This Meeting is Still Looming

Tonight marked the monthly meeting of the All Around All Stars 4-H Arts and Crafts Club and this meeting took some twists and turns.  After their official opening and a brief business meeting it was time to get down to the business of the club and get crafty.
  This month's project involved learning how to weave.  Club members, under the guidance of their club leader Jessica Drake created looms out of paper plates.  After picking some fun colors the members used yarn to create the frame that they would weave.  After securing the frame it was time to learn to thread a really big needle and work with the over and under motion that would let them weave the yarn.  When they had enough for a "head" it was time to stop and make arms by braiding yarn then weaving it through the frame.  Then back to weaving until the body was done.  Sometimes they would stop and change colors to make it more interesting.
  When they were satisfied with the final product all they had to do was cut the frame in the back, making the top hair and the bottom strings braided into legs.  One, two, or a few eyes later they had made a unique and fun bookmark!  All by learning how to weave.  They club members took home their looms and some extra yarn to make more at home and maybe make some as gifts later in the year.
  The next club meeting for the All Around All Stars 4-H Arts and Crafts Club will be April 3, at the County Extension Office.  For more information please contact Wendy Maynor, 4-H Program Assistant at (910) 671-3276 or Wendy_Maynor@ncsu.edu.

Growing Great Kids

From time to time those of us at the 4-H office get bits and pieces of information that might interest everyone so we like to share them via e-mail or the blog.  Today I was fortunate enough to attend a training on line that involved horticulture resources and thought many of you might be interested.  The training was lead by Liz Driscoll who is our Horticulture/4-H person and she introduced us to a web site that she created that I thought you would find interesting.
  http://www.growforit.org/ is a great site to find resources, learn about upcoming competitions and be able to download curriculum that can be used for all ages in your clubs.  Although we do have a Junior Master Gardener Club these are items that might just be a topic for one meeting for your club to offer a little something different and fun.
  The other thing we talked about was the state 4-H horticulture contest that will be held in Raleigh May 3.  We have had some interest among our older 4-H members and I am told that we can field multiple teams so if you have club members interested in participating please let our office know by April 1 via e-mail or a quick phone call.

Congratulations to One of Our Own!

       

“Mr. Alfred was a true friend of the fair.  You could honestly say this man lived, ate, and slept here at this fair.  Always upholding it, working to making it better, he was an institution.”  That is how Allen Faircloth, President of the Robeson County Fair lead into his announcement of the 2014 Friend of the fair announcement.  For the recipient, she had no idea that this meeting was any different than any other monthly board meeting that she attends in her role as a volunteer.  So as Faircloth explained this prestigious award, and the impact this award winner has had on the members of the fair board who unanimously supported her to receive this honor she looked around the room trying to figure out who this might be.

            “This year’s Alfred C. Smith’s Friend of the Fair Award recipient is Marilyn Merritt.” Merritt’s eye got big and her jaw literally dropped as Faircloth talked about all the activities she helps with and how she always has a positive attitude about the fair.  As the board members stood and applauded, Merritt got up to receive her plaque noting what an honor it was for her to receive this award.  Merritt will keep a plaque noting her accomplishment and her name will be added to another plaque that hangs in the fair office.  That plaque, with a photo of Alfred Smith, notes all the prior winners of this award.  Another honor for Merritt was that she received this award in front of her granddaughter, T’Ashia Shelby who is the chair of the Junior Fair Board.  When asked if she was going to follow in her grandmother’s footsteps, Shelby said with obvious pride, “No that's just my Granny.”

Certified Healthy

  Can you smell it in the air?  It's the smell of the fair.  About a month or so out we always invite youth who are showing large animals (goats, heifers, lambs, and steers) out to the fair grounds to meet with a very important person.  Dr. Bruce Akers is our representative from the state vets office.  He was kind enough to spend a couple of hours at the Robeson County fair grounds to examine these animals and make sure they have health certificates.  This service is offered to our 4-H members showing animals so they can comply with the rules and regulations are various fairs including the Robeson Regional Agricultural Fair.  We appreciate Dr. Akers coming out to check our animals and ensure they are healthy.  We also appreciate those who came from other counties to receive their certificates.

Getting Sharp

                             

The second Tuesday of the month must mean its time for the Dirty Rascal Junior Master Gardener 4-H Club meeting.  Tonight's meeting was missing a little of its pizzazz as club leader Tayna Underwood was taken in.  Stepping in our 4-H Agent did her best to update us on what is coming up and what has been going on over the summer.  We talked about our upcoming fair booth project and got excited about set up.  Then it was time to get down to business.

  Tonight we learned about tie dye.  No we didn't make a mess.  We used sharpies to make a design and dropped rubbing alcohol on it to make the pigments in the ink spread out.  When the alcohol had evaporated it left a really cool design that looked like we had tie dyed it.  It was awesome!

  Due to the fair our schedule may be adjusted slightly so we can set up our fair booth.  We will keep members updated via email.  Please contact Mrs. Tanya if you have any questions.

The Votes Rolled In

Each September we hold our election for 4-H County Council and Volunteer Leaders Association officers.  This year our current officers wanted to try something different.  Since traditionally, this meeting has the poorest attendance of all four meetings the officers put their heads and budgets together to come up with a plan.  Each group voted during their last meeting to take $100 out of their budgets to hold the election at Mr. P's Skateworld in Lumberton.  Their goal was to increase the number of meeting attendees, number of possible officer candidates, and voting groups.  Boy did they succeed.  We had almost 60 people show up to the meeting which is three times the normal number that usually attend this meeting.

Just after 6:30 we had enough officers and members present to call the meeting to order.  Shabreya Vample, President of the County Council, called the meeting to order and with the help of Megan Hurst, the Sergeant at Arms enlisted the help of two 4-H members to lead the pledges.  After the pledges, our 4-H Agent shared some exciting no with everyone.  Megan Butler of the St. Paul's 4-H Pony  Club qualified at the state horse show for regionals held in Monroe, Louisiana (yes, home of Duck Dynasty).  She did a fantastic job representing our state at this National event.  Also we have had a team place first at state in Poultry judging and they will be going to Louisville Kentucky for National competition in November.  Also she talked with the volunteers about Rock Eagle which is coming up and made sure to let them know that they need to state their intentions by Wednesday this week if they are going so we can get them registered in time.  Rock eagle will take place in Georgia this year October 3-6.  Also volunteers were encouraged to nominate someone for the volunteer of the year award, and to get those forms in before October 1.

After getting the news out of the way. It was time to get down to the real business of the meeting, elections.  With Dillon McCartney moving up to President and Joshua Moore the only person declaring his intent to run for a position (Sergeant at Arms) the other three positions were opened to the floor for nominations.  T'Asha Shelby was nominated for President Elect, Tyron Alford was nominated for Secretary/Treasurer, and K'Shawn Cooper and Megan Hurst were nominated for Reporter.  T'Asha, Megan, and Joshua all got up and spoke on why they would like to be elected to the various positions they were nominated for.  

  After the speeches it was time for the Volunteers to start up.  Veronica Powell, President of the County Volunteer Leaders Association stood up and opened the floor to nominations.  Vanessa Moore will be moving into the President position and Veronica will be moving into the Past President or Advisor role which left four positions open.  After much pointing and cajoling the slate came down to Joyce Peay for President-Elect, Pam Walton for Secretary, Katherine Bethea and Jessica Drake for Treasurer, Jane Hurst for Reporter, and Marilyn Merriett for Parliamentarian.  

  After all the nominations were made representatives of each club were called up to get a ballot and the voting commenced.  We had representatives from 9 of our 11 active clubs.  Each club discussed their votes and turned them in to Veronica Powell who counted each and every last ballot.  Of course by this time you could not hold the kids back from the skating rink so they had donned skates and were rolling around as Marilyn Merriett made the motion to destroy the ballots, which was seconded by Pam Walton.  Everyone in attendance at that part of the meeting voted in favor and Veronica destroyed the ballots.  At that point the meeting was concluded.

  While our skaters, of all ages hit the rink the music person of the night announced our officers.  For the 4-H County Council our 2014 officers will be: Dillon McCartney, President; T'Asha Shelby, President-Elect; Tyron Alford, Sectary-Treasurer; Megan Hurst, Reporter; and Joshua Moore, Sergeant at Arms.  The officers will be inducted as part of Youth Achievement Night in December.  For the 4-H Volunteer Leaders Association the 2014 officers will be:  Veronica Powell, Past President/Advisor; Vanessa Moore, President; Pam Walton, Secretary; Katherine Bethea, Treasurer; Jane Hurst, Reporter; and Marilyn Merriett, Parliamentarian.  These officers will be inducted during Volunteer Appreciation in October.  Cheers went up from around the rink as the officers names were announced.  Quickly after the music cranked back up and the roller rink was filled with squeals of delight as the wheels rolled across the floor.

 A Big Thank You to Mr. P's for allowing us the opportunity to hold our meeting at your business, and providing us with a ton of fun!  Congratulations to all our winners and thank you to everyone who was willing to run.  Our first 2014 County Council and Volunteer Leaders Association meeting will be in February.  I am sure these officers will do everything they can to meet the goals and fund created by the 2013 officers.

A Stroke of Genius

 

Tonight marked the monthly meeting of the All Around All Stars 4-H Arts and Crafts Club.  As you also know September is often the last meeting for our clubs before the fair.  So we can tell you much of the meeting can not be discussed because 4-H club fair booth plans are top secret.  This is tough competition and our youth and volunteers take the educational fundraiser seriously.
  So the club called their meeting to order and the first point of business was to discuss the booth.  After working together to come up with a stroke of genius, they got down to business.  They made phone calls to make sure it could happen and people were in place to help create their work of art.  As part of their booth many canvases will need painting.  We can't tell you the theme, what, or why they are doing things the way they are but we can tell you art and creativity ensued and by the end of the meeting they had some awesome works of art.  As a matter of fact we think their creativity will spill over at home.
  Although we would love to tell you more we can't divulge the plan.  What we can do is invite you to the Robeson Regional Agricultural Fair on October 4-12 to check out this and all the other 4-H Club booths.  Stay tuned, these will be a revolution in creativity.