Adams County 4-H will be holding a countywide food drive in the month of March! Clubs are challenged to donate non-perishable food and personal care items to benefit the InterFaith House. The InterFaith House is very low on stock and needs our help.

How to participate:

• Collect donations at your March meeting(s)
• Mark donations with your club number (listed below) using a sticker, sharpie, etc. and drop donations at the Extension office.
  • OR
• Count the donations, drop off at the InterFaith House Mondays, Wednesdays, or Fridays between 11-2:45, and report the number to the Extension office.

The club with the MOST donations will win a pizza party sponsored by the Adams County 4-H Advisory Committee. 

What to donate:

• While all donations are accepted and appreciated, choosing items listed provide those in need with nutritious options.
  • Canned chicken, pork, beef, or fish. Peanut butter, dried or canned beans, nuts.
  • Canned fruit, 100% fruit juice, dried fruit, shelf-stable fruit cups.
  • Canned vegetables, 100% vegetable juice, canned tomato products, soup.
  • Oatmeal, low-sugar/high fiber cereal, whole grain pasta, whole grain rice.
  • Shelf-stable milk, evaporated milk, dry milk, pudding cups.
  • Personal care products such as toilet paper, paper towels, soap, shampoo, toothpaste, etc.

Club numbers

Adams County 4-H members and volunteers are invited to attend our Hands to Larger Service Day of Giving on February 19, 2024 from 12:30 – 4 p.m. at the Extension Office. We will be making fleece tie blankets which will be distributed to elderly members of our community.

Members will have the option to make their own tie blanket, complete with a 4-H logo, for $5.

We are asking members to pre-register by visiting go.osu.edu/LargerService. Refreshments provided by the Adams County 4-H Advisory Committee.

Come join the fun and pledge your Hands to Larger Service!

Adams County 4-H will be participating in a countywide kitchenware drive to benefit the Adams County Homeless Shelter. Through the month of March clubs and members can drop off new or gently used kitchenware at the Extension office. The items will be used to help families as they leave the shelter and set up their new homes. Clubs have been assigned a list to choose from in order to ensure we get a variety of items.

Club names beginning with the letters A-D are asked to choose items from list 1:

Pots, pans, or skillets
Glasses, mugs, or coffee cups
Rubbermaid™ type food storage containers
Colanders
Paring knives or chef knives
Cutting mats or boards
Wooden spoons
Soup ladles
Manual can openers or bottle openers
Slow cooker/crock pot
Any other kitchen items

Clubs with names begging with E-Z are asked to choose items from list 2:

Cookie sheets, muffin tins, or cake pans
Plates, bowls, or saucers
Silverware
Measuring cups or spoons
Dish towels or pot holders (new only please)
Spatulas
Casserole dishes
Vegetable peelers or brushes
Kitchen tongs
Handheld mixers
Electric skillets
Any other kitchen items

All donations welcome and appreciated! Thank you for giving back to our community.

Adams and the surrounding counties 4-H programs are collecting new blankets and pillows for families in western Kentucky affected by the tornado last week. If you would like to contribute, drop off items at the Adams County Extension office on Monday – Thursday from 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. We will be delivering all donations on Friday to the Mayfield/Graves County area.

This is an excellent opportunity to pledge your hands to larger service as we reach out to our fellow 4-Her’s and neighbors to the south. If you have questions, feel free to call the office at 937-544-2339 or email watters.92@osu.edu.

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!