Robeson County 4-H

As the members of the 4-H staff and your Robeson County Center of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service are at home today celebrating this holiday with our traditional families, we just wanted to let you know that our 4-H family is not far from our thoughts. We want you to know that we are thankful for each and everyone of you and hope that you have a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving. We would also like to share with you a new blog that one of our colleagues started that is very appropriate for today. Janice Fields, Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Agent started a holiday food blog. On it you can find safety tips and recipes for this holiday. Just click on this link and it will take you right to it. Hope you have a wonderful holiday and we look forward to seeing you at our next big event...4-H Youth Achievement Night.

It is time to start our 4-H year again and the best way we know how to do it is to send an incredible delegation to 4-H State Council Conference . Our four delegates, Aljaquan Nixon, Ashley Sealey, Kristen Sealey and Yazmin Washington travelled to Raleigh for the two day conference. The 4-H members took part in workshops that ranged in topics from flag etiquette, to diversity, to experiential learning and recycling. In between workshops there were district and state meetings, the battle for the state spirit stick (South Central District came in second) and the unveiling of this year's state theme. This year's theme builds on our centennial theme of "We are 4-H". For 2010 our 4-H theme is "We Are 4-H...Then, Now, and Forever." During the lunch meeting our key note speaker, Edward Walker (of Trading Spaces Fame) talked about setting goals and finding ways to meet them. He showed that his life is a daily example of this philosophy and served as an example for ...

I know, I know. Thanksgiving isn't even here yet and we are already talking turkey about Christmas. We can't help it though because Saturday was the annual Lumberton Christmas Parade and this year our 4-H volunteers and members got into the Centennial Holiday spirit in a big way. With a last minute vehicle replacement courtesy of Archie McLean's plumbing...our incredible volunteer committee headed by Mrs. Libby Burney set out to decorate a pickup truck and trailer. It was an incredible site with metallic silver and green streamers hanging down and centennial banners and members of several 4-H clubs along for the ride. The volunteers and youth spent a couple of hours decorating our entry and those who helped got to ride while others walked along side. We want to give a special mention to our volunteers who helped out with this grand effort; Mrs. Libby Burney, Missy McLean, Marilyn Merritt and Jane Hurst. Not to mention the clubs which had members and volunteers participate, ...

One of the best times of the 4-H year is when we have the opportunity to do something sincerely special for our 4-H volunteers to say thank you for all their work during the year. Our annual 4-H Volunteer Appreciation Banquet is that night we do all of this and this year's celebration was something extra special. Which seems appropriate for a group of extra special people. We kicked off the event with Robeson County Extension Director Everett Davis bringing everyone together and getting the pledges underway with the help of our 4-H volunteer Deborah Mitchell and Tanya Underwood a 4-H volunteer and Chairperson of our 4-H specialized Committee. Then we cut straight to the sweet stuff. Our three tiered centennial 4-H birthday cake greeted our volunteers and guests when they entered the room. Our special guests from Raleigh and here at home did the ceremonial lighting and cutting of the cake to kick off our celebration. Our District Director Clinton McRae, Sharon Rowland with the Devel...

Did we have jealous youth on Tuesday night? You bet we did as it was the volunteers turn to come in and do the ever incredible make and take projects as part of their volunteer leaders training . Our idea was to set up tables around the auditorium and introduce our volunteers to enough activities that they could go back and use one for each of their club meetings in 2010. All in all we had 6 people set up offering more than a dozen projects that could be done with their club. Bobby Rogers set up a table and showed the different woodworking projects he could do with youth. There was everything from recycled soda can bird houses to magazine racks, shelving units and a gumball machine (that was really cool). All of his projects are a very small cost and he is wonderful about making them youth friendly and will come work with the youth in putting them together. For many of our youth it is the first time they have ever held a hammer or nailed something into place, which is always ver...

We're Back! That's right, we made it back it back to Rowland Norment School and had a blast working with the second and third graders this time. Kim Long invited us back to work with the second graders on hand washing in the mix of all the media attention paid to H1N1 and other flu strains. In talking with the youth we found about 80 percent of the youth had missed at least one day due to illness since the beginning of the year less than two months ago. We worked with the youth on proper hand washing techniques and showed them the germs on their hands with our special glo-germ lotion. By the end of our time with them we were able to certify each student as an official hand washing expert and charged them with the task of helping others to properly wash their hands and help stop the spread of germs that cause illness. After working with the second graders the third grade teachers (actually Mrs. Browning) asked for a refresher course for their students. As we went in we were g...

November is traditionally the month for elections. Our 4-H members and volunteers had the opportunity to practice their voting skills while electing our 4-H County Council and 4-H Volunteer Leaders Association members. The 4-H County Council are 4-H members between the ages of 14 and 19. We prefer youth who have shown leadership skills within their clubs serving as club officers and feel they are ready to handle the responsibility of being an officer on the county level. Officer positions available are President Elect, Treasurer, Secretary, Reporter, and Sergeant at Arms. The officers on the volunteer side who are elected represent the volunteers and conduct quarterly meeting for our volunteers on the county level. the officers elected on the volunteer side include; President-Elect, Treasurer, Secretary, and Reporter. Each organization also has a President. The President is rotated into office and serves and the President-Elect the year before their Presidential term. We started with t...