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2014 Logan County Fair

Explore the 4-H’s during the Logan County Fair
Passport to 4-H will demonstrate how great it can be

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[August 05, 2014]  LINCOLN - This evening between the hours of 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. kids at the fair are invited to participated in “Passport to 4-H.”

According to Carissa Akpore, the event is an opportunity for kids who are not currently in 4-H to learn what the clubs are all about, and have fun doing it as well as get some great prizes.

Akpore said recently the event has been planned to look something like the “Amazing Race." There will be stations located on the fairgrounds, near the grandstand-midway area and out by the livestock barns. Kids will go to the station and perform a specific task. When the task is completed, they will receive a stamp on their passport. When all four stamps have been earned, the participants will go to the Logan County Extension Office parking lot to check in and show their passport.

When they check in at the extension office, they will receive a free prize for their participation, and their name will be put into a drawing for a larger gift. Akpore said the “grand prize” drawing would be made up of a variety of things of things including food coupons and ride passes to be used at the fair.

The Passport project is being done so kids who may not be aware of what 4-H is all about can get a sampling of it. The stations will have themes as will their tasks that relate directly to the 4 H’s, Head - Hands - Health - Heart.



At the Head station, kids will get to play a trivia game that illustrates thinking and learning.

At Hands, they will conduct a science experiment that shows that doing something ‘hands-on’ can be a great learning experience as well as a lot of fun.

When kids get to the Health station, they will have an obstacle course they have to pass through. 4-H teaches that being active is important to a child’s overall wellbeing, and an obstacle course will illustrate that getting daily exercise can be fun and challenging.

At the Heart stop, kids will make a get-well card. This will help kids understand that they should have compassion for others. Akpore said the cards will then be given to a local organization such as one of the nursing homes in town.

The Logan County 4-H is sponsoring this event, but they are getting a lot of help from two specific 4-H subgroups, the 4-H Ambassadors and the “YES!” group.

The Ambassadors are high school age 4-H’ers. The group does a lot of great things including fun activities and community service projects. She spoke about one of the projects they did this last year for community service. The kids get together and discuss what they see as a need in the community. This year they talked about the school breakfast and lunch program at local schools.

Children who otherwise might not get a nutritious meal during the day have that opportunity at school. But they became concerned about what those same children do on the weekend. With the diversity of families that we have today, do their parents work during weekends? Do they have what they need in the way of food when mom, dad, or both are at work?

The Ambassadors decided they would put together weekend snack bags to take to the local schools. The bags were then distributed by the school, to children whom they felt could benefit from a weekend food program. Akpore said the kids in the Ambassadors decided on what to include in the bags. They chose items that would need no preparation, or would be safe and easy preparation so children didn’t have to try and cook the food.

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Akpore said when kids join 4-H, this is one group they can join if they are age appropriate and learn more about being a community-minded citizen.

The second group “YES!” is for junior high students. Again the group is open to any 4-H member. Akpore said this group also does fun projects that give them social time together, teaches them new life skills, and they do community projects as well.

She said again, the kids decide what their community service project will be. This year they met and discussed what it would be like to be a kid whose family couldn’t afford to celebrate their birthday. The YES! group understood, when families are living on a limited income, some things have to be cut out. The group then decided what they wanted to do was create birthday bags to be given to the local food pantry.

The bags include a cake mix, frosting, candles, and small, inexpensive favors, enough for a small birthday party. Akpore said this was a nice activity for the group, and they enjoyed giving a local child a nicer birthday. Being kids themselves, the YES! group thought of something that perhaps a lot of adults wouldn’t have. Food pantry donations often include the essentials, vegetables and non-perishable food, all geared toward feeding the entire family. The YES! group, which consists of kids, felt it was only appropriate that they targeted their community service project to benefit their peers.

When 4-H began 100 years ago, the purpose of the club was to introduce youngsters to innovations in the agriculture arena. Kids studied crops and livestock, and the membership was young men. Over the years, the membership evolved as the program began offering projects in gardening, food preservation and home economics, and young girls began joining as well. The membership was ultimately farm kids in the beginning, but over the years 4-H has continued to grow and evolve with the times. Today 4-H offers something for everyone. Kids, whether they grew up on a farm or in the city, can find projects and opportunities in 4-H that will help them grow into more successful adults.
 


A list of available projects to be involved in today includes everything from art to woodworking, rocketry to computer sciences, and visual arts to communication arts and photography.

Akpore said when the kids complete their passports; they will have gotten just a small taste of what 4-H could be for them personally, and she is hopeful that it will entice more youngsters to become a part of this important youth organization.

[By NILA SMITH]

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