- Author: Chris M. Webb
Written and submitted by Somis 4-H Secretary Hannah Gregson
In the beginning of the 2011-12 Somis 4-H year, we had about 30 members join our club. As a great kick-off to the year, we started with the Ventura County Fair! A handful of our members entered an animal project, poultry, swine, lamb, and beef! A couple of our members also entered in the horse fair! We all did a fantastic job and one of our members even won Grand Champion Barrow and overall Swine Grand Champion!
Somis 4-H has a variety of projects. Projects range from community service to animal projects. Community service is a big thing to Somis 4-H. Every month we volunteer at the Oxnard Rescue Mission, we have beach clean ups, and we also have a graffiti task force. Some other projects that will be offered this year are cooking, sewing, and gardening.
This year’s calendar is full of exciting activities. Some of the activities that we all look forward to are the fair in August, TOTSOCE in October, and December is Christmas Caroling for the elderly.
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
Written and submitted by Mupu 4-H
Mupu 4-H is based in Santa Paula, but has members from all over the county.
Mupu’s biggest project is the swine project, with over 40 members raising a pig for the fair this year. The swine project members had a field trip to The Old Fashioned Country Butcher to learn how to make sausage. Each member brought 5 pounds of pork and did the sausage making, mixing, stuffing, and wrapping, themselves under the supervision of Kent Short.
Mupu also has sheep, market goats, and pygmy goats going to the fair. Mupu has award-winning rabbit and cavies projects. Mupu 4-H’ers have won gold medals with their cavies as well as in showmanship judging.
Cooking is also a very popular project with 3 different age groups. Members have learned how to make dinners, desserts, and appetizers. Of course the best part is eating everything at the end of each meeting.
For outdoor activities, the hiking project has been on many great hikes this year. A hike up to the Punch Bowls is always a great adventure. Parents and dogs are always welcome to join in the fun.
The gardening project is in full swing. They have been on field trips, and started their garden a few months ago. The presentation project had many members win gold.
Mupu 4-H members also do a lot of community service. Each meeting they collect donations for Heifer International. This year they collected enough money to donate a flock of ducks, a flock of geese, a flock of chicks, a trio of rabbits, and honeybees. Members participate each year in Relay for Life, walking for 24 hours to raise money for cancer research.
In September, members work on the Coastal Clean-up, and then go to Joe’s Crab Shack for lunch. Santa Paula Beautiful is another clean up day for Mupu where members are active in cleaning up trash in Fagan Park. In October, the club collects canned food for the Rotary Canned Food Drive.
Graduating Mupu 4-H seniors are eligible to apply for the Barbara Wilson-Mupu 4-H Scholarship. This year the winners were Ashleigh Clendening $800, Edward Lopez $700, and Charlotte Ellburg $700. Congratulations!
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
Written and submitted by Anika Romano, Club Reporter
This year our club had many new members, and we have grown! Thanks to our wonderful leaders, we have been able to enjoy many projects, including: Fishing/Outdoor Adventures, Scrapbooking, Photography, Cake Decorating, Arts & Crafts, Project Budget Runway, Cultural Appreciation, Local Geology and Community Service.
Our biggest project is our swine project, with 34 members and six of our members raise beef as a project.
Our club volunteers every other month at “Harbor Community Church” by helping prepare and serve hot meals to those in need. We also participate in their annual Holiday dinner, this was a huge success. We donated a large amount of new socks and warm coats which were handed out at the dinner.
We made Christmas baskets for a couple of local families, participated in the Beach Clean-Up Day, did Trick-Or-Treat-So-Others –Can-Eat, and made Valentines for Vets.
We also scrapbooked, took photographs, decorated cupcakes, shopped at Thrift stores, checked out Dia de los Muertos, and had an overnight camping trip where we fished and played many games.
Our members are currently busy getting ready for the Ventura County Fair in August, either with our animals, entering a table setting, photograph or a cake decorating piece. We look forward to the fair; we always have a great time and learn something new.
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
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
Susan Gloeckler, our Ventura County 4-H Program Representative, has been working to set up 4-H clubs at area military bases. This work is part of a larger federal initiative to create 4-H clubs at military bases across the world so that when families are transferred to a new base, children can continue to enjoy the program and have consistency of involvement in the same organization from one place to the next.
Recently 4-H youth at the Port Hueneme Naval Base and at Point Mugu have been participating a variety of activities including: visiting local farms, growing vegetables, learning where food comes from, and the importance of good nutrition. These fun learning experiences were provided by UCCE staff, 4-H volunteers, Master Gardener volunteers, and youth program leaders at the bases.
On Monday August 3rd, The Ventura County Star wrote a great article about the military 4-H program. The entire article can be read here.