Our focus may need to expand to include additional delivery modes that do not currently exist. Examining our past, we have expanded our delivery to meet youth where they are. If we had stayed with our original beginnings, we would be serving only those who live on farms and would be delivering 4-H through corn clubs for boys and tomato clubs for girls. Indeed, we have expanded over the years and are meeting a greater number of youth through a variety of delivery modes designed to meet their needs. We will need to be expanding for the future as we include those not currently being reached. Our mission is to develop youth and adults working with those youth to realize their full potential-becoming effective, contributing citizens through participation in research-based, non-formal, hands-on educational experiences. Looking at our past helps us to value and appreciate our heritage and to frame our future.
Work with rural Virginia boys started in 1908 with the first boys corn clubs organized. F.S. "Southall" Farrar was hired in October 1907 and became the first club agent in the state. He spent the fall months of 1907 and the winter months of 1908 securing the interest and support of farmers in his group of counties and started his demonstrations in the spring 1908. The decision was made to start efforts in Virginia to support boys' corn clubs. Boys' corn clubs were organized by Farrar in 1909 with 100 boys in the counties of Dinwiddie (75 boys) and Chesterfield (25 boys), using the one boy-one acre corn plots. The next year, Ella G. Agnew, the first home agent in the state, worked with 46 girls in Halifax and Nottoway counties. This work was done individually, each girl growing 25 tomato plants and canning the fruit. These soon became known as "girls' canning clubs."
Lizzie A. Jenkins was appointed in May, 1913, at Hampton Institute, to begin demonstration work with African American families. Her assignment was to organize and conduct canning programs and organize canning clubs among African American girls in the counties of southeast Virginia. The first club work with African American boys in the Commonwealth began in 1915 at a meeting of African American agents at Hampton Institute. Field staff agent Jessie M. Jones presided at this meeting.
The first community club organized in Virginia was the Sunnyside Club in Dinwiddie County in 1913. In 1918, the policy of organizing boys and girls into the same clubs was supported and promoted statewide. Between the years 1918-1920, these clubs were know as agriculture and home economics clubs. Since 1920, however, they have become known as 4-H clubs. Today, 4-H clubs may be found in each of the 107 counties and cities of Virginia.
Best wishes to you in the new 4-H year. Keep in mind that there are many youth that need the benefits of 4-H. Let's help them to make the best better with their involvement.
Bob Meadows
The Virginia 4-H Foundation is offering three prizes: $700 for first place; $200 for second place; and $100 for third place to honor the "Jazziest, Pa-zazziest Publicity for 4-H Week Ever " (theme).
More information can be found in the August Information Letter. (Bob Meadows)
Please give serious consideration to submitting your program or programs for inclusion. Programs of Distinction is a collection of program descriptions that reflect the high quality of 4-H youth development programs that are occurring in communities across the United States. It is supported by the 4-H system partners and coordinated through National 4-H Headquarters and the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES).
Acceptance to the Programs of Distinction is a requirement to apply for the Family Strengthening Awards. The awards, sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation through National 4-H Council, reward innovative, exemplary and effective 4-H youth development programs that improve outcomes for rural, disadvantaged families. (Bob Meadows)
The IRS has assigned a Federal Income Tax Group Exemption Number to 4-H which must be used by all 4-H Clubs and affiliated 4-H organizations when filing or corresponding with the IRS. This information has been sent to each unit 4-H office and may be obtained from the respective unit 4-H agent or 4-H program assistant in charge of the unit 4-H program. Please check with your local office for further details. (Bob Meadows)
More Information - PDF
We are very pleased to offer this awards program sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and look forward to another positive year in 2006.
At this point, I would encourage you to take time to review the information on the award and think about programs that are occurring in your state. The Annie E. Casey Foundation wants us to recognize outstanding 4-H programs that involve families who are disadvantaged and who live in rural areas. We will again be able to offer in 2006 five $15,000 awards and the final application date will be June 1, 2006.
The first step in the process is to achieve Programs of Distinction status through National 4-H Headquarters.
This is truly an exciting opportunity to recognize staff from your state who are doing outstanding programs. I look forward to visiting with many of you at NAE4-HA at our booth or at the Wednesday morning seminar that includes our five 2005 awardees. Sharon Anderson. Special Consultant to the President, National 4-H Council (Barry Garst)
South Dakota, home of Mt. Rushmore the Shrine of Democracy, is excited to be the host for the 2006 National 4-H Camping Institute. Plans are underway to make sure all attendees have a Monumental Experience. The National 4-H Camping Institute will be held February 17-21, 2006 at the Cedar Canyon Wesleyan Camp in the heart of the beautiful Black Hills. Please take the time to visit the South Dakota 4-H Website at http://4h.sdstate.edu and go to the National Camping Institute link to find out what to expect and when things are going to happen as final plans develop. For more information contact LaDonna McKnight at 605-673-4971 or email at mcknight.ladonna@ces.sdstate.edu. We look forward to seeing you in the beautiful Black Hills in February.
Please share this opportunity with your volunteers, and contact me if you have questions. (Barry Garst)
One 4-H member, ten year old Darrian Dysart, of the Conicville 4-H and Shenandoah County 4-H Livestock Clubs, was inspired by this effort and wanted to do more to help. He had an extra lamb and asked if it could be sold with the proceeds going to the same cause. Although it was the last lot to be sold at the end of a five hour sale, 35 different buyers contributed at total of $3,689.23 toward the lamb.
The efforts of these 4-H members and volunteers have resulted in $5,194.23 being donated to the American Red Cross to be used to help those immediately affected by Hurricane Katrina. Although they were there to show and sell their project animals, they learned a valuable life lesson about citizenship and reaching out to help those in need, and in doing so, truly illustrated the 4-H Spirit. (Leslie E. Funkhouser, 4-H Project Associate, Shenandoah County)
Jill was 8th in aerial photos, 3rd in foods ID, and 5th high individual overall Hannah was 10th in Wildlife Management Practices. The team was the only team to have both the urban and rural management plans place in the top 5 with the rural plan earning 3rd place and the urban plan earning 2nd place.
Congratulations to the team and many thanks to all of our sponsors with special thanks to Dr. Jim Johnson and the College of Natural Resources as well as the 4-H Natural Resources and Environmental Education Curriculum (Kathleen Jamison)
We hope that your Club, friends, and family can come help clean Virginia's waterways for an hour or two and help us collect valuable data about the types of litter and debris found! The official ICC date for 2005 is Saturday, September 17, however, cleanup events will be held throughout September and October. To find a cleanup event near you, please visit www.longwood.edu/cleanva/iccva.htm. Please help spread the word about this wonderful stewardship event by forwarding this email to your friends, family and co-workers!
Remember, the International Coastal Cleanup is the world's largest volunteer effort to collect data on litter and trash in the aquatic environment! ICC events are held on the coasts, AND inland, since inland litter often ends up in our oceans. ICC volunteers not only make our waterways safer and cleaner, but they also collect valuable data that are critical as we strive to reduce the amount of litter and debris in our water. (Kathleen M. Register, Executive Director, Clean Virginia Waterways, Dept of Natural Sciences, Longwood University)
Here are more details:
Dr. Jeffrey Kirwan, Extension Specialist and Associate Professor of Forestry at Virginia Tech, and outdoor writer Nancy Ross Hugo propose to research, write, and publish, in conjunction with an academic or commercial press, an illustrated, high-quality book on Remarkable Trees of Virginia. Children, adults, professional tree experts, civic leaders and amateur tree lovers are invited to nominate old trees, cultural and historic trees, champion trees, community trees, unique trees, and fine tree specimens to be featured in the book. A professional photographer will contribute 94 photos, plus a cover photo, to the project. In addition to describing trees in each of the featured categories, explanatory text will describe the tree search, highlight the historic and multicultural significance of trees to Virginians, provide an overview of ecological issues affecting trees, and emphasize the importance of tree literacy and tree stewardship.
Nominations are coming in! Please note the deadline for nominating trees has been extended until Dec. 31, 2006, and youth are ESPECIALLY invited to participate. The website has recently been improved and simplified. Youth learn how to identify trees, use a GPS receiver, use information technology and perform valuable community service. Trees can be remarkable for any reason- size, historic or cultural value, beauty. The big tree program started as a 4-H project in the 1970's and has become one of the largest citizen-science programs in the Commonwealth, with over 5,000 nominations to date. All youth who nominate a tree will be listed in a book to be published in 2008. (Jeffery Kirwan)
The media has really picked up on this story, particularly the farm media. There were 34 newspaper articles written throughout the trip, many from the Shenandoah Valley, our target area in developing relations with farmers. In addition, there were some exciting radio and television shows aired. One last show remains. National Geographic Channel will air a special on John Smith that includes a portion on Expedition Chesapeake later this fall. There were lots of parallels between Smith's exploration, and the exploration of these students.
Be part of the Baybound mission. Check out www.baybound.org. (Jeffery Kirwan)
"...results show once weekly use of gardening activities and hands-on classroom activities help improve science achievement test scores." Impact of Hands-on Science through School Gardening in Louisiana Public Elementary Schools
"Students in the experimental group scored significantly higher on the science achievement test compared to the students in the control group ." Growing Minds: The Effect of a School Gardening Program on the Science Achievement of Elementary Students
"Qualitative data also indicated that the students enjoyed the program, shared what they learned with others, and wanted to participate in more JMG and gardening type activities ." An Evaluation of the Junior Master Gardener Program in Third Grade Classrooms
"...students in the experimental group did significantly increase their overall life skills scores ." Growing Minds: The Effects of a One-year School Garden Program on Six Constructs of Life Skills of Elementary School Children
For more information go to: http://www.jmgkids.us/index.k2?did=2727§ionID=2015 (Joseph R. Hunnings)]
Best of luck to you all in your efforts to make a difference! (Lori Marsh)
Now, the latest news to share with you is that Tracy Sebring is my new Administrative Assistant, as of August 10. Tracy has been a dedicated support person for our department for nearly seven years, and until recently, served as support for Barry Garst and Kathleen Jamison. Please welcome Tracy as the new Administrative Assistant with the 4-H department. We look forward to Tracy's many years of continued service to the 4-H program. (Bob Meadows)
More Information - PDF
The Virginia 4-H NREE grant provides up to $1,500 for projects that enhance wildlife habitat and understandings among Virginia youth. Last year, everyone who applied received at least partial funding! Applications were sent last week via e-mail from Barry Fox to 4-H Extension Agents. Let me know if you need a copy and I will e-mail it to you. Jkirwan@vt.edu (Jeff Kirwan)
(Jeffrey L. Kirwan, Ph.D)
Youth Visions grants are designed to give youth and community technologyprograms the opportunity to use multimedia tools and training to engage in community decision-making to strengthen their neighborhoods.
Organizations that serve at-risk youth (ages 14-18), are engaged in community partnerships, and have experience providing video and other multimedia training are eligible. CTCNet will provide a flexible curriculum and evaluation support for a 5-6 month program integrating community-based activities and multimedia training. Additionally, each grantee organization will be required to host a capacity-building workshop to help other youth-serving organizations learn to use multimedia tools to promote youth engagement in their communities.
To learn more about the grant, including eligibility requirements, how to apply, and to register for the application assistance calls, visit http://www.ctcnet.org/youthvisions.
The Youth Visions for Stronger Neighborhoods program is made possible through a generous grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service's Learn and Serve America program (www.learnandserve.org). (Joseph R. Hunnings)
Director's Letter
Calendar of Events
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