Congratulations to all the 4-H youth who participated in the Collier County Fair last week.

Hello to the 4-H Families, I would like to introduce myself. I am Tish Roland, the new 4-H Extension Agent for Collier County. I started work on March 7. Just in time for the horse show in Immokalee. I have been super busy learning about 4-H in Florida. I really enjoyed the County Fair last week. What a busy time for all of the 4-H families. I come from Nebraska. I grew up in western Nebraska in a town called Ogallala (population 5,000). I showed my horse in 4-H. Actually, I tried to find any reason to be on a horse. My senior year of High School I went to New Zealand for a year as a Rotary Exchange Student. Upon my return I went to the University of Nebraska for 4 years and got a Bachelors of Education in Elementary Education and Human Development and the Family. I married my husband Mark after graduation. His career in the Air Force moved us to California, where our first son, Douglas was born. Then we moved to Montana, where our second son, Daniel was born. During this time I taught in Great Falls and Power, Montana. We decided that Nebraska was the place to raise our boys so we returned back home. We lived in Eagle on an acreage, which is just outside of Lincoln. I had two horses Jessie and Mac. I worked at the University of Nebraska for the last 17 years as the Director of the Children’s Center. It was a very large center serving 178 children. The children were from 25 different counties. I had 22 full time employees and 70 college students. My sons are both are attending the University of Nebraska. I look forward to working with all of you. I will be calling each leader and asking when your next meeting is, so that I can come and meet all of you. You are always welcome to contact me. Communication is very important to establish a relationship. I am here for you and want to do what is best for your club. In the beginning I may not know all the answers, but I will find the answers and get back to you. I know many of you have had a long journey in 4-H and I would love to hear from you. Here is my contact information: Tish Roland Work: 239-353-4244 Cell: 402-580-7669 e-mail: troland@ufl.edu

On February 12th, 4-H members from Hoof Beats and Boots & Spurs in Collier Country went the the State Fair in Tampa to compete in the 2011 Horse Judging competition. Over 300 individuals 4H and FFA club members from all over the state can to Tampa for this competition. The day included judging 4 halter classes and 4 under saddle classes. The teams from Collier county had a great experience and finished in the top half. Clare Sullivan finished in the top 10. Congratulations to all the participants ( Sierra Tamm, Devon Roffler, Clare Sullivan, Bree Wipperman, Danielle Fisher, Sarah Sistrunk, Annabelle Moll) On March 19th, some of these same 4-Hers travelled to Orlando to compete in the 2011 Hippology contest. This is a day of team activities, written tests, horse judging and visual station identification on all topics related to horses. Sarah Sistrunk finished 5th overall in the Intermediate division, Devon Roffler received the highest school on the team question in the Senior Division and Clare Sullivan received the highest score in the Senior Division for Horse Judging and finished 4th overall. Congratulations to the teams and thank you for representing Collier County!