National 4-H Congress 2013 will take place November 29 – December 3, 2013. It is a wonderful experience and an extreme honor to represent Virginia at National 4-H Congress. Please encourage your senior 4-H members to apply. Applications are due April 30 to the State Office. Interviews and delegate selection will take place during state congress on Tuesday, June 18 in Blacksburg.
For more information on this event, please visit the sites below.
General Information and Application Process: http://www.intra.ext.vt.edu/4h/national4h.html
Sample Resume: http://www.intra.ext.vt.edu/4h/exampleresume.pdf
Fishing Camp at Holiday Lake 4-H Center
The brochure link for Fishing Camp 2013 at Holiday Lake 4-H Educational Center that will be April 26-28. Please share this with as many people as possible so we can get lots of campers this year. Along with our normal prize giveaways, every camper who attends fishing camp this year will receive a fishing pole and tackle box!
Thank you for sharing this!
Tamara Arrington
Natural Resource Education Coordinator
Holiday Lake 4-H Educational Center
(434) 248-5444
Upcoming Events at Holiday Lake 4-H Educational Center:
Fishing Camp — April 26-28, 2013 — Holiday Lake 4-H Educational Center
Holiday Lake Bluegrass Festival — June 1, 2013 — http://www.holidaylake4h.com/blue&brew.php
Reality Store and Kids Marketplace Materials on the Intranet
Thanks to the great work of Dawn Barnes and Kim Turman–Floyd County UAA–The Reality Store and Kids Marketplace materials have all been updated and uploaded to the Complete Programs section of the FCS agent resource sharing site. This should hopefully make it easy for those of us doing RS and KM programs to access the materials if you don’t have them already.
As a reminder, you can reach the resource sharing site by going to the intranet, clicking on FCS, and scrolling down to Resources From Previous Professional Development Events where you’ll find a link to FCS Agent Resource Sharing Site. Once there you’ll need to enter our PID and password in order to access the site. You can also follow this link to reach the site: https://secure.hosting.vt.edu/www.intra.ext.vt.edu/fcs/resource/
April, Month of the Military Child
Since 1986, April has been designated as “Month of the Military Child.” During this month we honor children of U.S. Service Members around the world for their contribution to their family’s well-being and the sacrifices they make on behalf of our country.
Virginia is home to nearly 150,000 youth who have parents serving in the military. Approximately 124,200 of these youth have Active Duty parents. More than 25,800 of these youth have parents who serve in the Virginia National Guard or Reserves and live in communities across the state.
While a military youth may look like you or the kids next door, many of them live a life of frequent moves, changing schools, leaving friends, and making new friends. They also experience family separations through deployments and then reintegration issues that make life challenging. Through it all, military kids are often looked up to for their resilience and ability to deal with life changing events.
As a result, we encourage each county or city 4-H youth development program to take time in April to celebrate the strength of military children and honor them for the sacrifices they make. No effort is too small.
As a reminder, please read the email announcement below from Megan Baker, Program Director for Virginia Operation: Military Kids (OMK), regarding the following initiatives:
Virginia Purple Up Day! April 15th
Wall of Heroes
Learn how Virginia 4-H can get involved. Please join in and celebrate our young heroes during April, Month of the Military Child.
Visit our new Virginia 4-H Military Club website: http://www.virginia4-hmilitaryclubs.org
Tractor Supply’s Paper Clover
Tractor supply is offering some great opportunities for the Spring drive
- More funds for county 4-H programs-100% of funds raised by counties, above and beyond what they raised for the same season last year, will come back to the county! You now have the ability to raise even more funds for your local county programs.
- $5 donations in store-they will be offering both $1 and $5 donation increments in stores. Larger donations will be easy to see in stores since the $5 clovers will be bigger in physical size.
- Coupons on clovers-all clovers will have a bounceback coupon at the bottom as a “thank you” for your donation. $5 clovers will have a larger discount than $1 clovers, made possible by Purina Animal Nutrition
- State 4-H Program awards-TSC wants to recognize the top state in each 4-H region with the highest average dollars raised in TSC stores for their state. Each of the four (4) Regional Paper Clover Champion award winners will recieve $1,000 for their state 4-H programs.
Keep track of how much Virginia is raising or your local store is raising at Tractorsupply.com/4-H
Toolkit Website with promotional resources
www.4-H.org/paper-clover-toolkit
Username: Paperclover@4-H.org
Password: Paperclover
Citizenship Washington Focus
Citizenship Washington Focus is a week-long 4-H citizenship program for youth ages 14-19 that takes place at the National 4-H Center in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Virginia’s week is July 7-13.
CWF’s website can be found at: http://www.4hcwf.org/default.aspx
The Virginia 4-H Foundation has graciously offered partial scholarships for 4-H members to attend Citizenship Washington Focus thus reducing the cost to just $500/person. The State 4-H Office is still accepting applications. Contact Katie Lafon in the State 4-H office at 540-231-9410 or at klafon@vt.edu for more information regarding the application process.
Welcome to The Virginia 4-H Blog
Hello Everyone. Welcome to the Virginia 4-H blog “Virginia Clovers”. My hope is that our blog will provide a consistent means of communication and hopefully cut down on the email overload that you experience. Please plan to visit frequently.
It is truly an exciting time for Virginia 4-H. We recently brought our agents with less than two years of service together for training and sharing. It was wonderful to see 33 enthusiastic, passionate, new colleagues share, learn, and build lasting relationships. I want to thank everyone who is working hard to support and encourage this group of professionals as we work together to provide outstanding developmental opportunities for more than 195,000 youth across Virginia.
Plans for State 4-H Congress are well underway with many exciting opportunities for teen 4-H members. This year, we will be offering competition workshops for delegates who are not competing but would like to learn more about competition areas. The Great Summer Showcase workshops are better every year being taught by enthusiastic, highly qualified, faculty members. The State 4-H Office has set program quality goals and for increasing the number of delegates and units participating in Congress. Plan to join us!
A team of 4-H Agents and Specialists met to begin the 4-H strategic planning process. The group, facilitated by Dr. Barbara Board, spent a day discussing challenges, opportunities, and action plans as they relate to Focus Area III of the VCE Strategic Plan. Team members have the meeting notes as well as Proposed Impact Planning Teams related to 4-H. Team members will be soliciting additional input. In addition, the State VCE programming team will be proposing additional Impact Planning Teams that will need youth development input and participation.
Many thanks to the 4-H strategic planning team members: Jinx Baney, Mellissa Breen, Nicole Clem, Celeste Crisman, Kaci Daniel, Sam Fisher, Sonya Furgurson, Brian Hairston, Sherri Jackson, Kathleen Jamison, Amanda Lucas, Danielle Jones, Katie Lafon, Mike Martin, Sarah Morton, Lenah Nguyen, Crystal Peek, Tonya Price, Leslie Prillaman, Sandy Shortridge, and Glenda Snyder. The group had open, honest discussion and developed positive action items that I believe will enable us to implement the youth portion of the VCE Strategic plan in an effective manner. When called upon, please share additional ideas that you may have to improve upon the draft document.
Lastly, I want to thank each of you for taking the time to fill out the 4-H program unit summary sheet. If you have not yet hit the submit button to send it to the state office, please do so as soon as possible. Just as you have used the document to set local goals, we would like to use the data to set statewide goals and to assess areas where more training and resources may be needed.
Cathy
Cathy M. Sutphin, PhD
Associate Director, 4-H
2013 4-H Honey Bee Essay Winners
Each year Virginia 4-H sponsors a Honey Bee Essay in conjunction with The Foundation for the Preservation of Honey Bees, Inc. sponsored National 4-H Honey Bee Essay Contest. The first place winner of the Virginia contest is forwarded on to the National Contest before March 1st and competes with other state winners. Winners of the National Contest are announced on May 1 each year and are eligible for up to $750 in prize money.
We are proud to announce the winners of the Virginia Honey Bee Essay Contest as follows:
First Place with $100 prize and forwarded on to the National Contest
Olivia Perry – Rockingham County 4-Her
Second Place with $50 prize
Rachel King – Richmond 4-Her
Third Place with $25 prize
Jessica Vass – Carroll County 4-Her
Congratulations ladies! If you would like to participate in this contest look for information coming out for 2014 in September. In the meantime visit http://honeybeepreservation.org/ and check out the link to the 4-H Essay Contest.
Virginia Beef Ambassador
Virginia Beef Industry Council and Rockingham County Extension are proud to bring you the 2013 Virginia Beef Ambassador Contest.
This year the contest will be held at the Virginia Beef Expo in Harrisonburg, VA on Friday, April 19th. This contest is open to ALL interested youth ages 12-20.
Participants are not required to have a background in agriculture or own beef cattle. The purpose of the project is to gain knowledge of the beef industry and to provide an opportunity for youth to educate consumers and other youth about beef nutrition, food safety, and stewardship practices of the beef industry.
We greatly appreciate the support of this project and the Checkoff dollars from our Virginia Beef Producers.
Please find the attached rules and regulations and don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any questions –
Thanks!
Dara
Dara Booher, M.Agr.
Extension Agent, 4-H Youth Development
Phone: 540/564-3080
Email: dbooher@vt.edu
VA 4-H Shooting Education Instructor Certification
Please pass this information onto adults (and teens ages 16 and older) interested in being certified as 4-H Shooting Education Instructors.
The next Virginia 4-H Instructor Certification will be held the weekend on March 22 – 24, 2013 at Airfield 4-H Center. The following disciplines will be offered:
– Archery
– Coordinator
– Rifle
– Shotgun
– Teaching the Game of Sporting Clays
A Fact Sheet, schedule and application are posted on the VA 4-H Shooting Education Website under “Events.”
www.4-h.ext.vt.edu/programs/nree/shootinged/indexshootinged.html
Jinx Baney
Extension Agent, 4-H Youth Development
jbaney@vt.edu