November 13, 2015 4-H
Newsletter
Calendar of Events
November
15 Ford County 4-H Federation meeting at Country Gardens restaurant 3:00pm
21 4-H Foundation Auction at St. Paul’s Woodworth
22 Iroquois County 4-H Federation meeting at Extension office
26-27 Extension office closed
December
24 office closed for the holidays until January 4, 2016
January 2016
6 enrollment forms due
30 Danville Dashers hockey game
February
13-14 State 4-H Livestock Conference in Decatur
27-28 4-H Junior Leadership Conference in Champaign
4-H Foundation Auction
The Ford-Iroquois 4-H Foundation Auction will be Saturday, November 21, 2015 at St. Paul's Lutheran
School in Woodworth. It will begin with a meal and silent auction at 4 p.m. and live auction to follow at 5
p.m. Money raised from this event is used to cover member program fees for all members in both
counties. It is also used to provide scholarships for members attending 4-H events such as camp or
Junior Leadership Conference. We have many wonderful items for the auction already, but donations
are still being accepted at the office. Please consider asking a business in your community to help
support the local youth by making a donation. Thank you!
Check out pictures of donated items on our “bulletin board” at
http://web.extension.illinois.edu/board/index.cfm?boardID=233
Or you can check out the bill of sale at http://web.extension.illinois.edu/cfiv/downloads/61729.pdf
Federation
Federation is for 4-H club members who are in high school and are interested in doing county-wide
activities with members from other clubs. Meetings are monthly and we’ll plan community service as
well as fun activities. All interested members in Ford County there will be a meeting this Sunday,
November 15th, 3:00pm at the Country Gardens restaurant on the west side of Paxton.
Iroquois County Federation will meet the following Sunday, November 22, 6:00pm at the Extension
office in Onarga.
Shooting Sports
A new year of shooting sports has begun! All past members should have received their re-enrollment
papers in the mail if they did not attend the start-up meeting Oct. 3. You must turn these in to the
Extension office before you can participate in a shooting event. If anyone interested in joining the FordIroquois Sharpshooters please contact Jen at the Extension office for more information. Air rifle and
archery are already holding indoor shoots and will continue over the winter months.
NEW Illinois 4-H Award Application!
The state has unveiled a new format for the Illinois 4-H Award. Here are the new award categories
which represent all aspects of 4-H work:
 Community Service
 Communications
 Leadership
 Personal Growth
 Project Mastery
Members can apply in one or more of the five award areas. Members are only allowed to submit ONE
Project Mastery award application. For example, a member can apply in Communications, Leadership,
and Project Mastery (let’s say in Woodworking), but cannot apply in both Project Mastery for
Woodworking and Project Mastery for Natural Resources.
Twenty state winners will be selected. And when you win, you pick the prize you want. Winners may
choose one of three prizes:
 Trip to National 4-H Congress in Atlanta, GA in November 2016;
 Scholarship to another national 4-H conference or event to which the member is eligible to
attend; or
 $1,000 College scholarship.
The application is available at your local Extension office or can be found here:
https://my.extension.illinois.edu/documents/579151510151015/new-illinois-4-h-award-application-102015---final-type-in.pdf The application focuses on your work for the last three years of 4-H, school and
community activities. The application includes two essays one which describes the mastery in your
award area and the second on the impact you’ve made in your award area. This award is for any 4-H
member who was 15-18 years of age on September 1, 2015 and is currently enrolled in 4-H; County
nomination is NOT required. Applications must be submitted to the local Extension office by December
15, 2015 for review; County offices submit them to state by Jan. 8, 2016.
For Leaders
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Auction – Please keep working to solicit donations from businesses in your community. Foundation
is working hard to make this evening a success but we need help from everyone.
Danville Dashers – more details will be coming out about this at the end of the month. This is a
lot of fun and an inexpensive event. Please consider attending this as a club.
Club fiscal accounts – Just a reminder that club treasuries should only have enough money in
them for 2 years operating costs. If you have excessive amounts in your checking/savings accounts
you need to consider ways to spend down the money such as club activities or community service.
Feel free to contact Jen or Larry for ideas. Thank you for your cooperation.
Legislative Outreach – We are continuing this program because it is important for our elected
representatives to understand what 4-H is and the impact it has on youth in their communities.
Please make contact with your assigned representative; you can either invite them to join a club
meeting or activity or send a card/photos/cookies/etc. In November Loda Helping Hands and
Danforth Blue Ribbon should reach out to Representative Thomas Bennett and Watseka Wild Clovers
Senator Jason Barickman. Thank you!
Jen Odle & Larry Haigh
4-H Program Coordinators
Jamie Boas
4-H Youth Development Educator
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please contact us 815.268.4051.