Volunteers

Bottle Cap Weigh In – Sunday, May 21

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The Junior Leaders will be continuing with their Bottle Cap Project for 2023 and need your help collecting plastic caps to turn into benches. Work within your club to collect clean plastic bottle caps and lids. All plastic lids are accepted including cleaned out k-cups, no plastic with metal parts or paper linings please!

The next weight in will be May 21 from 11am-1pm in the #4 Beef Barn.

The club who collects the most caps by weight will receive a cash prize for your club to use for end of the year activities. If your club would like to fundraise to purchase a bench for your club, contact Aubry (Fowler.443@osu.edu) for more details about this optional opportunity.

Community Service Challenge for 4-H Clubs

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Calling all 4-H Clubs! The Ohio 4-H Teen Leadership Council has a community service challenge for you in honor of Earth Day this month! We challenge you to complete one or more of these community service projects related to environmental stewardship listed on the attached flyer. If your club completes one of these activities, follow the link/ QR code listed to add your club’s name (go.osu.edu/4HClubEarthDay). You might be featured on our social media, AND you are automatically entered into a drawing to win a prize from the 4-H mall for your club! Entries are due by June 1st, 2023. Happy Earth Day, from The Ohio 4-H Teen Leadership Council!

 

Master 4-H PetPALS Volunteer Leader Training

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This opportunity is available to adults and teens. Read on for more information!

Master 4-H PetPALS Volunteer Leader Training will be held on Sunday, April 23, from 1:00pm – 7:00pm at the Nationwide & Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center. Registrations are due by Monday April 17. The registration fee is $45.00 for adults and $35.00 for youth (13+). Registration is online only and can be found at https://go.osu.edu/4-hpetpals2023.

If interested in attending, please register by the deadline and select “pay by check” and checkout. Forward your email to Leslie Cooksey at cooksey.25@osu.edu. We will be using OSU 4-H Endowment Interest Funds to cover the cost of registrations for Fairfield County volunteers/teens attending.

Please note that this training is later in the 4-H year than we would like. It is the first training offered since 2020 and it took a little more to organize than originally thought. The goal was a quality training so please bear with us until we get back on a more regular schedule. This training will be offered every February in the future.

What is 4-H PetPALS?

4-H PetPALS is an intergeneration leader-directed project connecting youth and their pets with senior adults and other people in various types of health care facilities, hospices, as well as youth in school programs, libraries, etc. 4-H members learn to select, socialize and train appropriate pets to participate as youth pet teams in animal-assisted activities.

To be a 4-H member enrolled in 4-H PetPALS, there must be a trained adult Master 4-H PetPALS Volunteer giving leadership to this project. This can be in a separate 4-H PetPALS club or within an existing 4-H Club.

The training on April 23 will give volunteers the information needed to become 4-H PetPALS advisors. Older youth (13+) are also welcome to attend the training. They will engage in activities to help the adult advisors teach their members.

Information about 4-H PetPALS can be found at https://ohio4h.org/animalsciences/ohio-4-h-petpals.

Interested volunteers contact Renee Clark clark.471@osu.edu or Sara Deakin deakin.5@osu.edu if they have questions.

Last Chance: QA Instructor Training for Advisors is April 26th

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2023 Fairfield County Quality Assurance: Instructor Training for 4-H and FFA Advisors, Superintendents, and Show Committee Members

Quality Assurance is an annual Ohio Department of Agriculture (see 901-19-07 of Ohio Administrative Code) requirement for 4-H and FFA youth to exhibit at the Fairfield County Junior Fair who are enrolled in beef (breeding and market), goats (dairy, meat, market, & pygmy),rabbits (market and breeding – this does not include pet rabbits), sheep (breeding and market), dairy cattle (breeding and feeders),poultry (breeding and market), hogs, and alpacas/llamas. Fairfield County youth must attend a qualified Quality Assurance Clinic by June 30th of the current year to be eligible to show at the 2023 Fairfield County Junior Fair. Youth who wish to show in a Junior Livestock Show at the Ohio State Fair should have QA completed by June 1st, 2023.

We will continue the same process of allowing 4-H club volunteers/FFA chapter advisors to teach QA at the club/chapter level IN-PERSON. We are looking for interested “Assistant Instructors” to be trained (and “certified”) to educate exhibitors on the required Good Production Practices (GPP’s) to be covered in 2023. As a certified Assistant Instructor, you will be able to teach Quality Assurance at the club/chapter level for 2023 after completing this training. We will also be looking for trained individuals to help with our countywide make-up dates on Saturday, May 6th (9:00 – 10:30 a.m.) or Sunday, May 21st (12:00 – 1:30 p.m.) at the fairgrounds.

All 4-H Advisors, FFA Advisors, and Show Committee Members are invited to attend the QA Instructor Training. Please share with your fellow advisors to be sure they know about this information.

The final QA instructor trainings will be: Wednesday, April 26th at 6:30 p.m. at the Ag Center/Extension Office.

Please RSVP to Leslie Cooksey at cooksey.25@osu.edu or call the Extension Office at 740-653-5419.

 At the training, you will:

  1. Learn the 10 Good Production Practices of Quality Assurance Education and which GPP’s need to be covered for 2023.
  2. Learn the documentation process planned for 2023. This will be structured for smaller groups and more at the club/chapter level.
  3. Receive training materials to cover this year’s required GPP’s for 2023. As an instructor, you will teach market exhibitors about all 10 GPP’s but go in detail on 3 of them. Activities will be provided to you to work through with market exhibitors for the 3 required GPP’s.
  4. Learn more about how record keeping and the accountability of your instruction to clubs and chapters needs to be documented and returned to the OSU Extension Office to ensure market exhibitors will then be eligible to show market livestock at the 2023 Fairfield County Fair. As a reminder, the deadline to complete Quality Assurance for Fairfield County Junior Fair Exhibitors is June 30th of the current year.
  5. Learn about any changes in Ohio Department of Agricultural Fair Exhibition Rules that affect Junior Fair Livestock Exhibitors so that you can share these with all livestock participants in your club/chapter.

If questions, Leslie (cooksey.25@osu.edu) know!

We are looking forward to continuing this process in 2023.

4th H (Health) Club Challenge

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We pledge our “health to better living” but do we actually practice it? The 4th H Club Challenge encourages Ohio 4-H Clubs to learn, practice, and advocate for healthy choices and behaviors at 4-H club meetings. Practicing healthy habits and choices now has lifelong effects on the health of youth.

Each club that completes the challenge before the deadline will enter into the $100 voucher drawing for their region to use for their club (project books, educational tools, etc.)! Each region will have a winner. The first 25 clubs that complete the registration and pre-survey will get an extra entry. How does it work? Apply 3 healthy practices per meeting at 6 or more 4-H clubs/meetings from April – December 2023.

  1. Register and complete pre-survey.
  2. Record the dates and activities in the 4th H tracker link. (the tracker link will be provided after registering)
  3. Share a picture of your club doing a healthy practice on social media. Be sure to include the official hashtag #Ohio4thHClubChallenge.
  4. Submit all activities to the tracker link by December 31st, 2023.

 

More information can be found at https://go.osu.edu/4thHClubChallenge.

Member Handbook Typo – Camp Move In Days

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Hello 4-H Families,

Thank you to all who have read their member handbook and sent us clarifying questions about camp information. We apologize for these typos and wanted to provide clarification.

The following information is correct and has been updated in the member handbook on page 47:

Camp Check-In: Camp Dismissal:
Day Camp Daily, 9:00am (June 13-15) Daily, 4:00pm (June 13-15)
Cloverbud Camp Saturday, June 17, 9:00-9:30am Saturday, June 17, 4:00pm
Junior Camp Tuesday, June 20, 3:30-4:30pm Friday, June 23, 10:00am
Senior Camp Friday, June 30, 3:30-4:30pm Monday, July 3, 10:00am

We will fix this in the online handbook and any books printed going forward. Please let our office (740-653-5419) if you have any questions!

4-H Enrollment is Now Open!

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We look forward to receiving your enrollments for the 2023 4-H year. All enrollments are due through 4-H Online by April 15, 2023.

To enroll, please visit https://oh.4honline.com.

Previous families and advisors, please use the email and password from last year to enroll.  Not sure what email you used?  Please contact Haley Black at black.768@osu.edu or 740-277-4622.

New families, please visit https://fairfield.osu.edu/program-areas/4-h-youth-development/4-h-online-information for instructions and a video to help you enroll.  Your club advisors can also help you enroll.

As a reminder, Cloverbud members (age 5-8 and currently in Kindergarten through 2nd grade as of Jan 1, 2022) will enroll in 710GPM or COP-710HC.  Cloverbuds do not enroll in traditional project numbers, as they are a non-competitive, activity based program. Cloverbud members do have the option of purchasing the 715 My Cloverbud Year book to keep track of what they do during the club year.

 

Bottle Cap Challenge: Battle of the 4-H Clubs!!

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The Junior Leaders will be continuing with their Bottle Cap Project for 2023 and need your help collecting plastic caps to turn into benches. Work within your club to collect clean plastic bottle caps and lids. Store them during our “off” time in bags – inside a box as they can get heavy. All plastic lids are accepted including cleaned out k-cups, no plastic with metal parts or paper linings please!

The club who collects the most caps by weight will receive a cash prize for your club to use for end of the year activities.

Weigh Ins will be held May 6 from 9-11am and May 21 from 11am-1pm in the #4 Beef Barn.

If your club would like to fundraise to purchase a bench for your club, contact Aubry (Fowler.443@osu.edu) for more details about this optional opportunity.

Member Handbook Typo – Camp Fee Correction

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Hello 4-H Families,

We have been notified that the camp fee chart in the Member Handbook is incorrect. The fees for Day Camp & Cloverbud Camp are switched. We will fix this in the online handbook and any books printed going forward.

The correct information is below:

CAMP FEES: Camp Full Fee Campership Amount Due (by May 15th)
Day Camp (grades 3,4,5,6,7,8,9) (June 13th-15th) $100.00 $50.00 $50.00
Cloverbud Day Camp (grades K-2) (June 17th) $50.00 $25.00 $25.00
Junior Camp (grades 3,4,5 ) (June 20th-23rd) $200.00 $100.00 $100.00
Senior Camp (grades 6,7,8,9) (June 30th-July 3rd) $200.00 $100.00 $100.00

Camp registration will open May 1st and be completed electronically (go.osu.edu/FCCamp). If you have any questions, please contact our office at 740-653-5419. Thank you!