Community service is an essential part of the 4-H Program. Club projects and individual community service fills a need in our community and allows our members to feel good about helping others. Teaching our youth to give back is an invaluable lesson. Many of our usual community service projects were put on hold in 2020, but clubs showed ingenuity and found new, creative ways to be of service.

A community service opportunity that all 4-H members can participate in is a card shower for our local nursing homes. Eagle Creek Nursing home has requested cards for their residents to help brighten their day. With over 600 4-H members in Adams County, I am sure we can shower all of our local nursing home residents. This is an easy, socially distanced, and much needed service. Cards can be homemade or bought and should include a positive message, inspiring quote, or other meaningful words from our members.

You can mail cards to any of these nursing homes and simply address them to Resident.

Eagle Creek Nursing Home
141 Spruce Lane
West Union, OH 45693

Adams County Manor
10856 State Rte 41
West Union, OH 45693
Attn: Anita

Monarch Meadows Nursing & Rehabilitation
299 Commerce Drive
Seaman, OH 45679

We know many of you have been collecting plastic lids for our Going Green for Community Service project.  COVID derailed our original intent to collect lids at club meetings, and clean and weigh them together. Then the company had a fire in their facility. We aren’t letting that stop us though! We have placed a green can outside our office door to collect plastic lids. Please be sure the lids are clean and dry before you drop them in the can. They will be stored until we are able to get together to process the lids according to Green Tree Plastics specifications.

Please be sure you are only saving plastic lids that are on the acceptable list seen here.

Adams County 4-H is Going Green for Community Service!  We are excited to begin a new youth driven county wide community service opportunity that you can start now, while we are staying home and staying healthy.  Green Tree Plastics offers ABC Promise Partnership Program designed by a team of 8th graders over ten years ago to turn plastic bottle caps and lids into new benches, tables and other useful items.  This partnership between youth and Green Tree Plastics is a great way to demonstrate how recycling can work and caring for our planet.

What we need:  members to start collecting small caps from food grade containers and household items.  Snap on caps from butter tubs, coffee cans, yogurt lids; small twist off caps from medicine, drink bottles, milk caps; large twist offs like detergent caps; flip tops or spouts on condiments such as ketchup or mustard caps.  Remember we only want the caps, not the container itself.

Things we don’t want: any cap with metal pumps or springs such as lotion bottles, fast food drink cup lids, no cap over 8 inches in diameter and no medical supplies.

Set aside a bag, bin or box and start collecting these items.  When we begin meeting again youth will sort, weigh and keep a tally of how many pounds of caps have been collected.  When we have reached our goal, we will send our recycled caps to Green Tree Plastics and will turn them into a bench, picnic table, trash receptacle or other recycled plastic item.  There is a cost to convert the bottle caps.  Watch for opportunities to help with that as we get closer to our goal.

To “weigh in” on setting our county goal, visit the Adams County Facebook page and vote on the Going Green for Community Service poll to decide whether we aim for 200 pounds of plastic to convert to a 6 foot bench or 500 pounds of plastic to make a picnic table.  Go vote now and start saving lids!

Adams County 4-H is once again ready to kick-off the Give a Hand – Give a Can for Hunger food drive benefiting the Interfaith House.  The drive will begin March 1 and run through March 31.  4-H Clubs are encouraged to collect canned food, dried goods, personal hygiene and cleaning products.  Members should mark the bottoms of donations with their club number (listed below) and the club collecting the most donations will receive a pizza party courtesy of the 4-H Advisory Committee.

Donation bins are being placed around the county and can be found soon at the following locations:  Adams County Regional Medical Center and Church 180 in Seaman, Save A Lot in Peebles and West Union, First State Bank in Winchester and Peebles, TSC, the MEAC in Manchester and here at the Extension Office.  Clubs with large donations can drop those off directly to the Interfaith House during their hours of operation; Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 11 a.m. – 2:45 p.m.  If you drop off directly to Interfaith, please remember to report your item count to the Extension Office to be included in the final tally.

Look for these donation bins and encourage your members, friends and family to donate to this worthy cause!

Thank you to the Stirrin’ Up Dust 4-H Club for heading up the food drive in 2020 and the Liberty Farmers 4-H Club for their work the past several years.

1 Adams Co. Beef & More
2 Adams Co. Jr. Dairymen
3 Adams County Junior Leaders
4 Adams County Show Stoppers
5 Barnyard Buddies
6 Bentonville Buckeyes
7 Buckeye Barn Busters
8 Cannon Hill Kids
9 Climbing Clever Cloverbuds
10 Country Crew
11 Curious Clovers
12 Denim & Dirt 4-H Club
13 East Tiffin Aggies
14 Fantastic 4-H’ers
15 Good, Better, Best
16 Green Hustlers
17 Hillcrest Hillbillies
18 Jacksonville Clovers
19 Lawshe Shadow Riders
20 Liberty Classy Clovers
21 Liberty Farmers
22 Lucky Charms
23 Nitty Gritty
24 Stirrin’ Up Dust
25 Unity Farmers
26 West Fork Wonders