WACO — Two Bosque County youths were honored at the District 8 4-H Gold Star Banquet hosted at Baylor University on Monday, Oct. 19. Two 4-Hers from each of the 21 counties and their parents were treated royally as honorees for the evening. This is the highest award presented by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service to a 4-H member.

Wesley Crockett, 16-year-old son of Colby and Vicki Crockett of Bosque County, was cited for seven years of involvement in the Meridian club where he has serv

ed as vice-president, reporter, and parliamentarian. His projects have included range management, science and technology, small engines, consumer education, safety, goats, gardening and horticulture, and foods and nutrition.

Crockett has been involved with the Youth Range Leadership camp and the Bobwhite Brigade camp which are both state-wide summer programs. Additionally, he has served as teen leader at the Ag in the Classroom program for fifth graders throughout Bosque County and he has served as counselor at the Outdoor Nature 4-H Day camp at Meridian State Park. He has attended the leadership lab at the State 4-H Center at Lake Brownwood.

He has been a community servant since elementary school and feels loyalty to all towns within his home county. Living rurally outside the Norse area, he is known for assisting Clifton, as well as Meridian. This past summer, his range management 4-H recordbook won first place in the state contest. He was awarded the I DARE YOU award last year. Crockett is currently the reporter of the Bosque County 4-H Council.

Ely Long, also 16, and son of Darrel and Pam Long, formerly of Valley Mills, was honored as a seven-year 4-H member. He served the county as a delegate and a treasurer of is local club. He has promoted 4-H by presenting several PowerPoint programs throughout the county and district, as well as the goat project to McLennan County Community College’s summer camp program for young children.

Long’s community service projects range from nursing homes to hospitals. He was instrumental in landscaping yards for the elderly in the county and Waco. He has said that “community service is somthing that is always a part of my 4-H work as well as my life...it only takes a little time to make someone’s day brighter.” His other projects have been range, plant ID, goats, and he was a Jr. master gardener. He led his range team to first place at the Alcoa Open contest. His plant ID team was second at the State Fair.

Both Crockett and Long co-student led range and plant ID teams in preparation for contests for the past two years.