ANDERSON — 4-H members don’t always have to stay on the ground when they make projects for their clubs. They can soar to different heights by building model rockets.
"You can live in a suburb and you don’t have to have cows or pigs,” said Greg Valentine of the Madison County Model Rocketry Club.
On a recent Sunday, more than 40 young rocket-builders gathered in a field behind the old College Corner Elementary School, sending their home-made aeronautic creations into the sky.
As they prepared for flight, the petite fingers of eager Madison County rocketeers were wrapped around rockets that stood at least 7 inches tall. Some stretched several feet into the air.
The rockets are typically made from balsam wood or other thin, lightweight material. They are hollow on the inside, allowing room for the motor — a small cardboard tube resembling a roll of coins that’s filled with a gun powder material.
Once a small igniter at the end of the rocket is hooked up to a 9-volt battery, the rockets can be sent thousands of feet into the air.
One young 4-H’er carried a rocket that resembled a No. 2 pencil, complete with a yellow body and sharp tip of black lead. His rocket shot especially high in the air before parachuting back to a field filled with rolled bales of hay and rocket-chasing children.
Megan Moore of Alexandria, 7, was one of only a handful of girls participating in model rocketry. She showed off her long red rocket with pride, pointing to the purple-pink writing on the side.
“Cobra,” she said, naming the rocket.
This is her first year in 4-H but she approached the launch pad like a seasoned veteran of model rocketry.
Her rocket was covered in pink lettering, but there was nothing girlish about Moore when she took the battery controls in her hand and ordered everyone out of the launch area.
“1, 2, 3,” she shouted in her deepest, most booming voice. At five, she pushed the button and ignited her rocket, which sailed into the air with a hiss.
It shot higher than most that had already gone that day and then detached into pieces as planned. A red propeller spun to the earth, causing other 4-H’ers to “ohhh” and “ahhh” at the unique rocket feature.
For Gene Heath, who started the Madison County Model Rocketry Club in 1978, it’s not about rockets or aeronautics. It’s about fun.
That Sunday, his grandson competed in the rocketry demonstration, just as his son had, making him a third-generation rocketeer.
Greg Valentine said model rocketry has an advantage over traditional 4-H events. It’s cheap.
For about $20, a child can build an entire rocket using a kit, and keep using the same rocket dozens of times.
One can hardly say the same for raising cattle or horses.
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Richard Sitler
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July 18, 2008
4-H FAIR: Hogs, cows and rockets
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