Robeson County 4-H

                                      Its not often that we field 4-H members for the District Horse show.  It's tough enough when our members know what to expect but competing this year in a new district was an even greater challenge.  Leave it up to the St. Paul's 4-H Pony Club to step up to the challenge.  Club members Chasity McClay and Megan Butler went all out and entered in the Gaming Division.  They competed in Jr. Poles, Jr. Stake Race, Jr. Barrels, Jr. Texas Barrels, Jr. Flag Race.  The competition was held in Williamston, NC which was quite a haul for our competitors and their horses.  None the less they arrived early to get everything ready and whatever the magic formula it must have worked. When they got done both had placed first and second in each of the categories taking the show by storm.  Chasity was named champion, and Megan was runn...

                                                It's probably not surprising that there would be a bang or two associated with the Dirty Dozen 4-H Shooting Sports Club meeting .  As a matter of fact you might expect it.  But this month the bang was bigger than usual.  Club President Dillon McCartney called the meeting to order and the members talked about their community service projects, upcoming programs, and range expansion. Range expansion?  you ask.  Yes.  Club leader Larry Russ with the help of club parents Tony Bullard and Mike Herndon have been working to expand the current range so they can incorporate an archery range and expand the club's shooting opportunities.  Even during the meeting construction was going on as Mike used his auger to drill holes in areas that were too difficult for a shovel to get through.  A...

  They are more than the cream, they are the whipped cream of our 4-H program!  In case you can't tell by the title of this post, 4-H Volunteers are special people.  They come from all walks of life and have a variety of skills and experiences they are willing to share with our youth.  As part of being an active 4-H volunteer our adults agree to take part in at least two hours of training a year and many take part in more.  We also offer volunteers the opportunity to take part in the ACE Master Volunteer Program.  Volunteers work to achieve different benchmarks in training and application to receive different levels of certification.  To encourage more volunteers to do this we offered as part of our 4 County 4-H Volunteer Revolution an opportunity for our volunteers to work toward their bronze certification this year.   Tonight marked the third in a series of four trainings (and a fifth meeting to assemble notebooks) designed to let volunteer...

                              It was a Saturday like any other in Robeson County with one exception...a new business in Lumberton created an awesome opportunity for Robeson County 4-H one that has the chance to grow into a great partnership. Tractor Supply Company opened a new store in Lumberton at the end of March, just in time to take part in the company's 4-H paper clover campaign.  The national company holds a campaign from May 8-19 offering customers a paper clover that they can write their names on for a dollar or five dollar donation at the register.  There is a complicated splitting of the funds but essentially the funds go to National 4-H, to the two land grant universities in our state (N. C. State and A&T University), State 4-H, and a portion of what is raised in this store will come back to our local county program.  The paper clover campaign happens twice a year and is a grea...

                              The second Tuesday of the month means its time for the Dirty Rascals to get together for their monthly Junior Master Gardener 4-H meeting .  This month their meeting was a little creepy with various crawlies.  Mack Johnson, the Horticulture Extension Agent with Robeson County Cooperative Extension office worked with the youth and talked with them all about bugs.   They got to see all different sorts of bugs in a display that the Extension office uses.  They also learned interesting facts about bugs; for example did you know that only 1% of the 100,000 species of insects in America are harmful?  How about the fact that butterflies range in size from 1/8 of an inch to up to 12 inches?  Have you ever seen where praying mantises come from?  Well this group did when they played bug detective.    After learning all about these creatures ...

                               No we weren't learning new dances, though looking at the topics we can see how you might be confused.  Actually we were learning all about animals.  May marks our annual 4-H Animal Science animal training and animal give out.  Youth and parents come to learn about taking care of their animals for their projects and get introduced to other animals as well.   The day started with introductions, a layout of the facility, and information about project records.  Each youth who registers for animal science is required to complete an animal science project record.  This is a written record of what thy have done a learned in this project.  The forms for a project record can be found on the state 4-H page as well as on our own Robeson County Extension Website.   Then it was time to hit a workshop.  We offered workshops for goats, ...

                            The United Way Day of Caring is an annual tradition for Robeson County 4-H and this year was no different.  This years event focused on one major project, a canned food drive.  Pulling from all corners of the county a goal of 20,000 pounds of food was set.  The day before the official day the county employee donation was weighed and came in at just under 13,000 pounds.  Inspirational Youth Leaders 4-H clubs donation came in right at 60 pounds of food.  Food was collected from a variety of sites, donated from Campbell's Soup, and was picked up by postal workers the day after the official day of caring.  Overall the goal was reached and surpassed.  All the food donated will go to the Robeson County Church and Community Center where it will be distributed to local families in need. In addition to the canned food drive the third annual knit in too...

The excitement is more than we could bear this week as we watched chick after chick hatch as part of Embryology .  Embryology is the study of the embryo and in 4-H we conduct this curriculum in second and third grade class rooms.  May is the second round in which 18 classrooms took part in the experiment this go around.  We offer the teachers training and curriculum not to mention an incubated and fertile eggs to make this science experiment possible.   Teachers have reported hatching going o around the county and we are very excited to say that we had 23 eggs hatch at our office.  If you would like to be part of our embryology program we will set eggs again in September to hatch at the Robeson County Fair.  Come by the livestock building in October to to see the chicks hatching.

  The first Monday of the month means it's time to get down to business and attend t he Doin' It Big 4-H Entrepreneurial Club meeting .  Members and leaders were on hand to hold a business meeeting and determine upcoming dates for field trips.  Knowing that business and government go hand in hand club leader, Rhonda Drye, set up two trips one to the Lumberton Fire Station and the other to the Board of Elections.  Many would be small business owners don't think about the need for different types of insurance and how various regulations can affect their businesses.   After talking about the upcoming field trips the group reviewed the information from their last meeting and started talking about their upcoming fair booth and encouraged members to get ideas for their award winning booth.   If you would like to know more about this club please contact the 4-H staff at (910) 671-3276 .

                                                        There was something blooming in the air thanks to paper and craftiness at the All Around All Stars 4-H Arts and Crafts Club .  Continuing their work from their April meeting the club members grew their skill sets into something new and exciting.   Lead by parent Anna Marie Hatcher the club members learned about quilling.  Quilling is an art form where strips of paper are rolled, cut, glued, to form different shapes such as flowers, animals, and objects.  By placing several of the roles together designs and intricate patterns can be developed.  The designs can be placed on paper to create 3-D art designs, invitations, thank you notes, as well as stand alone designs for play and display.   Youth learned that this is an art form that takes patience and creativ...