Talk to John Zalanka in the Will County Unit Office to find out how to join the 4-H Program, where to find a 4-H Club or Cloverbud Group in your neighborhood, or how to start a 4-H Club or classroom 4-H program. Do not fail to ask how to enroll in a Youth Camp, Extreme Camp, Taste of 4-H Camp, or Family Camp at Camp Shaw-waw-nas-see as well. John Zalanka is the Unit Educator for Youth Development in Will County, responsible for 23 4-H Clubs and more than 600 youth and adult leaders. John also provides camping information for more than 300 Will County campers each year at Camp Shaw-waw-nas-see near Bourbonnais, Illinois. Additionally, John works with nearly 70 Will County classrooms for enrichment programming, especially Classroom Embryology where nearly 3,000 students have the rich experience of hatching chicks from fertilized eggs in their classroom. John works with diverse audiences for computer training and job preparedness.

John Zalanka holds a Masters Degree in communications from Governors State University. John’s background includes experience as a radio news director. John holds an Illinois Teaching Certificate and has been a junior high teacher. John is a member of several working committees: Project Pride (a community committee to emphasize the positive in Joliet), Joliet Alliance for Youth, Agencies United (United Way agencies), Community Services Council, Joliet Grade School District Partnership Committee and Literacy Subcommittee, and the Hispanic Latino Coalition of Will and Grundy counties. Learning the Spanish language through classes at Joliet Junior College is John’s current goal. John was named co-chairman of a committee interested in building an historic working canal boat to show children and families how the I and M Canal shaped the growth of northeastern Illinois.