4-H Youth Programs

4-H Clubs, Teams and Afterschool Groups

Towns listed are where the clubs, teams, or groups meet, but youth from anywhere are welcome to participate if they are willing to travel.

Parkman Adventure Club – Parkman

Piscataquis 4-H Animal Club – Dover-Foxcroft

Adventures in Health Science – Dover-Foxcroft

Greenville Super Science 4-H Club – Greenville

4-H Afterschool – Milo

Rainbow Unicorns – Milo

4-H MYCA/HAWT/YVYC – Milo

With the help of youth volunteers we reached:

  • 21 youth in four 4-H clubs
  • 55 youth in three after school programs
  • 955 youth in gardening, farming & nutrition in-school programs

 

GrowME

The GrowME program is a collaboration between Valley Grange, PCSWCD (Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District) and UMaine Piscataquis County Extension.

Natasha Colbry teaching children for our GrowME program.
Natasha Colbry teaching children for our GrowME program.

The program aims to utilize local volunteers who work with teachers to schedule an agricultural activity in their classrooms during Maine Agriculture Week each year.  The collaboration developed in 2011 as an outgrowth of Valley Grange’s agricultural activities with Piscataquis Community Elementary School in Guilford. The informal group saw an opportunity to provide hands-on activities that would develop agricultural literacy.

The program is called GrowME to reflect our mission of developing agricultural literacy by growing plants, animals and kids!

The first year approximately thirty classroom teachers signed up for a volunteer to visit and activities were developed for kindergarten through third grade. The program has grown to more classrooms but continues to focus on the same grade levels and has reached an estimated 3,000 kids since the program launched!

 

School Gardens

In the past four years Food Corps members have worked with the SeDoMoCha teachers to encourage students to try

The SeDoMoCha School Garden
The SeDoMoCha School Garden

new foods like hummus and do hands-on horticulture activities like the living necklaces and lettuce growing in the classroom.

Also, at SeDoMoCha, a raised bed garden near the school has been developed and planted with kale, onions and pumpkins. It has been raided many times by the town deer herd. Thanks to a generous donation of labor and materials from Foxcroft Agway and a gate made by Richard Neal, the deer will have to find another garden. The next challenge is getting water to the garden. A Pumpkin Legacy Project will try to save seed from this year’s pumpkin crop to be planted next spring.

Milo Middle School 4-H SPIN Club included a session “Dig Into Spring Gardening” led by former 4-H member & Milo Farmers’ Market Organizer, Haley Emery.

 

4-H Clubs

Piscataquis County 4-H Clubs have been very active this year with projects, fundraisers and trips. Two youth attended the Citizenship Washington Focus (CWF) a six-day 4-H leadership program for high school youth, ages 15-19, from across the country. CWF delegates learn about the democratic process and their role as citizens while they experience our nation’s capital. They also get the inside scoop about how government really works from prominent guest speakers and interact with Maine’s state senators and representatives and/or their staffers. Program fellows lead bill writing 4-H Logoworkshops, as well as a national issues forum and mock elections. There are congressional sessions that prepare youth for leadership now and in the future.

Seven Piscataquis County youth attended 4-H@UMaine: Connecting Kids to Campus. This program is a fun-filled, educational opportunity for youth 12 – 18 where the youth experienced sleeping in the dorm, eating in the cafeteria, and learning from professors and graduate students in many different disciplines on the Orono campus.

 

Adventures in Health Science

The Adventures in Health Science program at the C.A. Dean Memorial Hospital in Greenville, lead by Dr. Robert Bowie, was an overwhelming success. Youth 12 to 18 were able to explore the central nervous system and emergency medicine though this three-day summer immersion experience. The hands-on activities were fun as well as educational and offered the youth the opportunity to learn about careers in the field of health car through direct interaction with medical professionals who practice in Piscataquis County.