DATE:    7/17/96
CONTACT: Toni Pipkins, (803) 929-6030
WRITER:  Tom Lollis,   (803) 284-3343

Orangeburg County Youths
Win 4-H Presidential Trays

     CLEMSON -- Two of South Carolina's top four 4-H'ers for 1996
have ties to Orangeburg County.
     Rebecca Ann Bozard and Matt Grier received Clemson
University Presidential Trays -- the state's highest 4-H award --
from university President Constantine Curris July 9 at the annual
State 4-H Congress in Columbia.
     Bozard, 18, is the daughter of Marvin and Deni Bozard of the
Four Holes community. She has been a member of 4-H for eight
years. She is a graduate of Edisto High School, where she was a
member of the National Honor Society and co-editor of the school
yearbook.
     Her main project area in 4-H has been food and nutrition,
and she was a state winner in that area two years ago. Her
interest in foods has gotten her involved with the soup kitchen
run by her church and with the six acres of pick-your-own
strawberries grown by her family. Often, she picks berries to
take to shut-ins.
     Country living has given her the opportunity to learn sewing
and crafts, skills she has passed on by teaching classes at a
housing complex for the elderly.
     Bozard has served as vice president of her Fellowship of
Christian Athletes group. She sings with the youth choir, plays
handbells and plays the piano for the young children's choir at
her church. She has attended both the National 4-H Conference in
Washington, D.C. and the National 4-H Congress in Orlando, Fla.
     Bozard has also participated in 4-H clothing, dog care and
horticulture projects.
     She has been accepted at Clemson University, where she plans
to major in food packaging science.
     Grier, 17, is the son of Gary and Susan J. Grier. They live
on a farm in rural Calhoun County near Gaston, but he
participates in the Orangeburg County 4-H program because it has
the closest horse club.
     A member of 4-H for eight years, he is a rising senior at
Swansea High School, where he has served as vice president of the
Art Club and the Beta Club. He has been on the school track and
field team for three years.
     Animals -- both domestic and wild -- occupy a large portion
of Grier's life. On the family farm can be found horses, burros,
chickens, quail, peacocks, geese, dogs and cats, and buffalo.
     He raises the bobwhite quail and the peacocks as part of his
4-H wildlife project, an area in which he was a state winner two
years ago. Two of the horses on the farm are wild mustangs which
he and his family adopted under a Bureau of Land Management 
program.
     To aid his study of wildlife, he has converted a small
stream on the farm into a pond and annually takes part in the
Food and Cover Establishment (F.A.C.E.) Project.  
     Grier is a big believer in recycling and regularly helps
clean litter from area highways. He has attended both the
National 4-H Conference and the National 4-H Congress. He has
been named an Erskine scholar, a USC-S Gold Dome Scholar and a
Furman Scholar. He has won awards for two years as Outstanding
English Student, and is a Veteran of Foreign Wars essay contest
winner.
     He has also taken part in the following 4-H project areas --
horse, woodworking and photography.
     Other Presidential Tray winners are: Jason Osgood, 18, of
Moncks Corner; and Tracy Laws, 16, of Chester.
                               END