Sherburne County is kicking off National 4-H Week (Oct. 5-11) with a number of different activities.
Last weekend, they held the annual 4-H Open House to promote 4-H and offer people in the community a chance to become involved with 4-H.
“The different 4-H clubs sponsored tables and each had their own activity,” said Sherburne County 4-H Coordinator Joe Rand, “like origami frogs, tie blankets and fall leaf magnets. Marv Ziner was there teaching kids about entomology and the robotics team was there helping kids drive robots.”
The event was open to anyone in the community. The activities were a way to show kids how 4-H teaches through hands-on projects and experiments. Rand said four new families signed up - a good sign.
“It’s not huge, but bit by bit we’re growing,” he says.
There are over 350 kids and 87 screened adult volunteers involved in 4-H in Sherburne County. The county added two new clubs this year.
The STEM Club is just forming, mostly with kids from anywhere in the county who are interested in robotics or Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
The other new club is the Sherburne Stars, located in Clear Lake. It will consist of Cloverbuds (grades K - 2) through senior high students.
Most of the kids are from the Clear Lake/ Becker area. The club has a wide variety of project areas and interest. The club meets the second Sunday of the month at 6 p.m. at members’ homes. For more information, contact Dawn Drayna at (320) 492-7178 or thedraynas@frontiernet.net.
Other 4-H clubs in Sherburne County include Busy Bees, Elk River; Happy Hoofbeats, Becker; Home Explorers, Big Lake; Navigators, Elk River; Northwest Metro 4-H, Big Lake; Refuge Rangers, Big Lake; Ricochet Riders, Zimmerman; Zimmerman Adventurers.
The goal of National 4-H Week is to promote 4-H and grow membership. Clubs all over the country will be sponsoring different events. Sherburne County clubs will be putting up displays and posters created by 4-H’ers at different sites in their communities. Some of those sites include the Big Lake Library, Becker Community Center and the Elk River Library.
Rand says 4-H’ers will also put displays and information brochures at Tractor Supply in Elk River and Runnings, a new farm/hardware store in Monticello to help spread the word.
“They’ve been very supportive of 4-H,” says Rand. “We’re also planning to have people there and maybe some animals on weekends.”
Even though all the county fairs are done and the Minnesota State Fair is history, that doesn’t mean 4-H activities have ended for the season.
On Oct. 25, Sherburne County 4-H wil hold its annual Halloween 4-H Freak End at the Ann Lake Campground, with costumes, a haunted house, games & crafts, dinner and a bonfire.
In the next few weeks, clubs will be holding their annual meeting to plan for next year’s activities.
“The kids get to decide what their focus will be -what they want to learn about for the year. For example, they may want to learn about trees, figure out who’s going to teach them about trees and what projects they’ll do,” says Rand. “That might turn into a project for the county fair or state fair next summer.”
At their annual meeting kids also learn about budgeting.
“They decide what fundraisers they’re going to do, how they’re going to spend that money and what they’re going to spend it on,” says Rand.
Things slow down a bit in 4-H around the holidays. But Rand says the kids get more involved serving the community.
“They do highway cleanup and we get calls for leaf-raking and shoveling snow,” he says. “They also do special holiday service projects like wrapping presents and collecting food for the food shelf.”
For more information about 4-H in Sherburne County, call 763-765-3077, or check out the U of M Extension link on the county’s website www.co.sherburne.mn.us
