News : National 4-H week: County-wide meeting for members, prospective members Oct. 3

The Benton County Extension Office and 4-H programs are planning a county-wide 4-H meeting this Sunday.

All 4-H Clubs from the county will be represented at the meeting from 3-5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 3, at the beef show ring at the Benton County Fairgrounds in Vinton.

Also, any child from grade 4-12, or any parents, interested in learning more about 4-H and its programs, or in joining a club, are invited.

4-H Clubs all over the country will be marking National 4-H week.

Here are 101 ways that a 4-H member, leader, parent, or supporter can celebrate:

Celebrations:

1. Create a media event by getting a commitment from every 4-H'er for individual service projects during National 4-H Week. Print their pledges in the newspaper and encourage the members to supply photos of their work. Better yet, send the newspaper photographer to catch the 4-H'ers at work.

2. Have a reception at the courthouse, or downtown, or at the mall. Serve limeade!

3. Distribute green bottles of bubbles. Invite everyone to have a green bubble-blowing party and 4-H Week reception.

4. Have a green balloon day. Give away 4-H balloons.

5. Have an ice cream social with 4-H'ers, county officials, and volunteers. Showcase youth projects and exhibits.

6. Select a National 4-H Week baby!The first baby born during 4-H Week in the county (if you have a county hospital that delivers) is named the 4-H baby. Get sponsorship from local vendors for diapers, gas to carry baby home, milk/formula, flowers, baby clothes, etc. Give baby a 4-H membership card.

7. Have a National 4-H Week street party under a big 4-H banner.

8. Have a car show...anything from 1914 to 2003! After all, there have been a lot of changes in vehicles and 4-H since 1914!

9. Have an up-to-the minute fashion show and 4-H Week reception. Include an outfit from 1914 as a reminder of how 4-H has changed since 1914.

10. Have a gala premiere of your newest video (or slide set) of 4-H highlights from the past year.

11. Kick off 4-H Week with a Battle of the Bands. Invite everyone.

12. Have a county-wide 4-H scavenger hunt. Advertise a list of items (a real four-leaf clover, a 4-H enrollment card, the autograph of a 4-H volunteer, the autograph of a 4-H donor, a snapshot of a 4-H'er, etc.). The first person to bring all the correct items to a designated volunteer or the Extension office, receives a savings bond or nice donated prize.

13. Ask local churches to acknowledge 4-H Sunday (October 1) and 4-H members who are present.

14. Invite outstanding local 4-H alumni for an autograph-signing party.

15. End the week with your annual 4-H awards banquet. Give it a new twist with make-your-own-omelet, make-a-crepe, world's longest sandwich supper, late-night breakfast, chili cook-off, salad supper, fish fry, outdoor chicken barbeque, finger-food-fellowship, spaghetti - 17 ways, the 4-H diner, funniest 4-H video contest, 4-H academy awards, Unsolved 4-H Mysteries (with skits about 4-H'ers and leaders), a TV Guide party (with 4-H related spoofs from a variety of shows), a Wheel-of-4-H Night where participants are chosen from the audience to guess (and fill-in the blanks for) major 4-H successes from the past year, a 4-H Survivor event, 4-H... the Strongest Link Show or other ideas from your 4-H'ers healthy imaginations.

Media & Marketing:

16. Provide the local newspaper with articles written by members, volunteers, alumni and donors for a 4-H insert.

17. Select a dozen entries in a call for PSA's on 4-H. Let the authors tape the spots for local radio stations.

18. Have fortune cookies made, with a 4-H message inside each one. Distribute them in restaurants and in other public places.

19. Schedule 4-H members and/or adult leaders to present PTA and civic meeting programs.

20. Distribute a thought-for-the-day for each day of National 4-H Week. Send them to all the churches in your community, for enclosure in their bulletins.

21. Put a 4-H message on grocery bags.

22. Make 4-H badges or buttons to wear and distribute.

23. Get 4-H balloons. Distribute them everywhere!

24. Have a call for 4-H bumper sticker designs. Let a local printer or artist select an entry. Unveil and distribute the bumper stickers during 4-H week.

25. Initiate a 4-H'er of the Week newspaper photo feature during 4-H Week. Let a panel of volunteers select the featured 4-H'er using fair criteria and including all ages and interests. Better yet, have a 4-H'er of the Day everyday of 4-H Week.

26. Cover your county with 4-H posters! Encourage EVERY 4-H'er to bring a 4-H poster to the club meeting. Let a committee of 4-H'ers and volunteers be responsible for distributing signs in every business and public places.

27. Place 4-H promotional placemats in local restaurants.

28. Use a local cable station to convey 4-H messages and announcements.

29. Fly a 4-H flag on the town square.

30. Radio contest: Use questions based on 4-H history and 4-H today. Callers who give correct answers, win a prize. Use 4-H camp T-Shirts, 4-H pens and pencils, and other promotional trinkets.

31. Use the 4-H camp video and Pat Head Summit's videos in businesses with television that continually play.

32. Use 4-H promotional/educational exhibits at businesses, fairs, schools, banks and supermarkets.

33. Distribute 4-H appreciation items or 4-H survival kits to 4-H teacher leaders, school principals (green life savers, 4-H pencil, 4-H calendar, etc.).

34. Ask local businesses to put 4-H is Great! Get Into It! on their signs during the week.

35. Solicit billboard designs. Select one to unveil during 4-H Week.

36. Have a two-way teen membership marathon. Include a fun-run race and a teen recruitment race. Plan a really special short trip or event for the top 10 recruiters and their new teen members. Let other teen members host the event. And invite every teen who participated in the fun-run.

Events and Activities:

37. Have a First Annual National 4-H Week Pet Show!

38. Have a 4-H Cookie-baking Marathon and deliver cookies to police departments, teachers, school board members, fire departments, and other community services.

39. Have contests for T-Shirts, posters, bumper-stickers, 4-H displays, PSA's, essays and feature stories. Use them!

40. Have a milk shake marathon or a taste-of-our-county event.

41. Have a 4-H Family Fun Night.

42. Have a 4-H Carnival.

43. Have a 4-H Family Hayride.

44. Have a 4-H Family Scavenger Hunt.

45. Have a 4-H Family Chili Cook-off.

46. Have a 4-H Family Open House where people visit one of several homes in which 4-H pictures and project memorabilia are displayed.

47. Organize a 4-H Week committee for next year's events!

Club Meetings:

48. Have an enrollment party at each meeting.

49. Have a reception for the principal and teachers.

50. Give a clover sticker to everyone you find smiling.

51. Distribute something 4-H'y for every bulletin board.

52. Distribute a list of celebrity 4-H alumni. Scramble the names or have them fill-in-the-blanks.

53. Invite teen 4-H'ers and 4-H alumni to explain 4-H.

54. Give door prizes (4-H pencils, T-Shirts, Blue Tick Tickets, etc.) by drawing completed enrollment cards.

55. Take a jar of green jelly beans to each meeting. Let members guess how many jelly beans are in the jar. Let the number equal the number of 4-H'ers in your county or in the state last year. Explain that it would take a certain number of jars to hold that many jelly beans.

Recognition for Donors & Other 4-H Supporters:

56. 4-H'ers deliver green and white mints.

57. 4-H'ers write thank you notes.

58. 4-H'ers distribute thank you posters for windows.

59. 4-H'ers distribute 4-H T-Shirts.

60. 4-H'ers distribute cookies.

61. Invite them to a donor-appreciation campfire!

62. 4-H'ers deliver original thank you poems or singing thank-you-grams.

63. Mail or deliver an audio or video cassette of 4-H'ers saying thank you.

64. Mail them a video tape of the past year's 4-H highlights.

65. 4-H'ers could grow or transplant shamrocks to deliver to donors and other supporters during 4-H Week.

66. Distribute 4-H pencils.

67. Have special ribbons made (rosettes are great!) that read 4-H VIP.

68. 4-H'ers make and deliver jars of green and white jelly beans.

69. Mail them a video (or even audio tape) of a massive standing ovation!!

70. 4-H'ers deliver 4-H calendars to them.

As A Club:

71. Make a quilt.

72. Make a flag or a banner.

73. Make clover-shaped cookies to deliver to shut-ins.

74. Present a skit.

75. Sing a song.

76. Have a reception for parents.

77. Do a service-learning activity.

78. Prepare a meal. Invite the parents as guests.

79. Have a talent show. Invite friends, parents and donors.

80. Do a service project.

81. Honor an adult volunteer, teen leader or donor.

82. Make cookies for the school custodians, secretaries, cafeteria staff and bus drivers.

83. Prepare refreshments for the teachers' lounge.

84. Decorate a bulleting board.

85. Present a thought-for-the-day over the intercom each morning.

86. Display the 4-H flag for the week.

87. Advertise a wear-green day. Distribute green and white mints to everyone who wears green that day; or distribute tickets to a fun 4-H event.

Last Minute Ideas:

88. Take a potted plant to key supporters. Stick a paper 4-H clover on a florist stem in the pot.

89. Have a phone-a-thon. 4-H'ers phone all the donors and sponsors to say thanks.

90. Distribute books or packs of lifesavers with a note You've been one for us this year! Thank you.

91. Distribute One Million Dollar candy bars with a note You're worth more than this. Thanks for being a friend to 4-H.

92. Add a 4-H Week message to every e-mail and written correspondence during the week.

93. Have everyone is the office answer the phone with Happy 4-H Week!

94. Have 4-H'ers deliver small toy bulldozers with a note We'd move the earth for you. Thanks for putting wheels on 4-H this year.

95. Take a donor to lunch each day during 4-H Week. Recruit volunteers and co-workers to do the same. If possible, let 4-H'ers take a donor or volunteer to lunch, even if it's in the school cafeteria.

96. Send sticks or packs of gum with notes attached Thanks for sticking with 4-H!

97. Ask an office building to turn lights on at night to spell 4-H if you have a building that's large enough.

98. Ask volunteers to stop by the high schools where your teen 4-H'ers are. Deliver them a little care bag or a good luck with all your tests this week note and surprise. Sometimes schools will have office helpers put surprises in the lockers for you.

99. Have a 4-H pizza party for 4-H'ers caught wearing green during 4-H Week.

100. Let teen council members create and display banners celebrating the 4-H Centennial, like "not getting older... getting better," new and now - 4-H," or "4-H for teens for 100 years!"

101. Check out the service learning projects conducted by 4-H'ers last year in celebration of National 4-H Week.