Written and submitted by Santa Rosa Valley 4-H
Santa Rosa Valley 4-H is a diverse club with members ranging in age from 5 to 19 years old. It is fun to see the older kids come home from college to go to the fair. And it is fun to see the younger members get excited with their first animal project of guinea pigs, rabbits or chickens. Our club has offered our members so many different types of projects. One of our biggest is the equine project. We had about 20 members riding or learning to harness horses with carts.
Another active group is our backpacking project that went on hikes or backpacking trips nearly every month. Our cake decorating group and cavy project entered projects at Super Field Day. Our photography and jewelry making projects entered their pieces to the fair. New this year was a blanket making project that offered younger kids an opportunity to learn this new skill. Our poultry project once again formed a team and won awards at the Avian Bowl. We made bread and butter on a cold afternoon in January and canned blackberry jam in June. Another new project was the mini-cattle. Project members learned to halter break and groom steers and cows and even watched the birth of a new calf!
At the fair we had projects entered in the youth building. And in the livestock dept, we had our lamb, pygmy goat, beef, swine, rabbit, cavies and poultry projects entered. It was fun to see our kids running around the livestock area with their club members and their friends from other clubs. It is rewarding to see our club members meeting up with their friends from 4-H clubs around the county. Everyone helps each other with their animals and cleaning stalls.
Our club also works to make sure we all participate in community service. Each year we participate in California Coastal Cleanup, Trick-or-Treat So Others Can Eat and Operation Gratitude.
We end our 4-H year with our annual pool party and potluck. This is a chance for all our members to have fun, get to know each other better and eat some great dishes. We also give out our club awards at this fun event.
Each year we try to make our club a little bit better. We enjoy hearing how other clubs work so we can learn from them. This coming year our goal is to become a closer group and share among our projects. We hope to see the other clubs at the county events this year. It is going to be another great 4-H year!
This article is part of our Featured Club Happenings series in our Ventura County 4-H Clover Lines newsletter. These newsletters and others produced by our office can be found on our website.
