March 2016 E-blast
Important Upcoming Dates:
May 9 Federation meeting, 7pm, FG
March 14 Federation meeting, 7pm, AEO
June 1 Horse/Dog papers due
March 19, Carroll County Livestock Judging
Contest
June 1 QAEC Class deadline
April 2 Regional Horse bowl and Hippology
Contest
June 12-16 4-H Camp LOMC
June 13 Federation meeting, 7pm, FG
June 14-17 4-H Camp Benson
April 4 Swine tag and pictures due
June 25 Speech Contest, SVCC
April 8-9 Unit High School 4-H retreat
July 1 4-H show entries due to office
April 11 Federation meeting, 7pm, AEO
July 11 Federation meeting, 7pm, FG
April 15-16 Science Siesta, Rockford
July 20 Superintendent meeting, FG
April 22-23 Science Siesta, Rockford
July 28-31 Lee County 4-H Fair
May 1 Last day to add non-livestock
projects for fair
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County and Unit Events
Public Presentations
This year’s public presentations contest will be held at Sauk Valley Community College on June
25 at 9am. ALL 4-H’ers are invited to compete in this year’s competition. Please fill out the
above form and return it to the office by June 10.
4-H Leadership Retreat
What makes you Smart? Do you have skills that enable you to work well with others? Or
maybe you are a talented musical performer? Youth are invited to learn about their smart
personality strengths, preferred learning styles and develop their team work skills at the 4-H
Leadership Retreat. University of Illinois Extension will be offering an overnight retreat for
youth to learn about working in groups, understanding others, and upcoming opportunities to
further develop their skills. Sessions will include team building, hands-on activities and fun!
Junior and Senior High Youth are invited to participate in the Leadership Retreat Friday, April 8
through Saturday, April 9. The event will be held at Camp McCormick in Stillman Valley.
Sessions will start at 5:00 Friday and finish at 12 noon on Saturday. Cost for the retreat is $30
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and includes overnight lodging and meals. Register on-line at web.extension.illinois.edu/clw or
call 815-244-9444 by Friday, March 25.
Rockford Ice Hogs 4-H Night
Lee County Federation invites you to this year’s Rockford Ice Hogs 4-H night! Tickets are $5 for
Lee County 4-H’ers and $10 for everybody else. Please RSVP online at go.illinois.edu/Lee4h or
by calling 815-857-3525 by March 16. Checks are to be made out to Lee County Federation.
Let’s protect that beautiful head of yours
Equine Headgear:
All 4-H members are required to wear a properly fitted ASTM or SEI standard F1163 (or above)
certified equestrian helmet whenever mounted or driving at all 4-H horse and pony events,
shows, activities, or practices. Original tags must be present in all approved helmets. The 4-H
member is responsible to see that this specified headgear is properly fitted with the approved
harness fastened snugly in place whenever mounted. Helmet policies apply to all county, area,
and state 4-H horse and pony events, shows, and activities. Protective helmets are
recommended for all riders and drivers at all times. It is recommended that all adults working
with 4-H members model the desired youth behavior by also wearing protective helmets
whenever mounted or driving.
Breaking the rules is the new rule!
This year in selected projects, 4-H members may choose to exhibit in the INNOVATION CLASS
which allows members to decide the BEST WAY to show off what they learned in their project.
Your exhibit should be creative, such as a video you made, a website you created, a
performance you gave, an app you created, something you made, or anything else YOU choose.
A few rules (of course). This is only open to youth 13 and older in the following projects: child
development, computer science, crops, geology, health, interior design, leadership, natural
resources, photography, robotics, theatre arts, tractor or video. Ask the Extension office for
more information. Remember, your exhibit has to be something DIFFERENT than what fits in
the normal class exhibit option.
Paper Clover Campaign returns in April
Dates for the Spring Paper Clover Campaign, held in conjunction with Tractor Supply Stores and
National 4-H Council, will run April 13 to April 24. During that time, patrons may make
contributions to their local 4-H programs at any Illinois TSC store. The campaign runs twice a
year. Last fall, more than $894,000 was raised nationwide for 4-H.
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Horse Workshops
There are several horse clinics coming up throughout the area. Watch your e-mail for specific
information on dates and sign up information.
Swine Premiere
E-mails were sent out to all 4-H’ers enrolled in the swine project. If you are going to be
participating in the Swine Premiere class, you must nominate up to 5 animals. See your e-mail
or call Kathy for more information.
***Text Message Alerts***
Many of you might have received a text message alert from “Lee County 4-H” This is from the
office! We are trying out a new text message alert system to let you know when newsletters
are out and important upcoming dates. If you did not receive an invitation and would like to
receive the notifications, please text @gce7 to 81010. You can unsubscribe at anytime by
replying ‘unsubscribe @gce7’. Or to receive messages via email, send an email to
gce7@mail.remind.com. To unsubscribe, reply with ‘unsubscribe’ in the subject line.
What system are we using?
Remind is a free, safe, and simple messaging tool that helps teachers share important updates
and reminders with students & parents. Subscribe by text, email or using the Remind app. All
personal information is kept private. Visit remind.com to learn more.
Science Siesta! Girls + Science = Fun!
Have you ever dreamt of spending the night in a museum? No, this isn’t a movie, it’s Science
Siesta! Hosted by the University of Illinois Extension, this event for fourth-sixth grade girls will
be held twice in 2016. Event dates are: Friday, April 15 to Saturday, April 16 and Friday, April 22
to Saturday, April 23. Both events will be held at the Discovery Center and Burpee Natural
History Museums in Rockford. These action-packed overnights will combine the fun of a
pajama party with hands-on science experiences. At Science Siesta, girls have the opportunity
to meet actual females in science career fields from throughout northern Illinois. The scientists
will share information about their background and involve the girls in activities much like they
complete in their work every day.
Following the face-to-face interaction with female scientists, youth participate in activities
based on the “Wonderwise” curriculum developed by the University of Nebraska. This
curriculum highlights the work of female scientists and then translates their work into hands-on
science based activities which are fun and engaging. Participating girls may choose one of three
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workshop tracks for breakout sessions. Their choices include activities from “Rain Forest
Ecologist” and “Space Geologist”.
Both of the events will begin with registration at 5:00 p.m. on Friday and will conclude with
check-out at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday. The registration fee is $40 per girl. The registration fee
covers pizza, snack, and breakfast, admission to the Discovery Center Museum and Burpee
Museum of Natural History, and all hands-on activities. For additional information, as well as to
register for either one of these Science Siesta events, go to the University of Illinois Extension
website at http://web.extension.illinois.edu/bdo/ or call (815) 758-8194.
State News
Illini Summer Academies ‘16
Explore life as a college student while you're still in high school!
Illini Summer Academies promotes career opportunities while showcasing University of Illinois
as the college of choice to teens in Illinois. Imagine getting to work with university professors
while you're still in HIGH SCHOOL! Imagine exploring a college campus with new friends from
across the state. That's what happens at Illini Summer Academies.
Illini Summer Academies is open to any Illinois youth who will be at least 14 years of age and
not yet 19 by Sept. 1, 2016 AND has completed eighth grade by the time of the conference. This
is a live-in conference, and youth stay in college dorms throughout the conference. Youth are
not allowed to commute in for daytime activities.
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Choose one of 16 different Academies. Want to be a geologist? We've got it! Want to be
a vet? We've got it! If you can think of it, we just might offer it at Illini Summer
Academies.
Register after March 1 https://go.illinois.edu/illini4h
Claim your spot at 4-H Camp
4-H Summer Youth Camp registration is “marching” along with over 527 youth already signed
up for a week-long summer camp session at 4-H Memorial Camp in Monticello! Current year
4-Hers will continue to receive a huge $40 “early-bird” discount through the end of March, so
get word out! In only mid-February the 4-H Camp is already over 50% of their way toward their
goal of registering 1,024 youth for an awesome week of summer learning and fun. 4-H Camp is
open to all youth ages 8-16 from throughout Illinois.
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Understanding IRS regulations
Program Participants (including minors) will be required to provide their social security number
or foreign national tax ID number prior to receiving a prize, gift or award to ensure proper IRS
reporting as required by law. This sensitive information is kept confidential and handled
through security protected software (PEAR). Participants will not be eligible for prize, gift or
award if social security or foreign national tax ID information is not provided. When we receive
more information, we will share what we know. This is not a 4-H or University of Illinois
directive; this is a requirement of the Internal Revenue Service.
NEW 2017 Inauguration Citizenship Washington Focus Announced
Experience the 2017 Presidential Inauguration up close and personal as part of the NEW 2017
Inauguration Citizenship Washington Focus program! Illinois is hoping to send 12 youth and 2
chaperons to this special week in January, 2017.
This program will contain some of the same factions as the summer CWF program, but is
shorter in time and will include a full-day of Inauguration events, including an evening dinner
cruise and dance. 4-H members will need to be 14-18 years of age January 1, 2017 in order to
attend. Previous Focus delegates are not eligible to register for this trip.
Presently we are planning for the delegation to fly to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday morning,
January 17 and return Saturday, January 21. We are working on costs and funding assistance
from the Illinois 4-H Foundation. Registration for this event will open March 1 so keep your
eyes open for more information!
http://web.extension.illinois.edu/state4h/events/citizenshipwashington.cfm. At this time, we
are still planning to offer a summer Citizenship Washington Focus trip in June, 2017.
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