4-H NEWS

1-Sleepless in St. Louis: 4-HUSA Web Crew Meets

Twelve-tech savvy 4-H teens from across the United States gathered last week around a herd of laptops and walls smattered with flip-chart sheets full of scrawled brainstorms as they redesigned 4husa.org to become the first national 4-H website for, by and about youth.

The first 4-HUSA Web Crew meeting was held at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, July 21-24, 2004. With the support and assistance of adults with experience in marketing and graphic design, the teens spent their days intensively writing, designing, organizing, coding, computing and conversing to get the website ready for its August debut.

Months of frequent instant message chats and conference calls prepared the 4-HUSA Web Crew for the members first face-to-face meeting. It was exciting because we got to see what everyone was like. We have the same interests and talents, so we knew we were going to work well together, said 4-HUSA Web Crew Member Jim Dabringer of Wisconsin about meeting the other 4-HUSA Web Crew members. Each 4-HUSA Web Crew member was greeted at the St. Louis airport with a 4-HUSA Web Crew t-shirt by one of their advisors, members of the National 4-H Council Marketing Communications Team.

The Crew brought to St. Louis computer equipment, enthusiasm and eagerness to work together on the project. California 4-H allowed the 4-HUSA Web Crew use of its portable computer lab. Due to their limited time together, the Crew focused on working well together to produce a one-of-a-kind website. The Crew split into two groups focusing on content and design, but meetings and updates with all members were held periodically throughout each work session to ensure open communication. Plans for the site include an extensive database with contact information for 4-H across the country, an informative calendar with up-to-date events and access to nearly every 4-H link imaginable.

Our work was play, and we realized that we were truly a community, said 4-HUSA Web Crew Member Hayley Trahan-Liptak of Massachusetts.

Although most meeting time was spent hashing out the look, feel and structure of the web site, there also was time for play. A trip out for ice cream, a night out for sushi, ice breakers and the girls polishing their nails green and decorating them with clovers all became part of the schedule.

4-H Web Crew Member Kenny LaFranier of Montana summed up the three-day meeting best when he said, I got no sleep.

Members of the 4-HUSA.org Web Crew team present in St. Louis were Kate Ball of California; Josh Cook of South Carolina; Emily Cox of Indiana; Dabringer; Jessica Falkenthal of Ohio; Byron Hulcher of Maryland; LaFranier; Jared Pickens of Tennessee; Cindy Sperry of California; Laura Stone of Georgia; Trahan-Liptak; and James Woo of Maryland.

The 4-HUSA Web Crew

2-Register for Health Rocks! Northeast Regional Training

The Northeast Regional Training for Health Rocks! will take place on September 10-12, 2004 at the New England Conference Center, University of New Hampshire. Teams consisting of one adult and two teens (ages 14-18) interested in learning how to teach the Health Rocks! curriculum are encouraged to attend.

The Health Rocks! curriculum helps youth, ages 8-12, learn skills such as decision making, critical thinking, communication and stress management. The program also combines youth and adult partnerships to develop community strategies that prepare young people to make healthy lifestyle choices.

Applications are due by August 20, 2004. Those interested in attending can download an application at http://msucares.com/4h_Youth/health_rocks/events.html

For questions or more information please contact Dr. Susan Holder at susanh@ext.msstate.edu or 662-325-3352.

3-4-H Mentioned in National Military Family Association Report

4-H was mentioned as being an outlet for youth of military families in the most recent report by the National Military Family Association (NMFA).

The report analyzes the issues of concern to military families and the availability of support. They cited multiple factors which improve the standard of life for military families. Of these, partnerships between the military and community were one of the major factors. The community included local media, schools, and religious and youth organizations.

The report stated, The Boys and Girls Clubs of America and 4-H have opened their hearts and doors to military children, especially to children in Guard and Reserve families who often do not live anywhere near an installation.

The report went on to say that military children are able to find a community within these organizations since they can join for free. With programs like 4-H, children all over are provided an outlet for their time as well as given a place to cope with possible lost service-members.

The entire report can be viewed http://www.nmfa.org/ Learn more about 4-H's work with the military at http://www.national4-hheadquarters.gov/military.htm

4-Promote 4-H Camps Online

Summer camp is just a click away! As more parents begin their search online for summer camps, MySummerCamps.com is making an effort to improve accuracy and increase volume for their web-users. 4-H camp directors should check out the site at www.mySummerCamps.com to either add or update their camp within the directory. Being the most trafficked camp search engine on the web, members greatly benefit from the 10,000 plus users per day. Contact Evan A. Heltay, Director of Sales and Marketing, at evan@mySummerCamps.com for more information.

5-Celebrate Betty McCoy's Retirement

All are invited to celebrate Betty McCoy's retirement from Extension after 31 years. The retirement party will take place on 4 p.m. August 14 at the Gallatin County Fairgrounds, Building #2, in Bozeman, MT.

Please RSVP by July 30th to Shannon Rust at 406-994-5691. Cost of attending is $20 per person and will cover dinner and beverages. You may also include additional dollars for a retirement gift for Betty. Make checks payable to Karin Ludeman and send to the address below.

For those who can and cannot attend, there will also be a scrapbook of photos, notes, etc. that will be put together for her. If you have items that you would like to be added to the scrapbook, please send them to Shannon, Rust, 4-H Center for Youth Development, 210 Taylor Hall, Bozeman, MT, 59717-3580.

RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES

6-National Public Lands Day Seeks 4-H Volunteers

Americans by the thousands are expected to come out this September for a one-of-a-kind, day-long, coast-to-coast effort to preserve and improve the lands they love.

From beautifying Valley Forge National Historic Park in Philadelphia, which symbolizes the perseverance of American soldiers during the Revolutionary War, to generating a new forest with 10,000 seedlings in the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge of Texas, to creating an equestrian trail amid the 2 million spectacular acres of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, volunteers will fan out to more than 600 sites nationwide this September 18 in a unique display of concern and commitment for the lands of America.

The work will take place on National Public Lands Day, the largest volunteer hands-on effort of its kind in the country. Now in its 11th year, NPLD gives Americans an opportunity to lend a hand to the very lands they use to hike, bike, climb, swim, explore, picnic, or just plain relax.

Last year 4-H members worked at many of the sites around the country. Some examples:

-Removing invasive species and planting native grass seed at the Island Creek Area restoration in Roseburg, OR
-Cleaning up after a tornado at Stockton Lake in MO
-Removing invasives and planting at the Salato Wildlife Education Center in KY
-Building trails at Allatoona Lake in GA and
-Painting tables at New Hogan Lake in CA

For more information and to learn how to get involved, visit www.npld.com, or contact Patti Pride (202) 261-6474; e-mail: pride@neetf.org.

7-Attention All Dog Lovers!

The American Kennel Club invites you to participate in the second annual AKC Responsible Dog Ownership Day on Saturday, September 18, 2004. The New York City, NY and Raleigh, NC AKC offices are planning their own events, which will include Canine Good Citizen testing, micro chipping, canine health information, various canine demonstrations and many more entertaining and educational activities. If you would like to join at either of these events see the link below. Other individual events are also being offered throughout the U.S.

For those that would like to hold a separate event, the deadline to register with AKC is Tuesday, August 2, 2004. Once registered, event holders will receive a kit of promotional and educational materials (brochures, posters, buttons, pencils, etc).

For more information of the events in your area or to register to host an event please go to: http://www.akc.org/dic/clubs/rdo/index.cfm.