August 2021 4-H Newsletter
4-H Happenings
A monthly newsletter for Hancock County 4-H Members
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Table of Contents
Upcoming Dates| County News | Club News | State News | Leaders Meeting Minutes | Cooking with Kids
Upcoming Dates to Remember
August 13 – Deadline to Register for 4-H Summer Learning Series
August 31 – Deadline to Register for Maine 4-H Virtual Fair – See State News
August 27 – Steer Tickets are Due at the Extension Office
August 31– Blue Hill Fair Exhibits are Due at the Extension Office
Sept. 2-6 – Blue Hill Fair – Blue Hill Fairgrounds
Sept. 3 – 4-H Cake Contest – Blue Hill Fair – Livestock Ring
Sept. 3 – Beef Recipe Cookoff – Blue Hill Fair – Livestock Ring
County News
4-H Summer Learning Series – There are 3 weeks left of the 4-H Summer
Learning Series – we’ve been having so much fun, it’s flying by! Despite the circumstances that necessitated virtual learning last year, 4-H has emerged as one of the leaders of hands-on, engaging, virtual learning. Wondering how in the world 4-H pulls off a successful hands-on learning experience over Zoom? Check out the photos for a “window” into our awesome world of virtual learning… 4-H style! There is still time to register for the remaining August workshops – don’t miss out!
Leaders’ Meeting – The next Leaders’ Association meeting will be by Zoom on August 10, at 4:30 pm. Email carla.scocchi@maine.edu for the private link.
Photo Contest – Thank you to all 4-H’ers who submitted their photos to the 2021 Photo Contest. We had 16 participants and 56 photos submitted. These will be judged virtually; in the meantime, if you’d like to showcase your work IN PERSON, please print your photo, mount them on an 8” x 10” or larger foam board or cardboard for stability and submit them to the office by August 16th – 30th.
4-H Membership Cards – if anyone needs a 4-H membership card to receive a discount from Blue Seal or any other company, please let Joyce know and she’ll mail one out to you – joyce.Fortier@maine.edu.
Congratulations to Katherine Jordan Cox! – Katherine, daughter to Brenda,
Jolly Juniors 4-H Club Leader, is in her last year at the University of North Georgia in Dahlonega pursuing a doctorate degree in Physical Therapy. She married Daniel Cox of Ellsworth on May 15th in a beautiful ceremony in Acadia National Park and a super fun reception on the Waltham Ridge. She and Dan are currently living in Gainesville, Georgia but will be traveling to Charleston, NC, in the fall and Savannah, GA next spring for her clinicals. Katherine is also a 4-H leader and still supports the Jolly Juniors when home on breaks!
4-H @ The Blue Hill Fair – Please check out our
information booklet, “4-H @ The Blue Hill Fair”. This is a place where you can go to find the information you need to know about everything 4-H during the fair. It includes a schedule of 4-H events, Exhibit Hall rules and categories, Livestock Projects, Food Booth Info, Forms, and more! Please also check out the Blue Hill Fair section of our website for all of this information and more.
If you have feedback about this info packet, the website, or anything else you would like to have before or during the fair, please let us know!
Steer Tickets have arrived – ANNUAL STEER TICKET RAFFLE BEGINS! – The Steer Ticket fundraiser is the premier fundraiser for the Hancock County 4-H Leaders’ Association. Tickets are $1 each; 15 cents go directly to the 4-H Club that sells the tickets, 85 cents go to the Leaders’ Association to support 4-H programming, scholarships, county events, and more.
The Steer Ticket Raffle winner will receive a cut to order, freezer-ready Beef Steer raised by a Hancock County 4-H’er, OR $650 cash. The drawing is at 5pm on Labor Day at the Blue Hill Fair. The 4-H Club AND the 4-H’er who sell the most tickets will receive an award at Cloverfest .
Tickets are now available for pick up by 4-H’ers at the Extension Office. Steer ticket money must be returned to the Extension Office to Joyce Fortier by August 27th or the fifteen cent club money per ticket will be forfeited! Steer tickets are not to be brought to the Blue Hill Fair.
Also, remember that we cannot sell raffle tickets to people under 16 years old and youth under 18 should not be handling money. Adults should not put youth’s names on the tickets. New this year – You can also buy tickets online,
Volunteers needed for 4-H Food Booth and Steer Ticket Table – Calling all 4-H families! – The 4-H Food Booth and Steer Ticket Raffle are the two largest fundraisers for the Hancock County 4-H Leaders’ Association. The funds raised are used to support the 4-H programs you love all year long – Cloverfest, June Jamboree, Public Speaking, Style Revue, Leaders Banquet, and so much more! We rely on our strong 4-H community to deliver quality youth programs in Hancock County, and we are asking 4-H Clubs, Groups, Independents, and Parents/Guardians to volunteer their time during the Blue Hill Fair (August 29 – Sept 2). We need:
- Youth AND Adult Volunteers for the 4-H Food Booth: “Front” of the booth (taking orders, distributing food), and “Back” of the booth (cooking burgers, hot dogs, etc)
- Youth AND Adult Volunteers for the Steer Ticket Table: selling Steer Tickets to fairgoers. Adults needed to handle the money.
- Volunteering here is a requirement to win the Razor Crosman Award.
If you haven’t volunteered at the fair before, please consider contributing to this important cause this year! Contact Joyce at the Extension Office to sign up for shift at the Food Booth and/or the Steer Ticket Table: joyce.fortier@maine.edu or 207-667-8212.
4-H Cake Contest – Friday, Sept. 3rd , 6:30 PM, at the Blue Hill Fair Livestock Show Ring. 4-H Clubs, Groups, and Independents may enter. 4-H Clubs and Groups may enter up to three (3) cakes. Independents may enter one (1) cake. The Theme this year is: 4-H, Full Steam Ahead! All counties may participate. Create a great tasting cake that is also a delight to look at and helps promote 4-H in Maine. Prizes will be awarded! Audience will enjoy sampling the cakes. 4-H’ers are also encouraged to enter the Beef Recipe Cookoff.
Club News
Jolly Juniors – have been hard at work trying to catch up! We
had a camp day where we started our woodworking projects and some tried their hand at crocheting! Three members made monkey bread with Joannie, and it was the best one yet! All the members agreed it was a tasty snack joined with healthy grapes, too! Of course, we had to get in some swimming even if it was an overcast day. A campfire helped warm us all up!
Five Jolly Juniors joined Carla in the 4-H Summer Learning Series workshop, “Boat Building“ and had such a great time they will be leading the activity at our club meeting coming up soon. Submitted by club leader, Brenda Jordan
State News
- 4-H Summer Learning Series – Part II Registration Still Open! – Maine 4-H is offering its hands-on virtual summer learning series through August 20 with over 50 workshops open to all youth ages 5–18. The 4-H Summer Learning Series includes learning tracks in Arts and Crafts, Food and Nutrition, STEM, Marine Science and Aquaculture, Animal Science and Agriculture, Teen Leadership, and more! Offline projects that can be completed at home are also available.
The series is free; registration is required and is open until August 13. Register and find more information on the 4-H Summer Learning Series webpage. For more information or to request a reasonable accommodation, contact Jessy Brainerd, 207.581.3877; jessica.brainerd@maine.edu. - Enter Your Projects in the Maine State Virtual Fair! – Have you been working hard on a 4-H project that you’re ready to show off? The 2021 Virtual Exhibit Hall is here! Entering projects in your actual fair this summer? Consider entering them in the Maine State Virtual Exhibit Hall as well! We will be accepting submissions now through August 31st. We can’t wait to see what our talented Maine 4-Hers have created! Information about exhibit categories, submission guidelines, and judging can be found on the Maine State Virtual Fair web page.
- National Trip Interviews, 2021 – In the past, we would have held interviews for National Trips in the early spring. At the time, we had youth that had been chosen but had not been able to participate yet due to the pandemic. It was decided that it was not in our best interest to add more numbers to those delegations given we still did not know the status of the pandemic and where all was headed. So, therefore we did not hold any National trip interviews in 2021. We will resume in 2022. If you have questions, please email Heidi Palmer at heidi.thuotte@maine.edu.
- Citizenship Washington Focus (CWF) 2021 – CWF 2020 was canceled due to the pandemic. Maine 4-H was committed to sending the 2020 delegation in July of 2021. As we moved forward with the pandemic still around us, last winter the decision was made by National 4-H to hold CWF 2021 virtually. Taking into consideration many different factors, we have decided not to participate in the CWF Conference virtually this year. We will however be encouraging that the same delegation to be ready for July 2022. All youth must still be between the ages of 14 to 18 and be an enrolled member in 2022. We realize that, unfortunately, some youth will have aged out, etc. This is very unfortunate but hopefully, those youth will come back when adult life gets underway for them and perhaps chaperone with us. Monies that were sent in for the trips have been left on file and we will be reaching out to those individuals regarding that. If you have questions, please email Heidi Palmer at heidi.thuotte@maine.edu.
- National 4-H Congress 2021 – Exciting news! National Congress 2021 will be happening in person in November 2021! As with other trips, Maine 4-H already has a delegation picked from previous National Interviews. We will be reaching out to that group of youth to see where they are at. These youth will need to still be age 14-18 and still enrolled in 4-H. If you have questions, please email Heidi Palmer at heidi.thuotte@maine.edu.
Leaders Meeting Minutes
July 13th, 2021
–Zoom meeting due to COVID-19–
Present- Lisa Carney, Lee Sargent, Heather Linnehan, Joannie Jodrey, Terry Swazey and office staff Carla Scocchi and Zabet NeuCollins (7).
Terry read the treasurer’s report.
Old Business:
Brenda’s group will meet and start planning the year tomorrow.
Only have one new goat club (Cynthia Andrews in Lamoine)
Food Booth – Friends and Family has agreed to supply burgers again, they would like a list.
New shift times – Breakfast 6-10, Lunch 10-3, Dinner 3-8. Start Thursday with dinner (3pm). Meet at the booth this Sunday at 2pm, ask Dwight. Print out and bring check lists.
No entry forms for the horse show on the BHF website yet; should be up soon.
Theme for the fair is “4-H – Full Steam Ahead”
Steer tickets have come in. Terry and Zabet set up a PayPal Account so that people can pay online. The link and more information will be in the newsletter.
New Business:
The summer learning series is going very well! No big updates to guidelines.
We should be able to set up at Tractor Supply to sell tickets.
UMaine is planning to go back to normal meetings in the fall, so we may be able to meet at the Extension Office as well.
Meeting adjourned at 5:30.
Respectfully submitted by Lisa Carney, Secretary