Robeson County 4-H

Spring is here which means we are celebrating in only a way 4-H can celebrate, by joining with 30 second and third grade classrooms for Embryology. Embryology is the study of the embryo, in this case chicken embryos. We train teachers on the hands-on Embryology curriculum and send them back to their classrooms with incubators, thermometers, and eggs. That is when the fun begins. Three times a day the students help turn the eggs, just like mother hens. Three days before the scheduled hatch (which takes place 21 days after the eggs are placed in the incubator) the students stop turning the eggs and patiently wait. On hatch day students hear peeping, and pecking and suddenly chicks are born . This is our first round of Embryology in the classroom this year. More than 35 classrooms were involved in the first round including classrooms from; Rowland Normant, Janie C. Hargrave, Flora McDonald, Rex Rennert, Long Branch, Rosenwald, Pembroke Elementary, and East Robeson. So far reports have ha...

I admit it was a gloomy, rainy, cold Saturday however if you were at Biggs Park Mall you would have had a different outlook. There we were celebrating summer as part of Summer Camp Expo which was sponsored by the Biggs Park Mall and the Robesonian. There you could find all sorts of summer opportunities for kids of all ages and much more. While we set up and talked about all things fun in summer or in 4-H as we call it summer fun, there was also other stuff going on at the mall. The top three winners from 4-H Entertains made it to center court to preform their show stopping acts. When the Michael Jackson song hit the speakers shoppers came out of the stores to see what was going on. From there it was history as our youth entertained the crowds for the first half hour. After that other local groups took to the stage as we continued to talk about 4-H. More than 50 people walked away with Summer Fun brochures that you can download right now . Registration is currently open to all 4-H memb...

As you are well aware we are facing a budget crisis in this state. Up until today Extension was looking at a possible 10-15% budget cut statewide which would effect programs, positions, and ultimately the future of Extension as we know it. Today, Joe Zublena, Director of North Carolina Cooperative Extension, has said that the cuts being discussed today are between 25-30%. That means the loss of almost 400 positions across the state and programming cuts across the board. Linked is a letter outlining the cuts and what it could mean for Extension. We need your help to make some personal phone calls to elected officials. Below are the names and numbers of the people we elected to serve us and ultimately the people who are making decisions about our budget. The Cooperative Extension budget is in the Higher Education Line item, specifically the agriculture section of Higher Education. Please place a call to our lawmakers and ask them not to cut this line item. Let them know how important Ext...

You know that feeling you get when you open the mail, no not an e-mail but actual mail. Not a bill, not junk mail but something hand addressed to you and you know it will be pleasant but you have no clue what is inside? I love that kind of mail. Usually it is special because you rarely see it. In this instance it was a wonderful invitation to the St. Paul's 4-H Pony Clubs award celebration . Each year club leaders Libby and Holly Burney take a moment to celebrate their club members achievements and give them awards and gifts that will last a lifetime. This year the meeting started with a special meal complete with hot dogs, chips and a homemade cake. After everyone ate the group received their awards. Some got trophies, others medallions (based on their various achievements) and everyone got pins to add to their collections. Then they got a special gift, an encyclopedia of horse equipment. Then, after the group photos, it was time for the real fun....running out the door and getti...

Eggs-cellent! They have arrived and been laid in the nest. In case you have not cracked under all these puns (or caught on yet) the embryology eggs have arrived. The eggs which were recently laid at the N.C. State Hatchery by many many chickens were carefully packaged up and picked up by our 4-H staff. The fertile eggs were distributed to 30 classrooms and will be turned three times a day until March 24th. Then they will rest until they hatch. We hope that on the week of April 25th we will have little chicks pecking through their shells and peeping their way into our hearts. Stay tuned to the 4-H blog for updates on our county wide hatch.

The Dirty Rascals Junior Master Gardeners met for the March monthly meeting at the 4-H office and did a little strategic planning and learning. Under the leadership of Tyson Alford, the club Vice President, the meeting was called to order. The group went over presentations and public speaking guidelines and did a little planning on who was going to do what. Now, as of the time of this e-mail we are not at liberty to say exactly what presentations will be done, or what members might be getting up to represent the club but we can tell you they will be creative, might just get down and dirty with the information, and competitors will feel a little buggy after it is all over with. The club also wrote letters for members of the military. Each member wrote one card as a thank you to them for their service and another card for their child who is here in the states waiting for them to return. The card campaign is part of the Operation Military Kids Program . In other business the club checked ...

Monday night it was time for an update, sharing of learning, and setting of agendas. In other words it was time for our quarterly 4-H County Council and Volunteer Leaders' Association . The night kicked off with a rousing game of Bingo. As the officers took care of the games and awarding prizes, they got the crowd warmed up for the meeting ahead. Kenneth Bethea, President of the Volunteer Leaders' Association called the meeting to order and asked James Nixon of the Voices in Praise 4-H Club and Christian Tice of the St. Pauls 4-H Pony Club lead the group of about 50 in the pledges. Aljaquan Nixon, the President of the County Council then recognized new members, new clubs and visitors to the meeting. Korina Pittman, the County Council Secretary, Treasurer conducted roll call. After counting the members Voices in Praise 4-H Club won the roll call award for having the highest percentage of members present at the meeting. Veronica Powell, our current South Central District Secret...

Well we have a little announcement to make for all of you who follow the Robeson County 4-H blog . As you know when you click on the links to our photos you find them at photoworks.com . Our organization has had a decade long partnership with this company even before it was photoworks and was known as Seattle Film Works. In the last day or so photoworks has announced it will be closing as of April 4, 2011. They are transferring our photos to a similar service at shutterfly.com . This will effect you in two ways. For those of you who look at photos or download photos for project records etc., you will now be taken to our Shutterfly account where you will have to create your own free account as you did on photoworks . You will be able to save entire albums to your account or specific photos. You can download them to your computer and print or order prints from shutterfly just as your did photoworks . If you have photos stored at photoworks you can log into your account (up unti...

It was an eggs-celent day for puns and education, embryology education that is. Today we took a couple of hours to work with our first time teachers who are implementing embryology in their second and third grade classrooms. Spring is the time of year when teachers and 4-H work together to plant a seed in the heads of of our youth. This is a science, technology, and agriculture seed that grows into a lesson on life cycles and more for our students. Thanks to United Way of Robeson County 4-H is able to offer the teachers training on our hands on, research based curriculum and how to implement it in their classrooms. Then we loan them incubators, and get fertile eggs for each classroom in hopes that within the month they will have hatched some cute and noisy little chicks. While the youth are helping turn the eggs they learn how to read a thermometer, candle eggs, and how life cycles work. It is a fun lesson that teachers say stay with the students for their lifetime. Stay updated on 4-H...

It was a cool breezy day outside for the annual Rumba on the Lumber but inside it was sweet day of talent as our 4-H youth took to the stage at the historic Carolina Civic Center . The annual 4-H Talent Showcase allows 4-H members between the ages of 5 and 18 to show off their talents. Walking in audience members could view the incredible artwork as part of Artastic. Artastic is the visual arts competition where youth submit paintings, photography, pottery and other items for competition. Competitors in the Artastic contest included: Maggie Underwood, Layla Locklear, and Rachel Jhala with the Dirty Rascals Junior Master Gardener 4-H Club; Patrick McBryde and Jasmine McBryde with the United We Stand 4-H Club; Paiton Twigg, Christian Tice, Savannah Cartagena, Brianna Cryer and Megan Butler with the St. Paul's 4-H Pony Club; Nyeve Dinnerson, Jamyia Stephens, Janyia Stephens, Camry Ocean, MaKala McRae, Brianna Hayes, James Nixon, Aljaquan Nixon, Keorie McMillan, Lundon Dinnerson and Za...

The first meeting of the year for the Dirty Dozen 4-H Shooting Sports Club turned out to be very productive. Not only did we cover range rules and commands, Mrs. Peggy went over project records then led the club in an election process. Congratulations to our newly elected officers; Allen Monk - President, Dillon McCartney - Vice President, Harmony Guyton - Secretary, Lucas Collins - Treasurer and Christopher Bullard - Reporter. After the election we covered eye dominance, sight alignment and sight picture which we plan on putting to use at our next meeting at the range. Our next club meeting will be held in April, at the firing range. Club meeting starts promptly at 9 am. In case of bad weather we will meet at the office. See you at the range. Submitted by Larry Russ