You can Support 4-H on Saturday!

Below is a column by Everett Davis, County Extension Director for the Robeson County Center of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, that we thought our 4-H bloggers would enjoy. The article talks about an upcoming youth program that some of our 4-H'ers are involved in as well as an upcoming plant sale where one of our clubs will be raising money for their club activities. This article was published in Thursday's edition of the Robesonian.

"According to the weatherman, it will be a beautiful weekend. We have complained for the last several months about snow, rain, cold, wind, and other uncomfortable weather conditions, so we are due a beautiful spring weekend. I encourage you to take advantage of it.

Let me give you some suggestions of what to do this coming weekend. I know you have your own plans and several other groups and agencies want some of your time as well, but I encourage you to plan your time so you can work both of these worthwhile events into your schedule.

Kenny and Anna Floyd, owners and operators of Floyd's Strawberry Patch, will be holding their 5th Annual Kids Festival this coming Saturday. Their strawberry farm is located on Stone Road, just outside the Fairmont city limits on the east side of town. There will be so much going on at this strawberry farm this Saturday that their son and daughter, a bunch of friends and neighbors, and members of the Robeson County Chapter of the Autism Society of North Carolina will be there to help.

This is the beginning of strawberry season in Robeson County. You may be like me, just waiting for an opportunity to get some fresh, locally grown, delicious, ripe strawberries. It almost makes my mouth water as I describe them to you.

This strawberry farm opens about 7:00 in the morning, so you can get there early if you want to and start picking and eating strawberries. But the special activities for kids will begin about 10:00 and will last until about 2:00. The Floyds provide this special day in recognition of the youth of the county who are autistic and their parents and caregivers. A percentage of all sales for this entire day will be donated to the Autism Society of Robeson County. April is National Autism Awareness Month, so here is your chance to take your children with you to get fresh strawberries and support this worthwhile cause at the same time.

All children will receive a container and may pick the container full of strawberries at no cost. This does not count the ones they will eat while picking. They will also receive a free coloring book, and free face painting will be available. They can have their picture taken with Suzie Strawberry, play on the bouncing castle, take a cupcake walk, and play balloon games.

A special treat for the young and also for those who are not so young will be homemade ice cream. The Floyds are famous for their ice cream, especially their homemade strawberry ice cream. Pizza, sodas, and other treats will be available as well, so come and have a picnic lunch with your family.

With the Floyd's help, the Autism Society uses this event to raise money for their group. They provide literature that will help you better understand autism and the effect it has on some of our youth and their families.

The strawberry season is just beginning. We have eight strawberry farms in the county. I will be providing more information about these strawberry farms during the next few weeks.

Earlier that morning, the Robeson County Master Gardeners will be holding their Annual Plant Sale in the parking lot in front of Cox Quality Home Furnishings, which is located at 4301 Fayetteville Road in Lumberton.

The plant sale will begin around 7 a.m. You do not want to lounge around the house and have a leisurely breakfast before going to purchase your plants. If you do, you might come home empty-handed. The Master Gardeners have been holding an Annual Plant Sale for quite a few years, and everyone has learned that this is the place to go to find those special plants at special prices. The good plants will sale out fast, so get there early.

The purpose of this Annual Plant Sale is not to compete with local garden centers or to offer bargain priced plants that are commonly available at these garden centers. Instead, the goal of the Master Gardeners is to assist local citizens in beautifying Robeson County. Many of the Master Gardeners have lavish landscapes containing both common and unusual plants. A good Master Gardener likes nothing better than to share a plant with a friend or neighbor. All of the plants they will be selling are those they have gathered from their own landscapes, and they will be selling them at very reasonable prices.

Every year, our Master Gardeners perform many beautification projects throughout the entire county. They use the money they earn from this plant sale to fund these projects. So come on out and buy some great plants at great prices and support their beautification projects.
The Robeson County Junior Master Gardeners will be there as well. They will be selling their plants and other gardening items to raise money for their educational activities. You might want to consider getting your child or grandchild involved with this exciting and interesting youth group, so make a special effort to talk to the Extension 4-H agent or Extension horticulturalist during your visit.

I've helped plan your Saturday morning for you. I guess you will have to spend your Saturday afternoon planting those things you bought at the plant sale and preparing your strawberries for Saturday dinner."

Here We Go Again!

The bell has rung and we are on round two of our ever popular embryology program. 20 Robeson County classrooms have eggs in incubators waiting for the upcoming hatch. The expectant date is May 12th. In the meantime we will be visiting classrooms eradicating germs, and checking on the soon to be chicks. Stay tuned to the 4-H embryology network for more information.

4-H is Cows, Cooking and So Much More

How could I help but notice the photo in the paper last week of the students holding chicks that they had hatched in their classroom, right before Easter? How many people realize that the Embryology Project (hatching the chicks) they did is a 4-H project? I know a lot of people are thinking that it has to do with farm animals, so it makes sense that it is a 4-H project. Believe it or not, after 100 years (yes, this is our centennial), we do so much more than just cows and cooking.

Back when 4-H started, there were two kinds of clubs - boys' corn growing clubs and girls' canning clubs. Today, we have four kinds of clubs - community clubs, project clubs, specialty clubs, and in-school clubs. Clubs now include both boys and girls and are very easy to start - you just need one adult volunteer and five youth. Community clubs are simply 4-H clubs based in the community. They work on a variety of 4-H projects and activities, including community service, county competitions, and fair booths. The project clubs are set up in the same way as a community club, but they are set up to work on one specific project and then they disband. A specialty club concentrates in just one area. We have five specialty clubs in Robeson County right now - two Horse Clubs, an Animal Science Club, an Electric Club, and a Junior Master Gardener Club. In-school clubs are clubs that are set up during a school day. Many people remember when 4-H went into the schools, and part of the school day was set up around 4-H. We don't do that anymore, but we still work with home-school groups and in-school organizations, such as Future Farmers of America (FFA), to set up clubs and work with these youth to offer them opportunities. Clubs allow for learning in a safe and nurturing environment. Through research, we can show that youth involved in clubs increase their social interactions, leadership, and goal-setting capabilities.

Clubs are an important part of 4-H but only one aspect of this incredibly large program. We also offer in-school enrichment and after-school programming. In both cases, we teach the teachers and after-school providers our research-based, hands-on curriculum. One such piece is Embryology - probably the most well-known and popular piece of curriculum that we offer. Next year, we hope to implement our Soil Solutions curriculum in fourth grade classrooms as well. Students will get to play with dirt and test scientific methods to learn about soils. It is all a part of our trend to focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, or STEM, curriculum within the schools. Extension's 4-H curriculum is researched-based from North Carolina State University and follows the public schools curriculum guidelines. Basically, what we are offering teachers is free supplemental curriculum (and training) to enhance what they are doing in the classrooms and make learning fun for their students. When the youth have fun, they are more likely to be engaged and learn. Thanks to United Way support, we can offer these great hands-on opportunities to teachers for free, allowing your child or grandchild to experience learning like never before.

Learning is what 4-H is really about. We take every opportunity to enhance our youth's lives with curriculum (on every subject from animals to robotics), life skills (leadership, goal setting, and decision making), and plain old-fashioned fun. During the course of a year, we have more than 80 county events, which include trainings for adults and youth, county competitions (Talent Showcase and Public Speaking), and summer programs (weeklong day camps and weeklong overnight camps).

Over the last 100 years, we have grown to meet the needs of our youth in this ever-changing global society to help them be successful. So when you see 4-H at the Robeson Regional Agricultural Fair this year, remember that the Animal Science Projects and Livestock Shows are 4-H, but they are only a small part of what we do, because we are more than cows and cooking. The 4-H Program is about youth development and making the best better.

If you would like more information on 4-H opportunities in Robeson County, please contact the 4-H office at 671-3276. You can also check us out on the web at robeson.ces.ncsu.edu or learn about our different programs at www.robeson4-H.blogspot.com.

Peeps

We had 15 little chicks hatch out of 19 (or about 80% hatch rate) which is fairly good. Most of the classrooms reporting in have had good hatches. Oxendine school dropped off their incubators today and I spoke with their principal and he seemed very pleased with how it turned out and they are looking forward to next year already. A few classrooms only had a few but have been able to trace the problems back to inconsistent turning, not enough water in the incubators or drafty locations. So far everyone seems to want to try again next year and we sure are looking forward to that. So far this year we have had a successful 4-H embryology project with our classrooms. 25 signed up for the first part and another 18 classrooms will take part starting Monday, April 20.
Probably the most notable difference for us this year is the number of teachers that are talking about the amount of support they are receiving from their principals this year. We have even noted more principals coming to pick up and drop off incubators, calling to ask questions, and making sure glo-germ is scheduled in their classrooms.
We must also note the excitement of Principal James Hunt at Fairmont Middle School. Nancy Baxley was working with the middle school curriculum to offer the project to her after school youth. She said Mr Hunt was so excited about the project he even made sure they had the web cam hooked up and I noticed one of the eggs had 212 on it in reference to the 212 degrees motivational piece that the school uses. When the eggs started hatching she told us that they were videotaping so that Mr. Hunt would not miss a moment of the excitement. All of us here in the 4-H program and with the Robeson County Center of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Office would like to send our thoughts and get well wishes to Mr. Hunt. We would also like to thank him and all the principals who support this curriculum, their teachers, and students through this learning process. We hope they enjoyed it as much as the students.
Stayed tuned...in another week we will start again in 18 more classrooms and 21 days after putting the eggs in we should have another batch of cute fuzzy chickens.

They Keep Coming.....

We are having an egg-celent adventure with our embryology project. This morning I came into the office and there were eight more chicks in the incubator with four more getting ready to break out. I moved the chicks to the brooder box (with the three that hatched yesterday) and the 4-H staff is cheering on the soon to be chicks, still in the incubator, through their hatching process.
I spoke with a teacher from Rowland Norment yesterday and they have almost 100% hatched. Also East Robeson called and said every student in her class got to see a chick come out of it's egg. She said they just kept coming and coming and coming. The secretary at Oxendine reported that they were having the best time with the project and they had chicks just about everywhere.
We are looking forward to talking with more teachers today and we will let you know what the other schools are reporting.

Birth Announcement

Classrooms all over Robeson County are in labor today as the baby chicks start hatching. This is the final part of our embryology project. We are getting reports in from across the county, Rowland Normant school has one classroom with nine chicks and two more getting ready to hatch. One classroom at Magnolia had four trying to hatch yesterday.
Fairmont Middle is so egg-cited about their embryology after school project that they even linked a web cam to their incubator to let the world check in on their hatching progress. If you click on the link above just give it a few seconds for it to load the image, and see what you can see...feel free to check back often.
Here at the 4-H office we have two out and five more on the way. Stay tuned to the 4-H Embryology network for more news of our hatches.

The Council Meets Voices are Heard

It was time for our quarterly 4-H County Council/Leaders' Association Meeting and this one broke all sorts of records. Almost 90 people turned out for the meeting that allows members and volunteers to help shape our county program.

On the agenda were the typical things, updates on recent programs, and awards. Did that say awards? That's right project record winners were announced and given their checks. The cloverbuds are non competitive. Each received a $5.00 check for their hard work. In that 5-8 year old category under animal science are Logan Spivey and Ashley Rogers both of Twin State 4-H Club, Christian Tice of the St. Pauls' 4-H Pony Club, and Kashawn Cooper of the Voices in Praise 4-H Club. Amaria Rogers of the Young Leaders Club complete a Public Speaking project record book while Jasmine McBride of the Voices in Praise 4-H Club completed three books in Consumer and Family Science, Environment and Natural Resources and Community Service. The 9-10 year old age division is competitive and these 4-H'ers did a great job. In Animal Science Caleb Cox of the Dirty Rascals Junior Master Gardener Club took Gold, Jordon Rogers of the Twin States 4-H Club took Silver and Ally Spivey also from Twin States took Bronze, Melquan Dinnerson of the Voices in Praise 4-H Club got a participant ribbon for his efforts. In Community Service Dillon McCartney took gold while Caleb Cox took silver. Both boys are members of the Dirty Rascals Junior Master Gardener 4-H Club. Caleb also took gold in Communication Arts while Dillon Received gold for his Leadership and Environmental & Natural Resources books. Rounding out the 9-10 year olds was Maurice Rogers of the Lightening Electric Club with his gold medal in Expressive Arts. Two gold medals for the Junior 11-12 year old division. Megan Hurst of the Horsin Around Horse Club got first for her Healthy Lifestyles book and Zaire Baker took first for her Expressive Arts book. The Senior division (ages 14-19) saw three gold medals and one silver. From the Young Leaders 4-H Club Yazmin Washington took two gold medals for her Leadership and Community Service Books. Kelsey Bullard of the Footprints 4-H club got gold for her Animal Science book while Juston Locklear received Silver. For those not at the meeting the checks are on their way to your mailbox so keep your eyes open.

Members parents and volunteers also voted to continue 4-H Family Nights so we will have our next one on May 14, at our office. The program will include dinner and a family project so keep your ears to the ground, and eyes on the mail more details are coming.

Joyce Peay was on hand to tell us about her trips to New York and what the Early Show Singing Family Face off was really like. Keorie McMillan even got up and talked about his first airplace ride and trip to New York accompanying Joyce on the final round. She thanked everyone for their support and said that CBS is talking with the boys about possibly recording for them.

Club Notes-

Mrs. Burney of the St. Paul's 4-H Pony Club invited everyone to the St. Paul's Folks Art Festival May 9th. For more information on this event and the booth she is setting up please contact Mrs. Burney or the 4-H office.

Mr. Bobby Rogers of the Lighten' Electric Club invited the youth in that club on a field trip next week of the city's waste water treatment facility. Sounds like a great learning experience. the group is going to meet next Thursday at 2 p.m. at the Robeson County Library.

The Dirty Rascals Junior Master Gardeners will be working with the members of the Robeson County Master Gardeners Association to sell herbs at their annual plant sale. The sale is held on Saturday April 25th starting at 7:30 am in the Cox Furniture Parking lot. All plants are $2.00, no matter the kind or size. All proceeds from the herb sales will go the the Dirty Rascals Junior Master Gardener 4-H Club account for future projects. All proceeds from the other plants will go to the Master Gardeners Association for their community projects.

The Horsin' Around Horse Club provided refreshments for the meeting. Our next County Council/Leaders' Association meeting will be held August 31 at the 4-H office.

Celebrate Talent

When we started the year we talked about celebrating our 4-H centennial in North Carolina. What better way to celebrate than have almost 30 different acts get up on stage at the Carolina Civic Center and proudly show the talent of our youth in this year's Entertains talent competition, part over our overall talent showcase.
The tri-county competition (Bladen, Hoke, and Robeson Counties) started with the cloverbuds, those 5-8 year olds that perform but are not in competition. After Adelmo Wyrtko and Regina Koch, of the St. Paul's 4-H Pony Club took us on a bear hunt, a very cute comedy duo of Juliann and Briana Campbell of the Roots and Shoots 4-H Club, tickled our funny bone with a routine that included chickens and roads, and Christian Tice of the St. Paul's 4-H Pony Club was "Putting on the Ritz" and dancing up a storm. The five performers took their bows on the very large stage and received participant ribbons and $5.00 Arch Cards.
Next up was the 9-10 year old junior age division. Members of the SWA step team took the stage and stepped all over it taking 2nd place in this age category. Maurice Rogers of the Lighting electric club took first place in this age division getting everyone moving singing "I'll Fly Away".
As we stepped on to the next age division, the Junior 11-13 year olds, we had a vacation traveling from act to act. We started with a jazzy trio from the SWA 4-H Club and then by going to the beach with Twirlmanina, a baton routine. Rachel Jhala, of the Dirty Rascals Junior Master Gardener 4-H Club took us to India performing an amazing dance routine. T'asia Shelby, of Young Leaders allowed us to sit back and relax as she entertained us on the flute and Megan Hurst, of the Horsin' Around 4-H clubs bedazzled us all with a jazzy dance number. Rachel Jahala took the judges by storm earning the closest score to perfect we had all day. In a close second were Mattie Bishop and Tori Chestnut of the Superclover 4-H Club and members of Twirlmania. Rounding out this age division in third place was the jazzy trio of Jacory Faulk, Bryson McCall, and Janree Faulk.
Our senior division had three acts, all from the Green Acres 4-H Club and they were all quite good. Taking first was Meranda Dennis who, in honor of the 4-H Centennial, recited 10 poems. In Second place were Allen Monk and Dillon Dennis who did a martial arts display for us and taught some self defense techniques to the audience. Rounding out the top three was the bravest of all, Josh Snodgrass who sang "Amazing Grace" a cappella.
We want to give special thanks to our Entertains judges, Cathy Brown, Valerie Hammonds, and Justin Meirs. As well as our artastic judge Angela Carter.
Our Artastic (non performing art entries) were as always quite good and on display in the lobby at the Carolina Civic Center. Our artists did paintings, photography, wood carvings, paper mosaics and much more.
In the cloverbud division the youth received a participation ribbon for their hard work. Dakota Strickland, Julianna Campbell, Madilyn Parrish, and Brianna Campbell. In the Junior 9-10 age division, Jasmine McBride took first place with her original beaded bracelet followed by Sarah Willis and then Aujay Jhala and Alexandra Evans.
In the Junior 11-13 age division Rachel Jhala placed first with her paper mosaic self portrait while a wonderful piece of pottery molded by Claire Parrish and Jerelyn Hill took third with a big initial J. Laura Willis and Hayley Hall rounded out the category.
The senior division was tight with first place going to an ink drawing of a couple in the backseat of a car created by Victoria Evans. Wood etchings and carvings created by Luke Hill and Joshua Snodgrass took second and third place. Allen Monk, Dillon Dennis and Meranda Dennis rounded out the senior division in artastic.

Graduating to Stronger Families

Celebrate and graduate. That was what our night was all about as 7 families graduated from the first Strengthening Families program in Robeson County. The joint Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) and 4-H program brought families in for six weeks straight and then we followed up a few weeks later with the last session. During our last session we recapped what we learned, and parents talked about some of the resources available in our community. During Family time the parents and youth wrote letters to each other that will be mailed out in a couple of weeks to remind them of the things they learned and show how much they love each other.
During the youth session the youth talked about the different things they had learned and how they have applied their new skills to their everyday lives. Some of those skills include how to be more respectful handle peer pressure, how to make better decisions, how to chose your friends, how to of parents and siblings, how to be more helpful around the house, how to stand up for what is right and how to say no in tough situations.

At the end of the family session each graduating family received a certificate with their families photo on it and a bag of goodies that included family fun activities. Families also have available to them booster sessions in the future if they would like to reinforce the skills they learned over the past six weeks.
Many of the families said that it was time well spent and that they are using the techniques they learned as part of their daily lives. We have enjoyed our first ever Strengthening Families Program and we are looking forward to the next one. If you would like more information about this program please contact Christy Strickland, Family Consumer Sciences Agent at (910) 671-3276 or Christy_Strickland@ncsu.edu.

What an Experience!

The Peay brothers joined forces with J4 as both families preformed for the Early show judges this morning. Both families performed "Dancing in the Street" and had everyone on the morning show, cost to cost dancing. After once again winning the judges admiration it was time for the announcement of the winning family.
Although the Peay family did not receive the record contract you could not ask for more gracious gentlemen as they sincerely congratulated the members of J4 and their supporters. This just goes to show that hard work and persverance and setting those big goals can get you far in life. We are sure this is just the beginning for both very talented families and will be checking in and updating you on their future.