Post a picture in the comments! Happy Friday!

It has been a quite a couple of weeks with changes coming quickly. Thank you for your patience with your county 4-H staff, the state 4-H office and OSU Extension.

I know you have many questions: When can we have club meetings? Will there be summer camp?Should we invest in projects? What about fair?

The answer is at this point, we just don’t know. It is all changing rapidly. But what we do know for sure is that we’re committed to doing our part to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. We also know that when we choose to act together, we can have incredible positive impacts.

The actions we’ve taken so far are in alignment with necessary precautions recommended by the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Ohio Department of Health. These are in place to help keep us all from getting, or unintentionally spreading, this virus. This includes the temporary closing to the public of our county Extension office. We’ll continue to be available via email and phone; Paige: Matney.30@osu.edu or Rachael: Fraley.171@osu.edu or phone 740-533-4322.
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To help clarify, ALL 4-H events, programs, and activities scheduled between now and April 20 must be held virtually, postponed, or cancelled.

We are also suspending 4-H project book distribution through 3/31/2020. This means there will be no project book distribution at the local or state level until after March 31. We will continue to monitor the coronavirus situation and will re-evaluate project book distribution as we get closer to March 31 and share more information with you at that time.

All Lawrence County 4-H Enrollment has been received and all 4-H advisors associated with a club have access to review their club’s enrollments through the 4honline.com system and submit changes to Matney.30@osu.edu or by calling 740-533-4322 until April 15th. Need help running the report? 4-H Online Club Advisor Log-in Guide

For our livestock project members and families, Ohio 4-H and the Ohio Department of Agriculture discussed some changes for this year that will help mitigate the effects the corona virus is having on holding in-person programming.For livestock quality assurance (QA) for the 2020 year only:

• • QA must still be completed before the opening day of exhibition, however the 45-day prior to the opening of the exhibition requirement will not be enforced. Certified QA club advisors may train their youth after 4-H activities are able to resume. Those club advisors who have yet to receive their training and packet, may schedule a time with Rachael after April 20 to receive training and packet materials.
• Youth livestock exhibitors (8-18) may take the online YQCA certification. http://yqca.learngrow.io/account/login. Cost $12.00. On-line test out will not be accepted.  Members must use their 4honline login. All enrolled 4-H members already have a login, do not create new. Need help? The Extension Office can provide you with your personal log-in information. Please submit your certification number to Fraley.171@osu.edu for verification. Each 4-H member must have their own certification number; family certification is not accepted.

We encourage our 4-H volunteers, youth, and families to continue moving forward. We understand, given current restraints, this can be difficult but I know we have some of the most creative minds ready to adapt and continuing to do what we do best, “positive youth development”.

I have already seen it demonstrated through so many of our 4-H members giving hearts, helping others through this time of need. I have also seen clubs getting creative and posting club activities, like “Interview Do’s and Don’ts” and finding ways to engage their youth through social media. Continue to be creative and continue to share.

Ohio 4-H has provided a few helpful resources such as Tips and Tricks for Meeting With Your Club When You Can’t Meet (In-Person) and Communicating Online With Your Club. These resources and more can be found at go.osu.edu/4Hadvisorinfo

In the coming days, we’ll post updates on our local Lawrence County 4-H facebook page and Lawrence.osu.edu website. Ohio 4-H is also continually updating their social media pages (Facebook and Twitter) and website. We’ll also include links to resources that you and your children can use. And we’ll do what we can to keep you updated as we learn new information. Please continue to check your e-mail and subscribe to our blog u.osu.edu/lawrence4h. We encourage you to also share all info with your fellow 4-H’ers and on your social media platforms.

As you may be aware, The Ohio State University has announced the suspension of face-to-face instruction and the move to virtual instruction effective immediately through March 31. Events deemed nonessential are postponed between now and April 20, 2020.There will be evaluation whether they should continue in person beyond this time. Our primary concern is for the health and safety of all our people.

Please see the attached Lawrence County 4-H Volunteer & Family Notice effective Immediately through April 20th.

One of the best ways to prevent the spread of viral illnesses is to minimize the circumstances in which individuals might interact and transmit the diseases. The safety of our community is our top priority. We realize that our COVID-19 policy guidelines will cause disruption, but the risk of not acting outweighs the inconvenience of these temporary measures. We will share updates as more information becomes available.