Columnist Susan Snyder: Fair-goers bathed in activities

Tuesday, April 3, 2001 | 8:13 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or 259-4082.

First, place the chicken in a pan of warm water and wedge its feet between your fingers.

One foot fits between your pinkie and ring finger. The other fits between the pointer finger and the traffic-signal finger.

Hold on.

This chicken is alive, and it probably doesn't want a bath.

But when one is a free-range chicken preparing for the poultry pageantry of the Clark County Fair in Logandale, one must bathe to rid oneself of dirt and the other unclean things that stick to one's feathers.

"You can't take them to the fair looking like that," said Ruth Weldon, a leader of the Blue Ribbons 4-H Club of Las Vegas. "You use a rag to wash them in the direction of the feathers and wash their beaks. You use a brush on their feet.

"But you've got a good hold on them," she said.

Right.

If you want to learn more about the fine art of chicken washing you may be able to do that when Southern Nevada's 4-H kids do their public speaking demonstrations at 5 p.m. Friday in the fair's fine arts building.

"Until you've seen a chicken have a bath ... Well, the first time I saw it I almost died," said Molly Latham, an area specialist for the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension Office. The office oversees the 4-H program for Clark, Lincoln and southern Nye counties.

The exhibition gives 4-H participants ages 6 to 17 a chance to hone their organization and public speaking skills while demonstrating something to the general public.

It's not easy. A cooking demonstration has to include the dish's nutritional content and consumer information along with preparation of the basic recipe. This year's presentations could include anything from grooming a pet to giving a manicure. And leaders such as Weldon often don't know what the kids are going to do until they step onto the platform.

Latahm says 4-H still stands for "head, heart, health, hands," and raising livestock for market, crops and domestic arts such as sewing and cooking are still a large part of the activities.

But an urban area such as Las Vegas demands attention to other issues and skills as well. For instance, last week Latham took a group of older 4-H students to Carson City where each spent the day on the Assembly floor with a lawmaker.

And on display at this weekend's fair will be the results of a long-term 4-H photography project in which students documented the issues facing Southern Nevada. Growth, land use, violence and the environment were on the minds and in the viewfinders of these young people. One group is assembling their research into a brochure for multi-use trails protocol.

Weldon says that even with the glitzy, urban influence of Las Vegas the 4-H program is still able to do what it always has -- help children stay on the right track and grow into productive, caring adults.

"The more of these types of things you have. The more you keep them off the street," Weldon said. "You really get to know the other kids' families. It's one of the best things to keep kids out of trouble."

Sound like pretty good reasons to wash a chicken.