community service

1-20-20 – Make it a Day of Service for Cloverbuds

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The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on January 20, 2020, marks the 25th anniversary of the day of service that celebrates the Civil Rights leader’s life and legacy. Observed each year on the third Monday in January as “a day on, not a day off,” MLK Day is the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service to encourage all Americans to volunteer to improve their communities.

Community service is a big deal in the 4-H program and what a great way to help our younger members focus on giving back to others. Service is a life-long skill that is taught by experience. Much like everything we do in 4-H we like to tag it as experiential learning or learn by doing. So let’s start our 4-H Cloverbud members with a small community service project that will have big impact on their lives and the lives of others in our communities.

Here are links to help you with community service ideas:

Waiting Room Busy Bags is an idea where you can add some 4-H flavor to double as community service and 4-H promotion.

  • Help a child waiting to visit the doctor or local clinic by making Waiting Room Busy Bags. This project was adapted from the St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. Just fill a zippered plastic bag with fun things a child would enjoy doing. The child is encouraged to keep the bag and take it with them.
  • Ideas to include – crayons, markers, colored pencils, paper, coloring books, stickers, sticker books, resealable plastic bags.
  • 4-H items – enrollment information, how to join 4-H, local volunteer opportunities for parents, how to start a 4-H SPIN (SPecial INterest) Club, 4-H stickers, 4-H pencils, make some 4-H coloring pages (4-H flag, 4-H Clover, etc.) Checkout https://shop4-h.org for other Clover branded items.

If you are looking for a children’s book to introduce community service, read on these:

  • “Kiki’s Hats: Our Gifts of Love Live On and On” by Warren Hanson
  • “The Lemonade Club” by Patricia Polacco

Creating Holiday Cards for Community Service

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This time of year is often known for being the season of giving!  So, why not take this opportunity to teach your Cloverbuds about giving by helping them create their own holiday cards to give to others.  For example, cards can be taken and distributed to residents of a local nursing home or tucked into a local food bank’s distribution boxes before delivery!

Supplies Needed:

  • Cardstock and/or construction paper
  • Markers, colored pencils and/or crayons
  • Glue sticks
  • Scissors
  • Ribbon
  • Stickers
  • Old magazine or cards
  • Stencils
  • Glitter

Steps:

  1. Fold the cardstock or construction paper into the desired card size.
  1. Encourage members to use their creativity to decorate the cards by drawing and coloring a picture, tracing a picture with a stencil, cutting pictures out of old magazines or old cards. Add a little something extra with ribbon, glitter or other decorating items you have around.
  1. Have some sample phrases written out and available for members to use on or in their card such as “Merry Christmas”, “Happy Holidays”, “Seasons Greeting”, “Happy New Year” or another greeting of your choice. Some members may still be learning to spell and this might help them.
  1. Be sure your Cloverbud signs their name to their card.

This activity can be fun for the members creating the cards and fun for the individual receiving the cards.  It is a great way for young members to realize that their kindness may bring cheer to someone else!

Hearts of Knots

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Background: If you can’t sleep, count sheep….Why do we count sheep to go to sleep? Is this just an old wive’s tale to help us fall fast asleep? Perhaps, we remember stories from centuries ago that tell us how shepherds counted their herds of sheep every night before bedtime. Legend has it, knowing that all their sheep were in a safe place relaxed and calmed the shepherds, allowing them to fall asleep quickly.

Sheep are multi-purpose animals; they can give us meat, milk, and wool. With today’s lesson, we are going to explore more about wool. The wool from one individual sheep is called fleece, while wool from many sheep combined together is called a clip. Wool can come in different forms depending on the sheep. Long wool sheep have the heaviest fleece; it is normally long and coarse. Medium wool sheep grow a lighter weight fleece, while fine wool sheep produce the more valuable, smaller fiber wool that is less likely to itch when made into clothing.  Wool can be used for clothing, rugs, hats, carpets, blankets, yarn, felt, socks and so much more. However, there is a greater demand for wool than the sheep can produce. To solve this problem, we have to turn to technology. In the 1980’s, textile researchers at Malden Mills in Lawrence, Massachusetts experimented with a fur like fabric made from polyester.  The product was called “polyester fleece” or “polar fleece.” Polyester fleece is extremely warm due to its structure, which allows a space for air pockets between the threads. This polyester fleece can be found in many everyday clothing products.

We are thankful to sheep for giving us wool and science for developing polar fleece which meets so many of our daily needs. As part of our lesson we are going to learn about giving to our community, our loved ones, and people in need. Just like service is a big part of being in 4-H, many careers involve giving back to the community. Today we will explore service career options and use polar fleece by making a no-sew blanket, which we will give to someone in need. We will also make heart pillows to take home that remind participants of the careers we will explore and the feeling youth experience by giving to someone in need.

Local Career Connections:

Careers to discuss that provide community service needs:

  • Caregivers: Social Worker, Counselors, Senior Care, Child Care, Health Care.
  • Emergency Responders: EMS Personnel, Nurse, Firefighter, Emergency Room Doctors.
  • Environmental: Scientists, Engineers, Conservationists, Park Rangers, Government Agencies, Foresters.
  • Community Organizations: Homeless Shelters, Animal Shelters, Food Pantries, Drug Rehabilitation Centers, Veterans Organizations, Crisis Counselors, Educators.

Science Behind :

Polar Fleece, or polyester fleece is a synthetic or man-made material that has been used to make underwear for astronauts, deep sea diving suits and even ear-warmers for winter-born calves. Due to its light-weight make up and ability to hold heat, it is perfect for cold weather clothing.  You would never guess that it is made from recycled plastic bottles!  First, the plastic bottles are shredded into small chips, then sorted by color and cleaned. Next, the plastic chips are dried in a large oven, until all moisture is removed. Then the plastic is melted into a dense liquid that is pushed through a showerhead-like nozzle which forms a thread like structure.   At this point, the thread is still weak so it is heated, combined, and stretched to increase the strength. The final process is to tear apart or crimp the thread so that it looks like fabric. At this point, the short, fluffy, hairy fibers look very much like wool. The fibers are then inspected and sent to a carding machine where it is made into rope-like strands called fleet. The thick ropes are then fed into a spinning machine and twisted into a much finer diameter, and the yarn is collected on a large spool.  Next, the circular knitting machine weaves the yarn into a continuous tube of cloth.  To make the material fuzzy, it needs to run through bristles which are called the napper which makes little loops. It is then sent to the shearing machine to be trimmed, and smoothed out, giving it the fluffy feeling we enjoy. Once the plastic is completely transformed into cloth, the manufacturer will cut and sew the cloth into a garment.

What to Do: (Depending on time or skill level of participants,  the instructor could pre-cut the heart patterns.)

Step 1: Cut squares large enough for your heart pattern.  Place two of the fabric pieces together and trace your heart pattern with chalk.

Step 2: Cut both pieces of fabric along the chalk pattern.

Step 3: Trace a smaller heart pattern within the large heart. Be sure to leave at least 2-3 cm between the two borders. See pattern enclosed with lesson. Heart Pillow Pattern-zq8odw

Step 4: Cut small strips around the heart, making sure they are long enough to tie. The strips can be about half an inch wide.

Step 5: Tie the two pieces together in a knot. Once you have most of the knots tied, stuff the heart with stuffing or cotton. Finish tying the rest of the knots.

Step 6: Optional- Trim the knot strips around the heart.

Go Over Findings:

Investigate, Create, & Take:  Investigators can take with them:

  • Small Heart Pillow
  • Service Career Options

Additional add on activities:

  • Bring in samples of real fleece, wool clothing or other wool products.
  • Show pictures of sheep, goats, llamas or other animals that are also used for fiber products.
  • Visit a sheep farm, or have a lamb visit the classroom.

Sources:

Real men wear wool, Sheep101.info, http://www.sheep101.info/wool.html

How Products are Made, Polyester Fleece, http://www.madehow.com/Volume-4/Polyester-Fleece.html

How It’s Made-Wool, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEYsmzophTA

How It’s Made Recycled Polyester Yarn, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEYsmzophTA

Developed and Reviewed By:

Tiffany Sanders Riehm, Gallia County 4-H Program Assistant, Ohio State University Extension 4-H Youth Development, riehm.11@osu.edu. Tracy Winters, Gallia County 4-H Extension Educator, Ohio State University Extension 4-H Youth Development and Michelle Stumbo, Meigs County 4-H Extension Educator, Ohio State University 4-H Youth Development