- (Focus Area) 4-H
- Author: Anna S.
SLC 2019 was a blast. This was my first-time attending State Leadership Conference in Davis, and I will definitely go back next year. We arrived in Sacramento and headed to UC Davis where we checked into our dorm and spent the evening at an awesome pool party. Lights out was 11:00 p.m., and the next day started off with a bang. We had various tours we could pick from, and I attended the State Capitol tour in the morning and the Horse Barn in the evening. The night ended with an ice cream Social, keynote speaker, and the trinket trade. The keynote speaker for the weekend was Chris Temple, Co–Founder of "Living on One". Mr. Temple talked about his film and how we can create change in the world, one life at a time.
Saturday was filled with workshops. I attended Youth Voice in Action and I led the “Conflict and Resolution Worldwide” workshop for the University of California ANR. We danced the night away at a black light party led by DJ High Top. Sunday morning, we participated in games and said our goodbyes, and we packed our stuff in the afternoon and attended the closing ceremony. The closing ceremony involved Diamond Clover and Golden Clover recipients as well as the latest news update on SLC. That evening, we flew back to Ventura County. I made many new friends, and I met many great people from all over California, Texas, and even Canada. I will never forget this SLC experience, and I can't wait to make even more memories next year.
- Author: Brett Bowman
Santa Rosa Valley 4-H is based out of Camarillo and meets on the 2nd Wednesday of every month at 6:00 p.m. at the Santa Rosa County Park or at the Santa Rosa Valley Club House. The club leaders are Karen Ellrott and Jenny Willoughby.
Santa Rosa Valley 4-H being one of the largest clubs in Ventura County we live by the motto “to make the best better”. This motto inspires all members in our club to make a positive impact in our community as powerful leaders. Santa Rosa Valley 4-H is a diverse 4-H club that welcomes youth of all ages, races, and ethnic backgrounds.
Our 4-H club offers many projects that are filled with fun and adventures. New projects that we are offering this year are Alpaca, Bee Keeping, Breeder Goat, Horticulture, and Baking projects. One project our club has that makes us unique is the Leadership project. In 4-H we focus on making future leaders that will impact our community greatly. The Leadership project turns 4-Hers into leaders throughout their years in 4-H. An example of leaders in our club are two members that completed their Emerald Star project last year. For those unfamiliar families the Emerald Star Project is a 4-H event that provides learning activities for 4-H and our community. A project like that requires hours of planning, organization along with work and effort.
Another aspect of our club that we value is giving back to our community. Our club attends community service events around Ventura County at least once a month. A favorite of ours is Coastal Clean Up. Our family of 4-Hers all gather at a park in Simi Valley and helps keep our community safe and clean. While keeping our community clean we have a picnic lunch and track how much trash we pick up. Some other favorites are TOTSOCE where we collect canned food for food share, Our Build a Bear workshop where we create bears for natural disaster victims, and Operation Gratitude where we pack boxes for troops across the sea are other fun community service for members.
Lastly Santa Rosa Valley 4-H highly recognizes healthy living in our youth. Our Healthy Living officer provides facts, support, and reasoning why all youth should live healthy. Along with great ideas that we can offer we encourage all members to be apart of a new wellness plan that we are working on. As Ashleigh Brilliant says “It costs money to stay healthy, but it's even more expensive to get sick”. 4-H members should recognize how great of a future we all have but remaining healthy will determine if we are ready for that battle. Healthy resembles a lot of things we may not think about. As 4-Her's we grow healthier as leaders, presenters, and human beings.
Our club's first meeting will be September 11th, 6:00pm at the Santa Rosa Valley 4-H club house. After reading about our club, we hope you consider joining one of the Ventura County 4-H clubs and begin your adventure to being a better person.
- Author: Ashley Pyler
On Saturday, May 4th, thirteen Ventura County 4-H'ers participated in Southern Area 4-H Field Day which takes place at Mount San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) in Walnut, California each year.
Not everyone gets to present at Southern Area 4-H Field Day. In order to give a presentation at this event, you had to win a Gold Medal at your county presentation event first. However, you do not have to win Gold at county presentation day to compete in the Interview Contest at Southern Area Field Day. Since not everyone gets the opportunity to compete at this event for various reasons, all of the 4-H members present at the event were very honored and eager to compete.
This was a very long day for everyone competing. Check-in started at 7:45 in the morning. After check-in concluded, the members went on with their days, going to the rooms they were assigned to for their 4-H presentations and interviews. Members from Ventura County 4-H participated in the following categories: Illustrated Talk, Interpretive Reading, State Format Impromptu Speech, Area Impromptu Speech, Extemporaneous Speech, Educational Display Talk, Science or Engineering Presentation, Cultural Arts, and the Interview Contest.
In addition to all of the other 4-H presentations and the 4-H Interview Contest, there were several fun walk-in stations at the event happening as well to keep the members busy in between events. Perhaps the most popular station was the Entomology Contest Station. At this walk-in event, members would sit down and take a knowledge test for their age division about insects. Depending on how they did against other kids in their age division, they were awarded Gold Medals, Blue Seals, Red Seals, or White Seals at the end of the day. The Entomology Contest was run by a leader and three members from Ventura County 4-H. The adult leader in charge was Edith Sorensen from Conejo/Simi Valley 4-H Club, and the three youth volunteers helping to run the station were Anna Sorensen from Conejo/Simi Valley 4-H, Adler Striegel from Loma Vista 4-H, and Ashley Pyler from Loma Vista 4-H.
Some of the other walk-in stations throughout the day included a community service station where members made dog toys for local animal shelters in L.A. County, a STEM station where members made miniature monsters in paper cups by combining two chemicals, a Primary Clinic with activities just for Primary Members, and a Fashion Knowledge Contest where members could take knowledge tests about fashion knowledge (similar to how the Entomology Station was run).
After 4-H presentations, the 4-H Interview Contest, and walk-in stations had concluded, it was time for the final part of the competition. Each year at Southern Area 4-H Field Day, Cultural Arts Presentations and Share the 4-H Fun Skits are always at the end of the day, and take place in an auditorium where everyone can gather around, and watch the presentations/skits.
This year, there was only one Cultural Arts Presentation from Ventura County 4-H and it was presented by Ashley Pyler of Loma Vista 4-H. She talked about why she likes playing the piano and played "One Man's Dream" by Yanni on her keyboard. She was awarded a Gold Medal, and she was very proud to take her presentation to California State 4-H Field Day at UC Davis on June 1st to represent Ventura County 4-H at the state level.
The awards ceremony was held in the same auditorium as Cultural Arts Presentations and Share the 4-H Fun Skits. This year, all of the presentations and skits took 2 1/2 hours to complete, so all of the 4-H members had to wait very patiently for the awards ceremony to come. Once it did, however, the members were on the edge of their seats to see if their many hours of hard work and dedication had paid off, and if they had qualified for this year's state presentation competition at California State 4-H Field Day.
After the awards ceremony had concluded, everyone was proud of what they had accomplished, and they were more than ready to go home after a very long day down at Mount SAC. Everyone that got a Gold Medal in any presentation category was eligible to present that exact same presentation at California State 4-H Field Day at UC Davis on June 1st, with the exception of the walk-in events (Entomology, Fashion, etc.), and the 4-H Interview Contest, which are known as non-qualifying events. The 4-H members that earned Gold Medals for multiple presentations at Southern Area 4-H Field were only allowed to present one presentation at California State 4-H Field Day, along with participating in the 4-H Interview Contest.
Out of the thirteen members from Ventura County 4-H that participated in this year's Southern Area 4-H Field Day Event, five of them will be attending California State 4-H Field Day on June 1st. These hard-working members are Ashley Pyler (Intermediate Member with the Loma Vista 4-H Club), Adeline Vertucci (Intermediate Member with the Loma Vista 4-H Club), Livia Vertucci (Senior Member with the Loma Vista 4-H Club), Samuel "Sammy" Beylik (Junior Member of the Conejo/Simi Valley 4-H Club), and Kaylee Tan (Junior Member of the Conejo/Simi Valley 4-H Club). As a group, the Ventura County 4-H'ers won 24 Gold Medals, 5 Blue Seals, and 2 Red Seals. The leaders of all the clubs in Ventura County are very proud of all of the 4-H'ers who participated at this event.
- Author: Ashley Pyler
On Saturday, May 11th, 44 members of Ventura County 4-H attended an event called Ventura County 4-H Large and Small Animal Field Day. The Loma Vista, Conejo/Simi Valley, Santa Rosa Valley, Somis, Briggs, and Mupu 4-H clubs were all represented at the event this year. This event takes place each year in April or May, and the purpose of the event is for 4-H members all over Ventura County to test their knowledge about large and small animals by competing in various competitions. This year, the event was held at the Santa Rosa Clubhouse in Camarillo, California.
This was a long day for those who were competing, as check-in began at 7:00 a.m. After check-in concluded, the fun activities began. Due to the fact that this event had so many activities, it was two separate events in past years, with large animal events and small animal events happening on different days. However, since spring becomes so busy for 4-H events, it was decided that they would combine into one huge event this year.
Since there are so many activities at this event, there are two Project Development Committees (PDCs) needed to make this event a success. The Large Livestock PDC is responsible for planning all of the large animal activities at the event, and the Small Animal PDC is responsible for planning all of the small animal activities.
Some of the activities that the Large Livestock PDC planned were: goat showmanship, market lamb showmanship, 4-H uniform exchange, horse riding, table settings, poster competition, photography competition, and the Swine Bowl. Many 4-H members present at the event enjoyed watching the youth practice their large animal showmanship in front of the judge to be better prepared for the Ventura County Fair in August.
Another fun activity that happened involving large animals was the Swine Bowl. The six members that participated were divided into two teams of three. Both teams had a lot of fun while learning more about swine. 4-H members from the Briggs, Mupu, Somis, and Loma Vista 4-H clubs participated in the Swine Bowl.
The activities that the Small Animal PDC planned for the event included a rabbit showmanship workshop, rabbit hopping course, Rabbit Knowledge Bowl, cavy showmanship workshop, cavy racing course, and Dog Knowledge Bowl.
Other activities included Poultry Knowledge Bowl, Egg Knowledge Bowl, guest speakers from various organizations, a craft station, silent auction, animal senses station, and a community service station where members made dog toys out of clothes for animal shelters in Ventura County.
There were two guest speakers at the event who had their own booths. First, there was a group of guest speakers from Guide Dogs of America (GDA) talking about their experiences with the program, and how training puppies for the blind has impacted their lives.
The second guest speaker was a representative from the California Hamster Association talking about how rescuing hamsters has changed her life.
There were only two events that both the Large Livestock and Small Animal Sciences PDCs had in common: the photography poster contests. In the poster contest, members submitted posters that they had made about their chosen animal to show what they had learned. There were posters about many different kinds of animals including dogs, cats, poultry, rabbits, cavies, goats, market lambs, swine, and cattle. Members had to be currently enrolled in the particular animal project that they chose to make the poster about. Members participating in the photography contest did not have to currently be enrolled in their club's photography project to submit photos. Most of the photos were animals, but there were also some photos of buildings, cars, boats, flowers, and people.
After the event had already been taking place for several hours, it was then time to announce the awards at the awards ceremony. The names of the winners were read by Ventura County 4-H County Ambassadors Shelby Wright and Emily Santos of Somis 4-H.
Everyone who attended this event really appreciates the hard work and many hours of dedication that the Planning Development Committees (PDCs) put in to plan and execute their respective competitions. There were two people that made this year's event a smashing success: Mrs. Virginia H. Reyes, Club Leader of Briggs 4-H and the 2018-2019 Large Livestock PDC Chair who was responsible for planning all of the large animal activities, and Mrs. Amylynn Robinson of Conejo-Simi Valley 4-H who was the 2018-2019 Small Animal PDC Chair and responsible for planning all of the small animal activities. Without these two wonderful ladies, Ventura County 4-H could not have had this amazing event. Everyone at the event learned a lot about different kinds of animals, and all participants greatly benefited from all of the knowledge they gained. All the 4-H members were glad they attended the event and will use the knowledge that they gained to help other people and animals for years to come.
- Author: Claire Boone
It was a true honor to be able to speak about 4-H to the CAPS TV viewers. I was excited to work with Shelby Wright, Ventura County 4-H Ambassador and Adler Streigel of Loma Vista 4-H, an active member in local, area and state events. As a team, we were able to share our experiences so that television viewers of the CAPS TV programming could understand and become interested in 4-H.
The three of us met prior to the interview to talk about the types of experiences we wanted to share. Since Shelby is an Ambassador, she shared about Leadership activities. Adler also talked about the Southern Area Youth Summit. I explained how we give our hands to larger service by telling viewers about the variety of community service projects that 4-H members do. Adler also shared about the Fashion Revue and Presentation Day. She wore the dress that she made in 4-H.
Being on TV was a fun and exciting experience! I was actually also very nervous. The best part of the experience was working with Shelby and Adler and having an opportunity to share how fun 4-H is!
