Steamboat Pilot & Today

Phippsburg — Two South Routt County girls will head to the nation's capital this week with a delegation of 4-H members from across the state.

Routt County 4-H sends one or two participants who have demonstrated leadership within 4-H to Citizenship Washington Focus each year, county 4-H agent Jay Whaley said.

"It's a premier education experience," Whaley said. "They spend a week learning about history, meeting with senators and elected officials."

McCoy resident Morgan Hatfield, 16, will head to Washington, D.C., June 14 to 21, along with Ceanna Rossi. Rossi just finished her freshman year at Soroco High School; Hatfield has been homeschooled her entire life but plans to make the switch to Eagle Valley High School in Gypsum next year.

"I'm most excited just to go and see our nation's capital," Hatfield said Friday at a Routt County Livestock Judging Team picnic outside Phippsburg. "I was kind of thinking of a political career, so this is a good chance to explore."

Rossi was out of town for a wedding and could not be reached for comment.

While in Washington, Rossi and Hatfield will stay at the National 4-H Youth Conference Center with 70 other Colorado youths.

"The kids that have gone in the past, they stay in touch with all the kids from across the state that they meet," Whaley said.

Hatfield said she is looking forward to not just networking with other 4-H participants - the "livestock leaders of the future" - but also to meet elected officials and make her voice heard.

"Even though we're teenagers, we're often overlooked," Hatfield said. "I'm going to meet a lot of good people through this and make a lot of good contacts."

Hatfield, in her eighth year with 4-H, currently is raising breeding heifers, a cow and calf pair, a bull calf, ewes and market lambs.

"I've shown steers the first seven years - this will be a change," Hatfield said. "When I was 8, I named my first steer Drag because he drug me everywhere."

- To reach Melinda Dudley, call 871-4203

or e-mail mdudley@steamboatpilot.com