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| Good Morning! I hear it was a great crowd at Leisure Living. Congratulations on a successful event and thanks to all that helped. Special thanks to Karen for her outstanding leadership. Our first Quality Assurance program is tonight at 7:00 p.m. at Riverdale High School. All 4-H and FFA members that are participating in a livestock project and plan to take it to the County Fair must attend one QA session. First and 2nd year members should have a parent attend with them. The program should be over by 8:30 so please plan to have a ride there by that time. Tuesday night is the LEAD Conference at Van Buren High School. This was formerly known as the Officer & Advisor Training. We have lots of great sessions planned. We will be recognizing some of our trip winners and State Achievement Winners. A representative from Prudential Spirit of Community will be in attendance to present an award and two members will receive recognition for the President’s Volunteer Service Award. Tuesday, April 1 is our last day to register Dairy Feeders. That may be done by going to our website or calling our office. Even if you enrolled in the project on your enrollment form, you still must register these by the 1st. Goat Council meets on Thursday evening at 7:00 in the Conference Room at the Ag Service Center. The County-wide Rabbit Club will be meeting at that same time, also in the conference room. April 4 & 5, there will be club members collecting for the Handicapped Society in Hancock County. They will be at local businesses for the Easter Rose Sale. All this money that is collected stays in Hancock County. If you have not purchased tickets for the Endowment Auction, please get that done this week. We need to have our club donations by April 1, so we should be seeing lots of people in our office this week. Remember, the 4-H Endowment Dinner/Auction is April 12 at the Lighthouse. Doors open at 5:30.
Good Morning! Spring Break has finally arrived for the kids, and I hope they enjoy a week of relaxation! This morning at 10:00 we will be meeting with our camp counselors that are seniors in high school and beyond. It will be the last year for some of them so we like to give them the opportunity to come up with camp ideas that will this a camp to remember. Tuesday evening is the 4-H Advisory Council meeting. This starts at 7:00 in the Conference Room at the Ag Service Center. Prior to that meeting the Endowment Committee will meet at 6:15 and the Awards committee at 6:00. Tuesday is also our early enrollment deadline. Clubs earn bonus points for submitting enrollment form early. Otherwise, forms are due to our office on April 1. Thursday morning is our next Camp Counselor meeting. We will meet from 9:30-12:00. If the teens are unable to attend, they need to notify me by Wednesday. Next Monday evening, March 31, is our first Quality Assurance training. All FFA and 4-H members enrolled in a livestock project (not horse or dog) must attend one of the four sessions we will be offering. We have one session scheduled each month through June. Next Monday we will meet at Riverdale at 7:00. The program should be over by 8:30. Tuesday, April 1 is the final day to register dairy feeders. This can be done by going to our website at hancock.osu.edu. This week might be a good time to get that done. Advisors need to get pop for the Leisure Living Show to our office. Our committee has been working hard to make sure we have lots of great things to eat at the Leisure Living Show this weekend. Clubs should remember to work the scheduled times. Congratulations to our State Achievement Winners. Brooke Woodward, a senior at Cory Rawson High School was the State winner in the Health Program area. She will attend National 4-H Congress next November in Atlanta, Georgia. Other winners were Tyler McGrain from Van Buren named 2nd alternate in Mechanical Engineer, Susan Rader from McComb is 1st Alternate in rabbits, and Mitch Wilson from Arlington is 1st Alternate State Jr. Fair Board. Congratulations to all of these teens for their achievements.
Good Morning! I’d like to remind all our Jr. Leaders that we will not be meeting on Tuesday evening of this week. It is on the calendar, but the conference room is booked that night. So we will just cancel our meeting for March and give the teens a much deserved rest before starting spring break. We will be finishing up orientation for our new advisors this week. Our final orientation will be this Wednesday at 4:30 at our office. We’d like to have all the background checks, paperwork, and everything completed by the end of this month. We need to get all reports sent to the State 4-H Office by April 1. Please get all your paperwork returned to us this week. There’s still time to get children enrolled in 4-H. All children at least 8 and in the 3rd grade are eligible to join. If you’re looking for a club, call our office and we will get you the names of advisors from your area. Parents are always asking us what club to join. I always respond by telling them to find out what club their friends are in, or get a friend to join a club with you. There are over 50 clubs in the county, so I’m sure we’ll find a good match for each child. Thursday evening is Cloverbud meeting at the Ag Service Center from 6:15-7:15. Karen has been presenting our Chick Embryology curriculum in the schools and I think she plans to bring some baby chicks to this meeting. It should be lots of fun. Just call our office to let Karen know that you plan to attend. This is for children, ages 5 and in kindergarten through 2nd grade. A parent needs to plan to stay with their child. Our first Quality Assurance meeting will be March 31 at Riverdale High School. All 4-H and FFA members that plan to take a livestock project need to attend one of the QA sessions. One session is scheduled for each month, but you might want to get this first one on your schedule before we actually have spring. Mark the 31st for Quality Assurance at Riverdale starting at 7:00 p.m. Members only have a few weeks to get dairy feeders registered at our 4-H website. Those need to be registered by April 1st.
Good Morning! For the first time since the start of the Ohio Volunteer Conference, it was cancelled for this past Saturday. The entire state was affected by weather conditions. I know that the volunteers were looking forward to this day, and we apologize for inconveniences. There are no plans at this time to reschedule this event. Our Shooting Sports instructors will be meeting on Tuesday evening at 7:00 at the Agricultural Service Center. They are starting to plan their programs for the year. The Shooting Sports program covers the disciplines of archery, rifle, pistol, shotgun, muzzleloader and hunting & wildlife. Members must belong to a 4-H Club, and they will work with these certified instructors in their program area. Our second New Advisor Orientation will be at 7:00 on Wednesday at the Ag Service Center. You need only attend one of the sessions. We should be finished by 8:30. On that same evening is the Hancock County Horse Council meeting which begins at 7:00. All advisors of 4-H Horse Clubs are invited to attend these meetings. Teen representation from each club is also encouraged. Thursday night is Jr. Fair Board starting at 6:30 at the Hancock County Fairgrounds. Those meetings are usually held in the Jr. Fair Office. We have some major events approaching very quickly. First of all, we will be operating the food stand at the Leisure Living Show the final weekend of March. Karen has met with her committee and I know they’re looking forward to seeing lots of people out there. So stop by our booth and grab something to eat. One of our big events coming up in April is our Endowment Dinner/Auction. This is scheduled for April 12 at the Light House. Tickets are available at our office for adults at $20 and students at $10. We are still accepting donations for the event. For additional information, please call our office.
Good Morning! Ohio 4-H Week will be celebrated across the state on March 2-8, 2008 as 4-H youth and volunteers will be actively informing Ohio citizens about the 4-H program and how it can and will benefit participants, families and their communities. This statewide promotional effort is specifically intended to increase public awareness of the 4-H program, excite current 4-H members, and to recruit new 4-H members and volunteer leaders in all 88 counties in Ohio. For more than 100 years The Ohio State University has been home to the largest out-of-school, educational program in the United States with over 7 million young people participating last year. This program, known as 4-H, was first developed in 1902 by A.B. Graham, Superintendent of Clark County Schools in Springfield, Ohio. Since those early days, 4-H has grown to include rural, suburban, and urban youth and continues to focus on critical issues facing young people in their local communities. Today, Ohio 4-H is still an exciting program for young people with over 318,000 members "learning by doing" and developing themselves to their greatest potential with the motto "to make the best better." The vision of Ohio 4-H is developing youth to become positive, productive citizens and catalysts for effective change to improve our diverse society. Programs address topics such as stress management, parent-teen communication, personal development, careers, environmental stewardship, and global understanding. A wide range of content offerings encourages youth to explore science, technology, and citizenship. 4-H is a dynamic
program because of the many volunteers that support youth who
are involved in clubs, special interests groups, and school
enrichment programs, and many other programs. Nearly 22,000
adults in Ohio give their time, energy and talents to guide
and teach youth through various educational programs and activities. Happenings This Week:
Good Morning! We do have our Frozen Food Sale starting up. The order forms are available at our office. We will be accepting orders all the way through April 8. Our pick up date will be April 22. So be thinking about what you’d like to order, get that form completed and then write the 22nd on your calendar. Buckeye Leadership Workshop is scheduled for March 26-30 at Recreation Unlimited near Ashley, Ohio. It’s a great opportunity for youth and adults to develop skills in the areas of leadership and recreation/leisure time activities. Registrations are due to the registrar by February 28. Information may be found at www.buckeyeleadership.com. Congratulations to Alexandra McGrain, daughter of Denny & Kathy McGrain from Van Buren, who has been selected to serve on the State Fashion Board. This is a group of about twenty 4-H members from throughout Ohio that will conduct workshops on the Seven Clues to the Total Look. In all of our clothing projects, we focus on the Seven Clues. These include fashion, grooming, posture & poise, good clothing construction, fit, design and personable qualities. These Fashion Board members were nominated by their counties, interviewed at Teen Conference and selected based partially on these seven clues. This group also conducts the Clothing Judging and Style Revue at the State Fair in August. Once again, congratulations, Alexandra! Our county awards
committee selected delegates to attend State trips for 2008.
Congratulations to the following: Thursday is our next Camp Counselor Training from 6:00-8:30 at the Ag Service Center. They selected a theme during the last meeting. They’ve come up with “4-H Camp Rocks.” We’re anxious to see what they do with this theme. Camp dates are July 14-18.
Good Morning! We will be interviewing new 4-H Advisors this week. Those applications were due last Friday, and Karen has scheduled interviews with those applicants this week. We’re looking forward to meeting those people and getting them started with clubs in the community. Orientations for those new advisors are set for March 6 and March 12. They only need to attend one of those. We will be at Homework Central on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Since today is President’s Day, we will be celebrating US Presidents. We have some exciting activities planned. Tuesday evening is Jr. Leadership Club. We meet at the Ag Service Center from 7-8:30. They had a very successful Middle School Teen Lock-In and we’ll want to evaluate the evening while it is fresh in our minds. Our teens that attended the Ohio 4-H Teen Conference will be reporting on sessions they attended. We will receive our Leadership Project Books, and participle in a “He Said, She Said” activity. A friend of mine presented this program over the weekend and suggested we do it with our teens. Jr. Fair Board is rescheduled for this Thursday at 6:30 at the Jr. Fair Office. Many of our 4-H Clubs are getting organized for the year. We are trying to get the word out that you do not need to have an animal to be in 4-H. Encourage those with questions to call our office and we’ll get them hooked up with a 4-H Club. Frozen Food orders are available at our office. Lots of items are included on this form that fit right in to our “Be Healthy Now!” program.
Good Morning! Wow, the weekend went by quickly. There were about 80 in attendance at our Middle School Teen Lock-In. We would like to thank Liberty Benton Middle School for opening their facility for this event. Thanks also go to Vicki Bame, John Deeds, Amy Schroeder, & Mary Wilson for assisting throughout the night. This was a great learning opportunity for our Jr. Leaders as they also helped plan & conduct this event. We caught a few hours of sleep and we’re ready for another full week. We have Advisor Updates on Tuesday at 1:00 and Wednesday at 7:00. At least one advisor from each club must attend one of the Updates. We schedule these each year to keep advisors informed about what’s going on in 4-H at the county, state and national level. These updates will be held at the Hancock County Ag Service Center. (Due to weather forecasts, listen to WFIN to see if scheduled events are still taking place) Wednesday night is also the meeting night for our County Horse Council. They will meet at 7:00 p.m. at the Ag Service Center. They will be holding election of officers. Jr. Fair Board meets on Thursday evening at 6:30. Last I knew, this meeting was going to be held at the Ag Service Center, but I’m sure Nicole has sent notices to all the members concerning location. New advisor applications are due on Friday. We hope to hold interviews next week, so please get those applications to our office this week. Karen will start visits to 3rd grade classrooms on Friday. She will be teaming up with Courtney Comstock as they teach recycling. It’s been a couple years since we’ve been able to do this program so we’re really excited. We finish up the week on Saturday by attending the Ohio 4-H Teen Conference in Columbus. We have teens teaching sessions, interviewing for State Jr. Fair Board, interviewing for State Fashion Board, and meeting over 800 teens from around the state. I’m pretty sure that’s about all we can squeeze into this week. Stay warm!
Good Morning! Susan is in Columbus Monday and Tuesday this week attending the 4-H Professional In-service. This is our first conference being held in the new State 4-H Center. The theme is Got Green and I’m sure she’ll come back with lots of updates for 4-H this year. Tomorrow evening, Tuesday the 5th, is an Orientation to the 4-H Horse Program. This event is geared toward the first or second year horse project member. Members enrolled in horse projects have lots of opportunities and we just want to make sure that all members get the information. Horse clubs will have displays set up, so even if you have a child not enrolled yet, but wants to join a club with horse projects, please come out to this event. It will start at 7:00 p.m. at the Ag Service Center on CR 140. Middle School Teen Lock-In is this Friday, February 8th, starting at 9:30 p.m. Registrations are due today in our office. This event is open to all 4-H middle-schoolers and their friends. The cost is $5.00. We have a great evening planned. We have a Mad Scientist visiting with us to kick off the evening. Lots of experiments that each participant will get to perform, and they’ll be receiving info about a Science and Technology camp that will take place this summer. The theme for the night is “May the 4-H’s Be With You.” Lots of games will be led by Jr. Leaders, a dance, karaoke, pizza, snacks, and more! We have a pretty cool community service project planned, and everyone will get to make their own omelet for breakfast before going home. We ask parents to pick up their kids at 7:00 a.m. Don’t forget to get your registration in today! Sub-committees meeting this week are the 4-H Promotional group meeting at 5:30 on Wednesday and the Fundraising group meeting at 6:30 on Wednesday. If you’d like to be a part of either committee, plan to attend on Wednesday. Volunteers working with the Quality Assurance Program meet on Thursday at 7:30 at our office. All volunteers wanting to attend the Ohio Volunteer Conference need to have registrations in to our office by Friday, February 8 at 4:30. The conference will be held in Columbus on March 8.
Good morning! Here we are to the end of January already! Our Teen Conference registrations were due last Friday. However, if you forgot to get that in I believe I can get you registered if I receive the information by today. We have several sub committees meeting this week. The 4-H Activities Sub Committee is meeting this afternoon at 4:30 at Liberty Benton Middle School. We will be discussing the Middle School Lock-In that will be held on Feb. 8, as well as other events coming up. Tuesday, the 29th, the Vision Committee will be meeting at 7:30 at the Ag Service Center. This group will be looking at 4-H in the future. Then our other committee meeting this week is the Endowment group and they will meet on Thursday evening at 6:30. Any advisors or parents that would like to assist in the planning of this event should attend this meeting at the Ag Service Center. Our first Camp Counselor Training session will be held on Wednesday evening from 6:00-8:30. These teens will select a camp theme for our Jr. Camp which will be held July 14-18 this summer. This is just the first of many meetings that will take place throughout the year. 4-H Clubs are beginning to form. We encourage advisors to please get those club packets picked up from our office. We need that space for additional programs that we are preparing for. If you are searching for a club for your child, please call our office and we will get you matched up with a group. I mentioned earlier the Middle School Teen Lock-In on the 8th. All eligible 4-H members should have received an invitation in the mail. We encourage those people to invite a friend and get those registrations returned to us by the 4th. We need to know numbers to have proper amounts of food available. That is 9:30 on the 8th to 7:00 a.m. on the 9th! If you plan to be an advisor this year for the first time, please stop by our office to pick up an application. Those will be due to us by February 15. We need to get references checked before you can begin so get those to us as early as possible.
Good Morning! This is a busy week at the Extension Office as we kick off “Be Healthy Now! Check out our web-site for times and locations for weigh-ins. Don’t forget to attend the Kick-Off on Saturday at the University of Findlay from 1:00-4:00. There will be many displays and programs going on. Of course, that will be the final opportunity to weigh-in. Tuesday is the final day to register steers for the Hancock County Fair. All 4-H and FFA members that plan to take a steer to the fair needs to register at our 4-H website by the 15th. Also those that plan to participate in the State Fair need to have their legible nose sent to the State Fair Livestock Office by the 15th. Completed State Achievement Records are due to our office by Tuesday. There are 24 project areas that can be applied for this year. Give our office a call if you need assistance. Scholarship applications are due on Tuesday. Most of the available scholarships are for teens planning to attend The Ohio State University. However, there are some for any university or technical school. A list of scholarships is with the application. Please check those which you are applying for. Jr. Leadership Club will meet on Tuesday evening from 7:00-8:30. They are in the process of planning some of the activities for the Middle School Teen Lock-In which will be February 8. Club Packets are now available at our office to be picked up by Advisors. Packets include the 4-H Calendar, Family Handbooks, Officer Materials, Enrollment Forms and anything else that might be needed to get started with your club started for 2008. Cloverbuds will meet
at the Ag Service Center on Thursday from 6:15-7:15. This is
open to all children K-2nd. Please give Karen a call if your
children plan to attend. “Be Healthy Now” will be
the theme as Karen gets the kids up and moving! Our office will be closed next Monday for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. We will open for regular hours, 8:30-4:30 on Tuesday.
Tomorrow we have about 12 Jr. Fair Board members that will be traveling to Columbus for Jr. Fair Day at the Ohio Fair Manager’s Conference. I saw that Earl Bruce is supposed to be the Key note speaker. I’m sure he agreed to that before knowing Ohio State would be playing in the National Championship game. There are some really good sessions that the teens will have the opportunity to attend and bring back information that can be used in our county. Nicole says we’re leaving at 6:30 a.m. so we’ll have a pretty quiet ride on the way down. We are meeting in the parking lot at the Ag Service Center. Tuesday evening will be a meeting for all members and parents interested in Rabbit projects. The meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. at the conference room in the Ag Service Center on CR 140. The County Rabbit Committee is trying to get a county rabbit club together in hopes of touching more kids and possibly increasing some knowledge and confidence with their rabbit projects. Ed Boutwell, the Ag instructor at Riverdale High School is helping out with this and wants to get started as soon as possible. We know it is short notice, but hopefully we can start with a small group and continue to grow. Tuesday night at 7:00 at the Ag Service Center is where you’ll want to be if you have an interest in rabbit projects. This group is in addition to your local 4-H Club membership. Horse Council meets on Wednesday evening at 7:00 p.m. There is a sub committee that meets at 6:30 to continue planning of the New Member Orientation Meeting that will take place in February. Horse Council will need an accurate count for the banquet during this meeting. They have lots of things on their agenda as they begin to look to the new 4-H year. Don’t forget that their annual banquet is this Saturday at the YMCA in Fostoria. They will be presenting special awards during that event. Families are to bring snack and pop, and the pizza will be furnished by Horse Council. I believe the times for that are 7:00- midnight. All nose-print cards are due to the Ohio State Fair Livestock Office by January 15 to be eligible to exhibit steer projects at the state fair this summer. Those cards are still available at our office. The 15th is also the last day to register steer projects for our county fair on our 4-H web-site. If you do not have access to a computer, please call our office and we will get you registered. Our January 4-H newsletter just went out in the mail last week. I’d like to remind everyone to return the program evaluations by the 15th. These are helpful to us as we look at the needs in the community and what we can do better.
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All educational programs conducted by Ohio State University Extension are available to clientele on a nondiscriminatory basis without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, gender, age, disability or Vietnam-era veteran status.
Keith
L. Smith, Associate Vice President for Ag. Admin. and Director,
OSU Extension
TDD No. 800-589-8292 (Ohio
only) or 614-292-1868
Updated:
March 31, 2008