Shocking Developments for One 4-H Club

The Lightening Electric 4-H Club had it's first meeting of 2010 on Monday night with some exciting changes. Bobby Rogers, who started this club two years ago is stepping aside to allow a new volunteer couple to become the organizational leaders, while he will mentor them through their first year with this really neat hands on club.

During the first meeting forms were signed, schedules were set and plans were made. At the next meeting there will be an election for officers and discussion of this year's Electric Congress Activities. The meetings for this club will be held on the fourth Monday of each month at 6 p.m. , at the 4-H office. For more information about this club please contact the 4-H office at (910) 671-3276.

We Have a New Club.....

We love announcing new community clubs it's like announcing the birth of a new child. Our newest child/club has a name...the Orrum Church Rascals 4-H Club. The club will meet the third Saturday of each month at Orrum Baptist Church at 2 p.m. The meetings will last about two hours.

During their organizational meeting paperwork was filled out, a club name was voted on and the pledge and 4-H's were reviewed. There are 10 members signed up in this club so far and we know more will be coming. Mrs. Barbara Cain is the organizational leader for this club.

At the next meeting there will be an official meeting, officers will be elected, and we will work on 4-H bracelets. The next meeting will be February 20, at 2 p.m. For more information please contact the 4-H office at (910) 671-3276.

Officers are Orientated and Ready to Go

Monday night was for our elected 4-H leaders. Our County Council and Volunteer Leaders' Association officers came together for orientation. As we enjoyed pizza, sodas and cookies we talked about the officers responsibilities, meeting schedules, and plans for 2010. It may sound dry and boring but do you know whose responsibility it is to plan the meetings? Do you know who is responsible for calling roll? Do you know who is responsible for introducing guests? Come find the answers at our next Robeson County 4-H County Council and Volunteer Leaders' Association meeting February 1. Find out who is in charge of the Ice breakers when you come at 6:15 to play and at 6:30 find out who starts the meeting with gavel taps. Don't be late you will not want to miss a moment of these meetings this year.

2009 Club of the Year Kicks off 2010 Club Year

It's January which means in 4-H terms our 4-H clubs are kicking off the year with their first meetings. The first club...drum roll please...is the St. Paul's 4-H Pony club. This was our club of the year for 2009. Parents, members and volunteers came together to get the first club meeting paperwork out of the way and begin preparations for the District Horse Bowl. Mrs. Burney also gave each child their very own pony to take home and take care of. Before you have a coronary and stop breathing...the ponies are the kind that expand in water and will get as big as the child wants. It is Mrs. Burney's way of teaching them responsibility for caring for something of their very own as they learn the responsibility of taking care of animals. After all the fun everyone ran outside to ride the ponies, miniature horse and check out the clubs new rescue horse. Mrs. Burney is promising lots of new fun projects for the 2010 year, one of which you will get to see at the Robeson Regional Agricultural Fair.

This club meets every Saturday from 2-5. For more information about this club please contact the 4-H staff at (910) 671-3276. To see the schedule check our 4-H calendar and list of events on our Robeson County Center of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service web site.

Remembering the Old while Ringing in the New

Needless to say we are always excited about the year ahead so ringing in 2010 is very exciting for those of us here at 4-H. Of course we can't ring in the new without remembering some of the highlights of our year as it passes by.

To start with we celebrated North Carolina 4-H's Centennial. There were special activities each month, a balloon release of 100 balloons at the fair, and lots of cake. Dr. Marshall Stewart, our state 4-H leader, joined us to help us honor our volunteers. Dr. Theron McKinney came all the way from Raleigh to help us open the Robeson Regional Agricultural Fair, as they helped us celebrate the centennial in a big way. Clinton McRae, our new district director, also honored us with a visit to say thank you to our volunteers for their service. Our newest State Senator Michael Walters came by to honor our youth, as did Rod Jenkins, our assistant County Manager. It was a start studded year for Robeson County 4-H and that was just the icing on the top of the cake.

We worked with almost 4,000 youth this year in 4-H. More than 200 are in one of our ten clubs. Others took part in our summer programs including summer fun and summer camp. Second grade embryology brought in 1500 more youth. Our youth took part in county, district, and state competitions. We brought home gold from every competition as well as a new sense of pride among all of our competitors.

Thanks to our supporters we announced two endowments this year. The Dr. Eddie and Mrs. Brenda Locklear Endowment will support a Robeson County 4-H Volunteer Hall of Fame. Each year a deserving volunteer will receive this honor for their work with our county program and will be announced at the volunteer leaders banquet. The second endowment we were able to announce was the Robert Wilkes 4-H Entrepreneurial Endowment. This will be awarded to deserving 4-H members and clubs to support continued entrepreneurial activities and support their leadership opportunities.

To check out all the sweet things we did in Robeson County 4-H this year you can check out our 2009 photo book. It is like a year in review. If you would like one you can also order your own.

We hope you and your family and have festive and safe time ringing in the new year. As you reflect back 2009 was a year full of treats for our 4-H program so we can't wait to see what happens in 2010.

Robeson County 4-H Makes Headlines!

Have you seen the local paper lately? Robeson County 4-H is making headlines as part of a continuing series on United Way Agencies. The articles highlight the many opportunities available through United Way Agencies. This week's article focuses on 4-H and shows some of our programs and even gives some of the statistics of our program benefits. If you have not seen the paper for Tuesday, you can still catch the article on line at the Robesonian. Take a gander and feel free to offer your opinion of the program to the newspaper public or right here on our blog. You can also check on the thumbs up if you like the article. So take a quick read and see why we are so proud of this incredible program.

Giving is a Year Round Gift from 4-H

Giving back to the community, or creating citizen leaders as Dr. Marshall Stewart says, is a large aspect of 4-H work. Our Robeson County 4-H members are no different. On the night we honor them, our annual 4-H Youth Achievement Night, they were thinking of others. Each family brought a gift for a child in the foster care program. Many of these youth will not receive gifts if it were not for the thoughtfulness of others. When we got done collecting there were so many toys that we filled 5 large boxes with games, books, toys, coloring books and so much more. Sanora Stephens with the Department of Social Services Protective Agency came by to pick up the toys. She was just in awe of the thoughtfulness of our 4-H families giving to youth they have never met and all the love and well wishes that went into the choices they made. It is just another example of the difference 4-H makes in Robeson County.