May 31, 2010
 4-H'ers help clean debris from Tennessee neighborhood. In early May, severe storms tore through middle and western Tennessee, dumping more than a dozen inches of rain in many areas and resulting in extensive damage from high winds and tornadoes.”Numerous homes were totally destroyed,” said Justin Crowe, Extension Specialist in Tennessee 4-H Youth Development. “Forty-five out of the 95 counties in Tennessee were declared federal disaster zones.”
Whit Ashe, 4-H Agent in Hardin County, saw the substantial damage in his rural area and decided to take action. He realized the county workers probably wouldn’t be able to get there for some time, so he got in touch with a few of the most active 4-H’ers in his county.
“We loaded up my truck with about six or so kids and went around cleaning up the sides of the roads and different bridges throughout the county,” said Ashe. “At the end of the day, the kids were still rearing to go.”
That evening he called Julie Harstin, 4-H Agent in neighboring McNairy County, to see if she could rally any of her 4-H’ers to help in the cleanup effort. The next day, 34 4-H members, leaders and friends joined together to help people in the community clean their yards and remove trees and debris from roadways and other areas.
McNairy County 4-H’ers and siblings Amber, Bryce, and Wesley Moore were happy to help.
“My kids just do so much,” said their mother, Rose Moore. “Whether it’s cleaning the flower beds at the University of Tennessee Extension office or selling hamburgers for fundraisers - 4-H is just part of our life.”
Amber and Bryce are both members of the McNairy 4-H Honor Club, a group of extraordinary 4-H’ers who have achieved high levels of service and leadership.
“Whatever we can come up with in the community that’s needed, we go do that,” said Harstin.
The club provides leadership for events and contests throughout the county and manages various community service projects.
“If you want a child to learn something, you have to teach it to them,” said Harstin. “The more opportunities they have [for leadership and service] the more they seek out.”
May 26, 2010
 Ashlan with Calvin 4-H Club members. After her school was listed among Oklahoma’s lowest performing schools three years ago, Ashlan Wilson knew she wanted to help her community. Her mother, a local 4-H Leader, encouraged Ashlan to start a 4-H club to address their community’s literacy needs.
“I attend school in a very small, rural school, and many of our students are low income,” Ashlan said. “They do not have access to new books, and many times they do not have the additional help outside the school setting to achieve higher grades in school.”
Ashlan wrote two district service grant proposals and organized fundraisers to help her reading club, Calvin 4-H Club, raise funds for purchase books and supplies. She also worked with teachers and school officials to promote literacy throughout the school and the community.
In the first year, the club had 40 members in grades second through twelfth. The students met in monthly meetings where they studied selected books and participated in interactive learning activities. The next year, Ashlan created a Junior High Book Club to focus on middle school students and enlisted the help of more teachers and school administrators.
Ashlan now serves as an organizational leader for the Calvin 4-H Club, which is in its third year. She arranges guest speakers, leads special activities to highlight monthly book selections, and plans field trips for her club. Members have also visited local colleges and universities and have attended plays, and the Junior High Book Club members were able to use their club activities for projects in their reading and English classes.
“Our 4-H program has helped students get excited about reading,” said Ashlan. “We have provided thousands of new books to students from a donation from the Scholastic Book Company. We have enriched their lives with books!”
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May 24, 2010
 The Bolling Air Force Base's Fun Club 4-H club with Spencer Ellsworth, Interim Manager of Common Good City Farm, Chris Coggins, UDC 4-H Extension Agent and Diane Brewster, 4-H Volunteer Leader. 4-H’ers in the nation’s Capitol are at work growing produce for their community right in the middle of the city. The University of the District of Columbia 4-H Club has partnered with the Common Good City Farm to grow produce and provide educational opportunities in gardening for residents of the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
At the Common Good City Farm site, 4-H youth and adults learn how to grow and eat healthy foods through activities such as container gardening and cooking classes. Youth can visit the garden anytime afterschool or on Saturdays to help their community live a healthier lifestyle.
“Youth learn about where their food comes from” through this program, said Chris Coggins, University of the District of Columbia 4-H Extension Agent.
“4-H youth and adults gain experience in the whole process- from the garden to the table.”
To recruit community members to the gardening project, 4-H Clubs in the District of Columbia 4-H held a “Skill-a-Thon” kick-off event on April 24. Stations were set up in the garden to allow neighbors the experience of different types of gardening, and to spark an interest in the project.
The Bolling Air Force Base’s Fun Club 4-H club came out to explore plant life at the farm. They learned about the environment while making “grow cards,” greeting cards that can be planted. The cards helped the 4-H’ers discuss solutions for recycled paper and materials that could be used as compost at the farm. They also assisted in watering the plants, created a new bed for vegetables and helped with “thinning,” removing weeds around vegetable and flower seedlings. Thinning crowded seedlings reduces competition for the water, nutrients and sunlight that the seedlings need to grow and is important to producing high quality crops.
4-H’ers also participated in several Junior Master Gardening activities to gain a better understanding of what plants need to survive. They held a “P.L.A.N.T. Needs” discussion where students looked for similarities between plants and people and also shared their knowledge by creating “know and show” hats that were made from recycled newspaper. The youth decorated their hats with different art supplies to demonstrate what plants need to grow.
“The Fun club 4-H members enjoyed working on the farm, knowing that the food went to various D.C. agencies to help those less fortunate,” said Coggins.
The project attracted the attention of USDA, and in May the program was featured on the White House blog.
 Abby Swegel, a member of Bolling Air Force Base's Fun Club 4-H club, demonstrates the importance of water to plants. Return to 4-H News
May 13, 2010
4-H alum Adam Goss was bored while at home one Spring Break from Colorado State, when he came up with a youth activity that was literally out of this world. In the past, he worked with kids at a planetarium in his home of Bush, Colo., and wanted to create a way for youth to take it with them on the go. So he got to work on how to fit a galaxy in a box.
“It was an idea that came about from talking with my state 4-H leaders,” Goss said. And with the encouragement of others, he worked through trial and error on just how to make it come to life. In the end, he found out it could be done with a few common items.
“It uses plastic table cloth, a box fan, a curved safety mirror [used to see around corners] and a projector,” Goss said.
The computer science major has always been interested in science. In fifth grade, he was in an astronomy and rockets club and in 4-H, he worked on rabbit and model rocket projects. He found it easy to take courses like 3D Animation in Ogden Utah to help design the downloadable constellations for his kit. The animation he learned in this class was the same used in Disney’s Pixar films.
“This is a good tool for kids to use,” Goss said. “It’s a great classroom project, since most schools have a projector and large rooms that can be blacked out” for the best views of the dome.
While Goss’ project is still new and getting off the ground, he has had positive reception from those who have used his site, including a woman in Ireland. For software, patterns and additional information on building a planetarium, visit www.DIYPlanitarium.com.
 Adam Goss found a way to put the galaxy in a box. Find out more on his Web site, www.diyplanetarium.com Return to 4-H News
May 11, 2010
This spring, 4-H raised over $300,000 for local 4-H programs through the Paper Clover Campaign with Tractor Supply Company (TSC)
The Paper Clover Campaign is a national in-store fundraiser which benefits state and local 4 H programming. From March 26 through April 18, all of TSC’s locations nationwide offered shoppers the chance to support local 4-H clubs by purchasing paper clovers at checkout for just $1.
In recognition of the hard work stores put in to the campaign, TSC and National 4-H Council awarded the “Golden Clover Award Plaque” to all the stores in the district that had with the highest percentage of paper clover sales throughout the promotion.
The winning district included these stores:
- Fremont, NE
- Beatrice, NE
- Columbus, NE
- Kearney, NE
- Omaha, NE
- Lincoln, NE
- Norfolk, NE
- Irvington (in Omaha, NE)
- Grand Island, NE
- North Platte, NE
- Hastings, NE
And the store with the overall highest percentage of paper clover sales per transaction was in Prescott, Wisc.
All funds raised during the Paper Clover Campaign were donated to 4-H and will support the local camps, after-school programs and other 4-H youth development program activities in communities where a TSC store is located.
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