guest speakers and and competed in a cookie decorating contest (all within Covid guidelines). Although members indicated that they would prefer face-to-face, the attendance an participation indicated a high level of commitment to the club.  

Generosity:

The last guiding principal of positive youth development is generosity.  During the virtual meeting series, club members learned the parts of ammo, such as shotgun shells.  They then created holiday ornaments for local care facilities out of spent shotgun shells and collected toiletries to provide to local agencies that serve in need populations.