Last night marked the 2nd Oh, the places you'll go...in 4-H! workshop on the Recognition of Excellence program for McLean County. 31 adults and 4-Hers attended this hands-on orientation. If you missed this opportunity, don't fret! You can still get the tools you need to be a successfull 4-H member.

Mark your calendar for April 27 from 6:30-8 pm at the Workforce Development Center at Heartland Community College Room 2003. We'll have an "Oh, the places you'll go...Lab." At the lab you can have the opportunity to get one on one assistance with 4-H record forms and start on the Illinois Award Application.

Special thanks to the planning committee for this event:

• Alisa Clary
• Cathy Otto
• Kathy Weinzierl
• Jeanie Wager

Great work!!!

Congratulations to the McLean County Hippology & Horse Bowl members Rachael Fuhlop & Sarina Schenk. They both did a fantastic job at the Regional Contest held in Effingham on March 21st.

Intermediate Hippology results: 1st Sarina Schenk, 3rd Rachael Fuhlop
Jr Horse Bowl High Points: 1st Rachael Fuhlop
Sr Horse Bowl High Points: 2nd Sarina Schenk

Rachael played on the Clark/McLean Co Jr Mixed team. The team came in 3rd place.

Sarina played on the Shelby/Moultrie-Douglas/McLean Co Sr Mixed Team. The team came in 2nd place and advances to state.

Both Sarina Schenk & Rachael Fuhlop qualify to go to the state competition in April for Hippology. Want to learn more about horses?

Consider joining the McLean County Hippology & Horse Bowl team. You do not have to have a horse to participate, it's free and new members are welcome! Meetings are held once a month from Sept through March. Contact the Extension Office for more information and/or Jill Schenk at 309-532-4649.

Led by the Belmont (California) 4-H Club, the 4-H Million Trees (4HMT) Project is a large-scale service-learning project with the goal to plant 1,000,000 trees across the United States by 2011 to beautify America, absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide, and combat global climate change. In 2008, National 4-H Headquarters signed a partnership agreement with Arbor Day Foundation in support of this project. Attached is a letter to 4-H clubs to tell them how they can get involved.

More information: http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/mclean/news/news13416.html

This past weekend (March 6-8 at the IL Horse Fair in Springfield, IL the McLean County Jr and Sr Horse Judging Team won overall division champions!!

When judging horses competitively, you judge a series of 8 classes, 4 performance and 4 halter classes. The closer your placing matches the official placing of the official contest judges, the higher your score. Each class has a possible 50 points earned.

As a team, we start practicing in January and compete at the IL Horse Fair in March, the Hoosier Horse Fair in April and the IL State Competition in June. The two top teams have been competing together for 3 years now.

Jr. Team Sr. Team
Shelbi Mason Carlock, IL Jessica Raney Danvers, IL
Courtney Wright Bloomington, IL Marissa Rader Danvers, IL
Morgan Killion Danvers, IL Rachel Riddle Stanford, IL
Danie Reece Bloomington, IL

Top Ten Individuals

Jr. Team Sr. Team
9th Shelbi Mason 10th Place Marissa Rader
8th Place Jessica Raney
1st Place overall individual Jr Champion
Courtney Wright

Additional members of the teams:
Kira Colthurst, Kayla Colthurst, Krista Colthurst and Melissa Kieser

Congratulations! Thank you Diane our volunteer coach for working with these 4-Hers!!

2009 Illinois 4-H Robotics Competition

• Date: April 25, 2009
• Time: Teams assigned to morning or afternoon time slots (10-12am or 1-3pm)
• Location: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Agricultural Engineering Building
• Cost: None
• Equipment: LegoMindstorm NXT kits will be provided to teams onsite to complete the assigned challenge

This is a team competition and has two age divisions (Junior and Senior). Each junior division team must be comprised of three youth who are ages 9-14. The top four winning teams will qualify for full scholarships to attend the First Lego League Robotics Competition at the University of Illinois in December 2009. Each senior division team must be comprised of three youth who are ages 14 -18 (must be 14 by 1/1/09). The top winning team will be invited to represent Illinois at the National 4-H Engineering Competition at Purdue University at a time yet to be announced. Counties may send as many teams as they like. Details on the competition will be released soon.

If you are interested in Robotics - please contact Theresa Chambers at techamb@illinois.edu, or 309-663-8306.

Katie Poppe and Cathy Troyer are leaders of UNITY Community Center's 4-H Club—"Future Leaders". They meet monthly with the children and are building a great relationship with them and the Center.

They are looking for 4-H members and/or Leaders to help us out. They would like to have weekly/biweekly meetings or workshops with the children. 4-H members need help with projects. Unfortunately, they are unable to commit to more than once a month. The meetings last from about 6:00 pm to 6:45 pm on Thursday evenings.

This is a great opportunity for 4-Hers to gain volunteer and leadership credit for their records, job applications, and college applications. If you have interest, please contact Katie Poppe at Kpoppe24@aol.com or you can call me at (309)726-2301.