SIDNEY — The Rotary Club of Sidney welcomed Cassie Dietrich, Shelby County 4-H educator, to their weekly Monday lunch at the Moose on Oct. 16 and learned about Shelby County 4-H and the new educator.

Dietrich started in March of this year as the 4-H educator for Shelby County, and said she has loved every moment of her job. She and her husband, Bud, and their two children, live in Urbana, where she was born and raised. She participated in 4-H, completing numerous projects including rabbits, horses, hogs, dogs, goats, cake decorating, creative writing, fine arts and fashion. At this point she was teased by the group that if the cake decorating failed if it went to the hogs.

She served on the Champaign County Junior Fair Board, was a 4-H camp counselor and was crowned the 2006 Champaign County Fair Queen. She graduated with degrees from The Ohio State University in Agriculture Communications, and Agriculture and Extension Education. She said when she first started at Ohio State she was looking at pre-veterinary as her major but soon made a switch when all those science courses came in to play. She worked for The Ohio State University in the University Development Office when the opportunity came to apply for the Educator job in Shelby County.

One of Dietrich’s goals is to increase the diversity and the non-traditional youth to participate in 4-H programing. She stated that she is working with the Workforce Partnership and Workforce Academy to include an in-school club of robotics and electronic technology. With the more traditional aspects of 4-H she proposes to have Skillathons to be part of all livestock projects and to strengthen the relationship between 4-H and FFA.

Dietrich talked about the Cloverbud’s program which is for kindergarten through second grade. The members complete a project and complete an interview with Junior Fair Board members at the County Fair just like the regular 4-H members. She also would like to do two Cloverbud Day Camps.

Dietrich, in answering a question from a Rotary Club member, said she would be willing to have a few less 4-H members if the Quality of the experience is better. To conclude her presentation Dietrich said she looks forward to accomplishing goals within the 4-H program and to expand the outreach of the 4-H experience within Shelby County.