Photo by Dwayne Black: Lyon County 4-H members Annabel Coudron (left) and Alissa Moen (right) present the awards at the annual Lyon County 4-H Round Up banquet on Sunday night at Living Word Lutheran Church.

MARSHALL — There were a handful of members, volunteers and awards to recognize at this year’s annual Lyon County 4-H Round Up banquet on Sunday night at Living Word Lutheran Church.

Members associated with the Lyon County 4-H gathered to socialize, while being able to honor a handful of people for their continuous service to the club and community in addition to recognizing the hard work of current students.

“The banquet was a success (Sunday) night. We had great representation,” Lyon County 4-H Youth Development coordinator Renae Jenniges said. “We were able to award a lot of different awards based on youth participation, along with our volunteers. It’s just a great opportunity to celebrate our volunteers, our community partners and our members.”

Current members Alissa Moen and Annabel Coudron helped present the awards and recognitions, two of the 2024-25 ambassadors.

“It went well, it was a good night to get together with a lot of our 4-H families and celebrate what we’ve done,” Coudron said, a current senior at Marshall High School and Lyon County Federation 4-H president.

There were dozens of disc winners that were presented, along with honoring the numerous participants with their years of involvement.

“We honor our 4-H members for the years that they have been a member, they are awarded their discs. They have a metal plaque that they can add to,” Jenniges said regarding some of the awards that were recognized. “We recognize first, third, fifth and 10-year participants. We also award disc winners … They get discs based on their achievement of learning a specific skill that’s related to a product area. We were able to award quite a few of those.”

The Cloverbud recognition honored Adam Hicks, Blake Louwagie, Brok Roggatz, Carter Gehrke, Cole Remiger, Destin Fier, Ella Moorse, Kaitlin Gleise, Kylie Callens, Landon Marthaler, Leah Teig, Mallorie Hicks and Marin Knott.

“We recognize our Cloverbuds, (who are) our graduating 4-Hers as those that are in their first year of college. This will be their last year to fully participate as a 4-H member,” Jenniges said.

Deutz Action received the Friend of 4-H award, who was noted as a supportive business with providing services at the yearly Purple Ribbon Auction.

The banquet then handed out individual, nominated awards amongst a variety of categories.

“We do different awards for different categories. Our categories are Outstanding Project Award, an Incentive Award, which highlights the student or the youth on being able to demonstrate exceptional progress and success in several 4-H projects,” Jenniges said. “Then, we have a Start-Up Award, which is dollars to go towards a 4-H project of the youth choosing. We recognize an outstanding officer, this is an award that our clubs and our club leaders come together and recognize, or nominate an officer within their club. We also award a secretary and treasurer award, again based on clubs … Last but not least, we also give out a scholarship to two 4-Hers, and that could be junior, seniors or first-year college students.”

Carson Lanoue was awarded the Outstanding Project Award with his work with swine, which is given to a member that shows exceptional understanding of a project area that showcases the learning.

The Incentive Award went to Madison Wulf, who was noted for excelling in several project areas over the year including general and livestock, and has also taken the role as her club treasurer this year.

Lauren Torkelson earned the Start-Up award, receiving funds to apply to a 4-H project, and Elizabeth Buyck was named the Outstanding Officer, being noted as the treasurer of her club who keeps the book organized while always offering a helping hand.

The I Dare You Award recognizes a member that shows personal integrity and takes on numerous responsibilities, and was given to Halle Roggatz.

Ava Swenhaugen of Amiret Busy Bees was given the secretary book award, as was Brock Fier of Minneota Ribbon Wranglers for the treasurer book.

Coudron and Halle Roggatz also each received the 4-H Scholarship, going to individuals who have served as youth leaders for a few years and in 4-H for five or more years, all while demonstrating leadership.

“I was happy. I’ve done a lot of stuff in 4-H, and the scholarship was supposed to be about your leadership growth and different things,” Coudron said. “I’ve definitely seen my leadership growth throughout the different things at 4-H, from officers at club level, to county level, to an ambassador in different things.”

Of the volunteer recognitions was Marybeth Sinclair, who was honored for her 30 years of dedicated time.

“We were able to award a 30-year anniversary for an individual who has been serving for 30 years as a 4-H volunteer, and I think that is just a huge monument to be able to reach,” Jenniges said.

Overall, the banquet was another success and fun night with a great turnout, Jenniges detailed, of about 50 participants attending.