- Posted By: Chris M. Webb
- Written by: Katie Trockey
Written and submitted by Conejo Valley Club President, Katie Trockey.
This year, in the Conejo Valley 4-H Club, our theme is 4-H In Motion! And we are sure moving quickly throughout the year from Ice Skating in January to building and racing Gutter Derby Cars in March and April.
But that's not all we are doing! Over the holiday season, we made seventeen Stockings overflowing with goodies for the soldiers, donated two huge bags of dog and cat supplies and toys to the Agoura Animal Shelter, cut and tied fourteen No-Sew Fleece Blankets for Project Linus and hand-created beautiful cards for Veterans and soldiers overseas.
With the 4-H year ending in just four months, we hope to have all our members complete a Record Book for at least club level. So to help with our goal, before each meeting we write down everything we did over the past month in our Record Book Row. This way we can help each other to add to our Record Books over the months instead of at the end of the year.
But for now, we are focusing on Presentation Day. At our February meeting, we had eight different Demonstrations in a Bag for the members to present as impromptu speeches. We had presentations from many projects including how to bathe a dog, how to make a bracelet, how to make cookies, and how to change a baby's diaper.
This article is part of our Featured Club Happenings series in our Ventura County 4-H Clover Lines newsletter. These newsletters and others produced by our office can be found on our website.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
The following article was written by Dayle Morris, Vice President of Las Posas 4-H Club. We are proud of the many community service projects throughout the county. We would like to thank the youth for their dedication, and the adult leaders for providing safe and supportive environments for our youth to thrive!
At the beginning of this project year, the Las Posas 4-H board decided that our club should do more community service projects in addition to our regular club projects.
In October, most of our club participated in Trick Or Treat So Others Can Eat, and we collected a lot of food.
In December we were very busy. About 25 members from Las Posas 4-H and Somis 4-H went Christmas Caroling at senior citizen homes in the Camarillo area. Some of our club members also marched in the Camarillo Christmas Parade behind the equestrian units to pick up after the horses, and still other members of our Cake Decorating Project made and decorated cakes for the Ventura County Rescue Mission’s Christmas lunch.
This winter we have already prepared hand made Valentines for the troops, which we are going to send to Afghanistan.
This month we are also going to be collecting socks for Project Understanding, because there is a very big need for socks for homeless people right now. If you have any new socks you would like to donate, please drop them off at the County 4-H office.
Our club is also going to be participating in the California 4-H Statewide community service project, Operation Cover-Up to make hospital gowns for sick kids in California. Details about Operation Cover-Up can be found on the California State 4-H website.
For more information about our 4-H Youth Development Program, please see this page of our website.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
The following article was written by Candace Stines, Club President of Bardsdale 4-H. These Featured Club Happenings are a great way to learn what happens in 4-H Clubs throughout the county.
Greetings from Bardsdale 4-H!
We have had an exciting and fun year so far. Every year we participate in the Fillmore Christmas Parade. The members and leaders really enjoy coming together for this fun event!
Our Club has taken on supporting “Meals on Wheels” in the Fillmore area by making crafts to put in lunch bags provided by our Arts & Crafts Class. The seniors really look forward to opening their lunch and finding a nice card and craft inside. We are very happy to know that we are putting smiles on their faces when they open up their lunch to find a treat from us!
Community Service - We participate in Beach Cleanup twice a year and Bike Path Cleanup about 4 times a year. We also participate in a few other events in the county.
Our Cultural Awareness is off to a great start. We adopted 4 families during the holidays and we were able to provide gifts, clothing, books, school supplies and DVDs. What a great feeling it is to know we are providing for families going through such hard times. This group has a lot going on this year. They work once a month at the local homeless shelter. During Christmas, they fed over 250 people in one evening. They will be participating in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Renaissance Festival, The Grove, and several other events.
The Leadership Development Project Class has been very fun! The members are learning about public speaking, parliamentary procedure, writing formal letters and sharing a lot of information about themselves that others did not know. Such as, some members are very involved with other things outside of 4-H like their Church, Sports, Swimming, Tennis, FFA etc.
The Large and Small Livestock groups are gearing up for another busy year. We have Beef, Goats, Lambs, Pigs, Rabbits, Chickens, and Turkeys just to name a few! There are quite a few members taking animals to fair which will be some first timers. This is very fun and exciting for them! Good luck to them all and look for them at the Ventura County Fair in August.
We want to thank all of our volunteer leaders, parents and 4-H’ers for all the time devoted to their projects. Helping to make 4-H members be all they can be. As they donate their time to help these young leaders participate in fun and educational classes, clinics, shows, outreach events and other educational opportunities, they are helping these young leaders better understand how 4-H continually “Makes the Best Better!”
To view additional Featured Club Happenings, or to access a variety of high-quality youth development resources see our previous editions of Clover Lines or visit this page of our website.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
Find out what goes on in Loma Vista 4-H from the following Featured Club Happenings submitted by Loma Vista 4-H co-leader Heidi Marshall.
The members of Loma Vista 4-H in Ventura have enjoyed a great year of fun projects and activities. We have 70 members ranging in age from 5 to 18. Although our club doesn’t have large animal projects, our members enjoy projects for small animals: cavies, rabbits, and dog care and obedience. Other projects we take pride in are archery, arts and crafts, presentations, cooking, roots and shoots, sewing, hiking, horticulture, and yoga.
We’ve had lots of fun club meetings this year with guests such as a magician and a fitness instructor who taught us how to kick box.
For community service, we organized Trick or Treat So Others Can Eat, helped at dog shows, planted native plants in a salt marsh in Carpinteria, and volunteered at the historic Dudley House in Ventura. Our teen members are working on a plan to help introduce 4-H activities to children whose parents are in the military. We also fundraise to help support a boy in Tanzania so that he can get through school. He wants to become a doctor some day.
We are fortunate to have Emily Morris and Michael Scott, former 4-Hers who recently graduated from college, leading our presentations project. Several of our members participated in Preliminary and County Presentation Days this year.
We’ve had a busy year so far in Loma Vista 4-H. We have a terrific support system of parents and project leaders who make our great activities possible. Our next adventure will be the Ventura County Fair!
Featured Club Happenings are part of Clover Lines, our county 4-H newsletter. Our Clover Lines newsletter as well as others produced in our office can be found here.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
Clover Lines, the Ventura County 4-H newsletter, regularly features local clubs in their Featured Club Happenings section. The entire newsletter and previous versions can be found on our office website.
Tapo Simi 4-H is a small but mighty club. Our small size allows us to customize our meetings to accommodate the busy schedules of our members. We ensure that our members are able to fully participate in all club activities.
Our club is different than most 4-H clubs in that we do not have any animal projects. Our most popular projects are Foods and Nutrition and Consumer Education. We also have a Creative Arts and Crafts project and a new Photography project. Our annual Christmas Party includes a cookie exchange where our members can share their baking skills and favorite recipes with one another. In our Consumer Education project, also known as the "shopping" project, we have found the best frozen yogurt shops, the best cupcakes, the best places to buy shoes and used our consumer skills to plan club parties. The Consumer Education project prepares our members to participate in the purchased category of Fashion Revue. Our club has hosted the county Fashion Revue for the past two years.
Tapo Simi's community service includes Trick or Treat so Others Can Eat and Valentines for Vets.