4-H Update

May 15, 2009

Volume 13, Number 12

Reminders

• May 15: IFYE host applications due, State 4-H Office
• June 1: National 4-H Conference applications due, State 4-H Office
• June 1: Outstanding Volunteer Leader award applications due, State 4-H Office
• June 5: Paul Hoshiko Jr. Memorial Golf Tournament, Windsor, CO
• June 13-21: Citizenship Washington Focus, Washington, DC
• June 23-26: State 4-H Conference, CSU Campus

Host Families Needed – 4-H Japanese Exchange

Host families are needed for 65 inbound Japanese boys and girls, ages 12-21, traveling to Colorado through the 2009 inbound Colorado-Japan Teen Exchange. Hosting dates are July 23 – Aug.18.

This program is coordinated through Colorado State University and has been running since 1975.

Host families do not need to be a member of 4-H and may reside in urban, suburban, or rural settings throughout Colorado. They may share a room with their host sibling. Matches are made on the basis of same sex and close in age, as well as some common interests. Note:  Host siblings may be as young as nine to match with a 12-year-old Japanese participant.

All participants are 100 percent medically covered with 4-H insurance and may participate in host family vacations, camping trips, and youth camps. They are expected to become part of the family, including attending church, helping with household chores, following house rules, and participating in other aspects of US daily life. The program covers costs for the exchange. Each participant has his/her own spending money.

Japanese participants will attend an orientation in Denver before going to host families and a debriefing in Denver before returning to Japan. Carpools are planned to transport delegates to homes if host families are not able to pick up or return their exchange student. Orientation for host families is done in Denver. In addition, there will be a host family orientation in the Montrose/Grand Junction/Delta area.

Host siblings have the option of traveling to Japan to participate in a four or seven-week exchange while staying with Japanese host families and learning Japanese culture.

Experience shows that the greatest success occurs when families treat the delegates as a member of the family, rather than a guest. For further information please contact me at 970.491.2711 or courtney.loflin@colostate.edu. — Courtney Loflin

Grand Champion Senior Clothing Award

The Grand Champion Senior Clothing Construction exhibitor will be presented with a Baby Lock Decorator’s Choice sewing machine during the Colorado State Fair 4-H Fashion Revue, Saturday, August 22, 2009, at Sangre De Cristo Arts and Conference Center, Pueblo, Colorado.  The recipient must be present to accept this generous donation.  Please advise senior clothing construction members that if their garment goes to State Fair and is selected as the Grand Champion Clothing Construction exhibit, they must attend the State 4-H Fashion Revue to receive their award.

The Baby Lock Decorator’s Choice is sponsored by Baby Lock Sewing Machine Company and Sprinkles Sewing Center of Pueblo.  This sewing machine offers a non-stick foot, adjustable zipper/piping foot and 11 other feet, the Decorator’s Choice will give you the versatility to express your own personal style.  This sewing machine is valued at $1,399.  Special appreciation to Jerry and Kathy Binfet, Sprinkles Sewing Center, for their continuous support of the 4-H clothing construction projects!  – Connie Cecil

Check Out the New 4-H Page on Facebook!

On March 31, with a goal to create a more prominent presence on Facebook, National 4-H Council created a 4-H page on Facebook. In four days, the 4-H page fan base increased to more than 5,500 fans. Within a couple of weeks, the membership grew to more than 30,000 4-H fans! With significantly more fans than Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, BGCA, and FFA combined; 4-H is one of the top 130 non-profits on Facebook, based on fan size.

Jess Falkenthal, Educational Technology Specialist at National 4-H Council, was able to secure a meeting with Andrew Bosworth, a Software Design Engineer at Facebook, who just happened to be a California 4-H alumni. He was also invented the News Feed feature in 2006. Through this partnership, the page was able to get a vanity URL, facebook.com/4-h, making it even easier for fans to get to the page.

Through creating discussions, idea and advice sharing, participating in contests and of course posting 4-H memories in photos or videos, 4-H fans will be able to connect with other 4-H fans. In the coming months, National 4-H Council will continue to work with Andrew and Facebook finding better ways to market 4-H on Facebook and making more features available for 4-H fans.

Click on the button below to become a fan. If a fan already, use the “Suggest to Friends” button under the big clover to show everyone how awesome 4-H is by inviting all your 4-H friends. – Ellen Butler

Rabbit School

You are all invited to attend the first, of what we hope will be many more rabbit schools in Colorado on June 20, 2009 in Loveland at the Ranch.  This school is sponsored by Rocky Mountain High Shows (RMHS), our state rabbit breeders association (chartered by the American Rabbit Breeders Association or ARBA).  We also have had the support of various feed vendors in this effort.  Please check out the enclosed registration application and make plans to attend this event.

There is a limit to the first 150 who apply due to local fire code constraints for the facility.  Responses are due back to Terrie Hersh no later than June 6.  Emailed applications will be accepted with application fees collected on the day of the school.  Please click on the following link for registration information: http://www.colorado4h.org/countyevents/09/larimer-rmhs-rabbit.pdf

Any questions, please feel free to contact me Marie Adams, Small Animal Coordinator, Colorado State Fair, marie.adams@ag.state.co.us, 719.404.2035 or 719.404.2027.  – Ellen Butler

Toolkit Sale for 4H Partners

Toolkit Special for 4-H Partners

The Innovation Center is proud of our history with National 4-H Council. As an organization birthed as a division of 4-H we have, over the years, remained true to the ideals of leadership and citizenship in all of our work, be it with community organizations, government institutions, or individuals.

We continue to work closely with our partners in Cooperative Extension across the nation and still very much value the opportunity to provide 4-H member organizations with resources to advance their work. For over 10 years, we have provided 4-H offices across the United States our toolkits to inform and guide their work in communities and with young people. It is with this unique relationship in mind that we now offer all 4-H clubs and extension service offices a special opportunity to purchase our toolkits and resources and share them with your constituents.

All 4-H clubs and extension service offices who wish to buy at least ten of any and all of the Innovation Center’s award winning toolkits will receive a reduced bulk rate of 30% off the listed price. It is our hope to encourage local distribution of our toolkits; if you would like to add our toolkits to your catalog of for-sale materials we would be happy to work with you to receive a portion of the profits.

Our toolkits offer practical tips, activities and tools on all manners of youth and community development work – from recruiting a community leadership team to creating and executing a plan of action to evaluating your efforts. Browse our toolkits and all of our resources on our website: http://theinnovationcenter.org/catalog/toolkits/resources

We hope you’ll take advantage of this great opportunity to share these invaluable resources with your community. Please contact me with any orders or questions – we are happy to work with you to create a package of resources that best meets your community’s needs. – Lisa Maholchic (lmaholchic@theinnovationcenter.org, 301.270.1700 ext 109)

President’s Environmental Youth Awards

I wanted to make all of you aware of the annual President’s Environmental Youth Awards initiated by the White House and awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency. I attended the awards luncheon yesterday to see two 4-Hers, middle school students from California, receive one of the 10 national awards. Youth receive a Presidential plaque as well as a trip to Washington, DC to receive their awards.  For more information about the awards, please visit http://www.epa.gov/enviroed/peya/index.html.  The applications are due December 31. To see a description of the 4-Hers’ project, click on http://www.epa.gov/enviroed/peya/peya2008.html and then Region 9 http://www.epa.gov/enviroed/peya/peya2008.html#9. Congratulations to Clay and Chance ontheir award!  – Suzanne Le Menestrel, National Program Leader, Youth Development Research Acting Director, Youth Development 4-H National Headquarters Families, 4-H, and Nutrition Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, USDA

4-H Alumni Find Success in Music Career

Collin Stoddard (keys) and Jason Barton (lead vocals), 4-H alumni, along with Chris Lockwood (guitar) comprise INO Records’ trio 33Miles. Stoddard was active in the 4-H equine program all four years in high school in Colorado Springs, CO in El Paso County. Barton was in 4-H for six years in junior and high school. He was involved in art, music photography and was also president of the chapter for a year.

Since their debut in 2007, these well-respected newcomers celebrated one of the highest-selling freshman albums of 2007 with their Gospel Music Award Dove nomination for New Artist of the Year. Journalists have also taken notice, calling these humble guys “a talented and devoted group of performers who possess some amazing gifts for music” (InFuze Magazine).

33Miles performed over 130 concerts last year alone, continuing to build new fans across the country. They also traveled to Guatemala during the summer of 2008 to support their partnership with Food for the Hungry. In addition, they have made tremendous impact on the radio charts garnering three consecutive radio hits, two of which broke in the Top 10. 33Miles’ sophomore project One Life debuted on the Billboard Top 2007. Their first single “One Life to Love” was selected as the iTunes ® Discovery Download and Napster ® featured a playlist from the band last year. – Ellen Butler

Win Prizes! Create a 4-H SET Video!

National 4-H Council, National 4-H Headquarters, and University of Arizona 4-H Youth Development, invite all 4-H professionals, staff and volunteers to produce their own digital video for front-line educators and volunteers to better implement SET programs.

The purpose of this contest is to build a vault of films to show great 4-H facilitation in practice. These films should help others know what great learning looks like. As the saying goes–A picture is worth a thousand words. They are looking for bold, creative, and exciting videos to help educate facilitators about how to implement SET, in particular The Power of the Wind.

Video entries will be accepted between May 8 – June 19.

Here are the basics:

Who can enter? – Any 4-H educator, volunteer, staff member or specialist
Format? – 3-5 minute digital video that can be posted to the internet
Prizes? – Will be Amazon.com gift certificates and include:

2 – $1,000 prizes
2 – $500 prizes
2 – $400 prizes
What? The video must help facilitators better implement SET and be in one of these categories:

SET Content
SET Experiential Learning
SET Hands-On Learning
Science Inquiry
SET Process (Abilities)
SET Content – specific to the new The Power of the Wind curriculum (extra points!)

To learn more and submit a video, visit http://4-h.org/set/videochallenge.html.

If you have questions, contact: Pam Garza – pgarza@fourhcouncil.edu or Kirk Astroth – kastroth@cals.arizona.edu.

Start filming today and use the great new videos to help you with your filmmaking — http://projects.4-hcurriculum.org/curriculum/filmmaking/.  – Ellen Butler

4-H Expands Science, Engineering, and Technology Program with $1 Million from Noyce Foundation

The Noyce Foundation has awarded the National 4-H Council nearly $1.1 million in new grant funding to expand 4-H’s Science, Engineering, and Technology (4-H SET) programming. This gift will support 4-H’s ambitious goal to engage one million new youth in science and technology fields by 2013. The Noyce Foundation has provided 4-H with more than $2.1 million in funding for SET programming since 2006.

The new donation will contribute to three critical areas – boosting 4-H SET programming in urban communities, improving science-based training for 4-H professionals, and creating a system to evaluate 4-H SET’s long-term impact.

“National 4-H Council is dedicated to building America’s next generation of great thinkers,” said Donald T. Floyd, Jr., National 4-H Council President and CEO. “This generous Noyce Foundation grant will help broaden the reach of 4-H science, engineering, and technology programming, push more innovative activities to young people, and encourage 4-H youth to pursue education and careers in science and technology.”

To deliver high-quality 4-H SET programming to more urban youth, a 4-H SET “Urban Programming Team” will work to engage new partners, build staff capacity, and identify best strategies for reaching out to new audiences. Staffing 4-H programs with enthusiastic, well-trained volunteers is also a high priority of this initiative. To augment the scientific training of new and existing 4-H volunteers and build new curriculum, the organization is partnering with rocketry, engineering, and biotechnology organizations. Finally, rounding out the grant’s overall strategy, a 4-H SET evaluation system will be developed to track the program’s positive impact at the state and county level.

“Encouraging young people to enjoy learning about science, engineering, and technology to gain greater confidence, knowledge and skills is our utmost priority,” said Ron Ottinger, Executive Director of the Noyce Foundation. “4-H, with its broad, nationwide reach, and comprehensive, professional approach has been a strong partner in setting the pace to develop solid programming for the out-of-  school time field and to build a more technologically and scientifically competent future American workforce.” – Ellen Butler

4-H and Discovery Team Up for Second Year on Science Competition

National 4-H Council is pleased to announce Discovery Communications and 4-H are teaming up for the second year to bring more science, engineering and technology opportunities to millions of America’s young people.

4-H’ers have a great opportunity to participate in the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge, the premiere middle school science competition in the nation. This competition is for students in fifth through eighth grades and is designed to encourage a passion for science, and to promote the importance of science communication. Discovery Education and 3M are, like 4-H, committed to engaging America’s youth in science, engineering and technology education.

Don’t miss this opportunity to showcase 4-H youth and your state! For full entry details and more on the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge, please visit http://www.youngscientistchallenge.com/.

In the summer, semifinalists will be chosen from 50 states and the District of Columbia. In October, ten finalists will win an all expenses paid trip to New York, NY, to compete in a series of challenges. Head Judge Steve Jacobs, science educator, creator of “Jake’s Attic” and founder of Faraday Studios will select the winner at the final event! The top young scientist will receive $50,000 in U.S. Savings Bonds!

The deadline for entry is May 20, 2009 which is quickly approaching, but hopefully many 4-H’ers will be able to enter before the deadline. Some may be able to adapt their current science, engineering and technology projects– if they relate to one of the competition’s four topics! Please share this email with your county and local 4-H professionals and volunteers. If you have any questions, please contact Nancy Cole with National 4-H Council at ncole@fourhcouncil.edu or Discovery at YSC@Discovery.com. – Ellen Butler