Jumping Jack-A-Thon

Milk Center 4-H Club invites you to participate in this year's Jumping-Jack-A-Thon and help support a food pantry of your choice by collecting pledges from family, friends or area businesses. Pledges can be for each Jumping Jack or a flat rate for the afternoon. Music, food, door prizes and lots of fun will be provided.

This is a great opportunity for you and for your club to participate in a community service project and meet members from different clubs.

Mark your calendar now for Sunday, February 8, 2009 from 1 pm to 4:30 pm in the Extension office auditorium. Please RSVP to 815-943-4837

WINTER CANCELLATIONS

If an event is cancelled due to bad weather, be sure to call the Extension Office and listen to the outgoing message.

Committee Members: It is your responsibility to notify the Extension Office if your event is cancelled so we can include that on the outgoing message.

Meeting Cancellations

The following meetings have been cancelled for January.

Fashion Review-scheduled for January 12

Leader Meeting-scheduled for January 28

Parent Meeting-scheduled for January 29

Please watch the next newsletter for new meeting dates.

Illinois "Honorable Mention" at National 4-H Dairy Quiz Bowl

The Illinois 4-H Dairy Quiz Bowl Team received "Honorable Mention" by placing 5^th in the 2008 National 4-H Dairy Quiz Bowl competition held in Louisville, Kentucky on November 7^th & 8^th. The Illinois team was among 20 states competing from throughout the United States.

The 4-H Dairy Quiz Bowl has become a premier event of education and competition among young people involved with 4-H dairy project work. The 4-H dairy quiz bowl is one of the nation's most challenging contests for dairy industry youth as it tests the contestants' knowledge in various areas including dairy production, dairy products and dairy science.

Congratulations Colleen Ziller, Cross County Farmers 4-H Club for representing our county

Are You a 4-H Chaperone?

All parents who will be chaperoning their child overnight at any point in 2009, especially for county fair, are required to do the following: (1) All Volunteers must go through the screening process; (2) All volunteers must take the chaperone on-line training; (3) All volunteers must fill out an individual enrollment form. Training is available at: www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/mchenry/4hyouth. Click "4-H Overnight Chaperone Training". An email confirmation will be sent to our office upon completion of this online training.

Communications Contest

One of the most important skills that 4-H members can learn is speaking in front of a group. In 4-H, members have lots of chances to practice this skill. One such opportunity is the judging event for Public Presentations which we call Communications Mini-Fair. Mini-Fair is the judged portion of Public Presentations and Horse Speech categories. Some of the types of speeches one can be judged presenting include: Formal Speech, Illustrated Speech, Extempore Speaking, Demonstrations, Master of Ceremonies, Oral Interpretation, Original Works and more..

McHenry County's Communications Mini-Fair event takes place at the Extension office on Saturday, February 14 beginning at 9 a.m. Enrollment is required (use a project ADD form if the 4-H member is not already enrolled) and online registration to select the type of speech is also required. Please use the web link to register to participate in the Communications Mini Fair: https://webs.extension.uiuc.edu/registration/?RegistrationID=2361

Members may participate in any of the following areas:

· Speaking of Horticulture

· Horticulture Demonstrations

· Artistic Floral Design

· Horse Demonstration

· Horse Illustrated

· Horse Formal Speech

· Master of Ceremony

· Extempore Speaking

· Oral Interpretation

· Original Works

· Demonstration

· Formal Speech

· Food Demonstration

Knitting Workshops

Interested in learning how to knit, read patterns and do advanced stitches?

Join Cheryl Hammerand on Saturdays starting February 21 at the Farm Bureau office from 9 to 11 a.m. (continuing date are February 28, March 7, 14, & 21). Bring 4 ply worsted yarn in a solid color and size 8 knitting needles to the first class. You may start anytime in this series - parents also are invited (and encouraged) to attend. We will also try to meet monthly in the evening after this series to assist with your fair projects. Please call the Extension office to register.

Sewing clinics scheduled for Jan. 20, Feb 17 and March 16 have been cancelled. New dates will be posted on the website as soon as they are set.

SAVE-THE-DATE

International Night - February 27th

On Tuesday, January 27 at 7 pm., there will be a meeting at Extension for participating clubs. Participating clubs will need to be represented with one member and adult for planning. Call Extension with any questions at (815) 338-4747.

See you there!

Community Service Project

Your participation is encouraged in donations of toys books, games and movies. Clover Rockets 4-H club is currently collecting these items to donate to an orphanage in Michigan for children who have lost their parents in the Military. You may bring your donation to the Extension office by January 15, 2009. Thanks for your support!

4-H FOUNDATION UPCOMING EVENT

McHenry County 4-H Youth Foundation Cordially invites you to join us at our next "Green Tie Affair"

Saturday, March 7, 2009

5:30-11:30 pm

Donley's Village Hall Banquets

8512 South Union Road, Union, IL 60180

815-923-7000

For further information or to attend please visit: http://mcytt.org/foundation/Dinner2009.html

T-SHIRT LOGO CONTEST

It's time to redesign the 4-H Logo! The McHenry County 4-H T-shirts and Sweatshirts are down to a very few. Before we order more, we would like to give YOU an opportunity to redesign the Logo!

There are several ways to go:

Design a Large Logo with 2 colors for a color Tee or Sweatshirt OR, design a small logo that would go on a polo shirt.

We are open to any design—use your imagination.

The design must include: A Regulation/copyrighted 4-H clover and the phrase "McHenry County"

Let us know what the background color tee or polo shirt should be.

Email your design to the McHenry County Extension Office by February 1, 2009. Email to: kwagner@illinois.edu (if not using a Microsoft Office software package, please convert your design to a .pdf). For more information on this, call Katie at the Extension office. For questions about the t-shirt contest, please call Cheryl Hammerand at 815-653-9610.

4-H Dairy Quiz Bowl

The state 4-H Dairy Quiz Bowl contest will be held in conjunction with the Illinois Jr. Holstein Spring Thing workshop on Saturday February 28, 2009 at the Hawthorn Suites, 101 Trade Centre Dr., Champaign, IL. The Quiz bowl begins as 8:30 a.m. All interested 4-H members are invited and encouraged to participate -- especially noted for 4-H'ers with dairy breeds other than Holstein. Counties can enter an unlimited number of four member teams or individual members (individuals will be grouped to form teams). There is no limit. The state 4-H contest will have 2 divisions of

competition: Jr. Division for 4-H members who are 13 years of age and younger as of January 1, 2009; and Sr. Division for those 4-H members who are 14 years and older before January 1, 2009. Lunch will be served at cost for participants not staying/paying for the entire weekend workshop.

For complete rules visit http://4-h.illinois.edu/events/08judgingcontests/dairy_qb.doc. Please contact the Extension office by February 23, 2009 to sign up for the Illinois 4-H quiz bowl contest.

Agriculture Related Scholarships available through 1^st Farm Credit Services:

http://www.1stfarmcredit.com/AboutUs/1st/Scholarships.asp

"At The Heart Of A Growing America" Agricultural Scholarship Program

1st Farm Credit Services is pleased to offer our "At The Heart Of A Growing America" Agricultural Scholarship Program. These scholarships are designed to assist deserving high school seniors to further their education in an agriculture or agriculture-related field of study, and to help promote agriculture as a growing field of career opportunities.

"At The Heart Of A Growing America" Agricultural Scholarship Information

Community College Agricultural Scholarship Program

1^st Farm Credit Services is pleased to offer our Community College Agricultural Scholarship program to assist deserving students to further their education in an agriculture or agriculture-related field of study, and to help promote agriculture as a growing field of career opportunities.

Community College Agricultural Scholarship Program

John Leatherbury Scholarship Program

1st Farm Credit Services is pleased to offer the John Leatherbury Scholarship at Illinois State University. The $3,000 scholarship is given to a student with an agriculture major, with consideration of academic performance. The university selects the recipient. For more information contact the Illinois State University Agriculture Department.

http://www.agriculture.ilstu.edu/

The McHenry County 4-H Youth Foundation is adding a cookbook fundraiser headed up by Nancy Sheeks the Foundation Vice President.

On behalf of Nancy and the Foundation, we invite you to contribute a recipe of your choice to the cookbook. The online link to submit is listed below; as is the login information. So easy and VERY APPRECIATED!

If you should have questions, please connect with Nancy at 815.790.2929 or hebron4h@owc.net

Sharing recipes is a wonderful tradition, and we need yours! Our group is publishing a cookbook featuring the best recipes from our family and friends. We would love to include some of your favorite recipes so you can be represented in this treasured cookbook. Your name will be printed with each of your recipes.

Each cookbook will be professionally designed, printed and bound by G&R Publishing in Waverly, Iowa. The best part is that the profits will help fund current and future projects sponsored by our group. We anticipate a great demand for these keepsake cookbooks.

To share recipes, please visit G&R's website (http://www.gandrpublishing.com). In the upper right corner, you will need to log in using the user name and password shown below. Once logged in, please follow the provided instructions to enter your recipes.

Username: mchenry4h

Password: youth

Thank you for participating!