Welcome to Oahu 4-H's online newsletter.

November 2009

ALOHA 4-H Members,

I can't believe it's the Fall Season already!  This is a special time to reflect on all the people and things we have to be grateful for.

"Mahalo Nui Loa" to the 4-H club members and their leaders who showed the 4-H spirit of community service at the Children & Youth Day at the Capitol, HMSA Island Fresh Festival and the Kid’s Fest at the Bishop Museum! The smiles and joy on the children’s faces while they did the crafts & plantings and excitement they showed while learning about Germ City and Health Rocks was worth every moment.

Also, next month while we prepare and spend time with our loved ones at Thanksgiving, let's remember to take a moment to thank an Armed Forces person for keeping us safe! Let's find the courage to put our fears aside and approach them, after all look at the courage they muster up to put their fears aside to protect our country!

Lastly, let's remember to thank God from whom all things come...and pray for those who have so much less!

Wishing you all a Blessed Thanksgiving!

Kyrra Lau–Eglinton

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

The Oahu 4-H calendar of events is now posted at:  http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/4h/Oahu/calendar.htm

	For our first council meeting we had a good outcome with a few familiar faces and some new 4-Hers. The new club came to the council meeting and lit the room up with their eager to learn attitudes. After the productive meeting, we all went outside to have our rally day. The activities were the scavenger hunt and the relay races, which were not only fun, but brought the new 4-Hers and the experienced 4-Hers together. After the exhilarating rally day we all went into the classroom to eat ice cream and other homemade and store-bought goodies. At the end of the day, when we had to say good bye to our new friends we were happy that we had a positive outcome. We hope to see you at our next event!

As children from all over Oahu come to the Child and Youth Day our booth gets busier and busier!  The children could choose between gardening and planting various seeds, leaf printing with several interesting shaped leaves, or box making.  The day was full of new faces and smiles at our popular booth. By being at the State Capitol, the publicity of 4-H has been spread.

At the popular daytime activities at the Bishop Museum start, our 4-H booth is setting up the Germ City tent and the Health Rocks booths.  The Germ City was a very popular activity with many locals and tourists coming in and out of our tent.  Health Rocks is the activity which teaches people about healthy life choices.  Another very popular and publicized event that can only bring 4-H up!

Staci Kohashi,
Oahu 4-H Historian

From October 12-16th, training was conducted in South Korea for staff from Yongsan Army Garrison, Camp Humphreys, Camp Walker (Daegu) and Chinhae Naval Station.  The training team from Hawaii 4-H included Carmen Golay, Military 4-H Program Coordinator and Max Siaumau, 4-H Lead at Bennett Youth Center (Schofield Barracks).  Mr. Siaumau was chosen to be part of the training team from among his peer 4-H leaders on Oahu after an application process.  They were met in Korea by Ron Duer, USDA Tech and Youth Specialist.  Topics covered included the Essential Elements of 4-H, starting and running clubs, Experiential Learning and program planning. A total of 42 staff were trained over the two 2-day trainings.  We are excited to have these sites become a part of Hawaii 4-H and look forward to supporting their efforts in the coming year.

Max explaining Experimental Learning	School ate staff participate in group work	Staff & USDA Specialist prepare for role playing in Yongsan	Carmen helps teen center staff do program planning in Yongsan

Carmen Golay

Operation: Military Kids is looking for youth groups willing to put together and  distribute Hero Packs to children of deployed military personnel. OMK will provide the back packs and some of the contents. The youth groups will need to write the support letters, gather other appropriate items for the back packs and distribute the packs to children. OMK will match youth groups with specific military units that will be deploying from January 2010. The number of children per unit will range from 25-100. Any club or group interested in supporting these efforts are asked to contact Claire Nakatsuka @ nakatsuk@hawaii.edu.

Claire Nakatsuka

This is the theme for the upcoming Oahu County 4-H Food Show, which will be held on Saturday, January 30, 2010, from 4 - 9 p.m. The Warriors 4-H club is working to secure the location for this annual county-wide event, so please reserve this date!

Our annual Food Show also includes Local Food Products (1/2 cup or more of a locally grown or produced product) and Kraft Foods entries in Main Dish, Dessert, and Others categories.
It's not too early to start looking for and testing your recipes! The entry form deadline will be near the end of December 2009. More information will be provided as the date gets nearer.

Volunteer clubs and individuals are needed to take care of the many subcommitties that help to conduct the 4-H Food Show: Set Up, Judges, Registration, Awards, Program, Cookbook, Hospitality, Clean Up, etc. A sign up list for volunteers will be circulated during the November 4-H Council Meeting. If you already know how your club wants to help out, please contact the Warriors 4-H Club at 235-1138 or wkohashi@yahoo.com <mailto:wkohashi@yahoo.com>. Be sure to speak slowly and leave your name and telephone number if you reach our answering machine!

Aunty Wanda Kohashi for the Warriors

**Did you mark your calendars for April 10-11, 2010, for the Hawaii State 4-H Leaders’ Federation bi-annual conference on Oahu? The Committee members have selected the Ohana West for your housing while on Oahu. Tentative plans are for the meetings to be held at the Manoa campus. If you want to help on a committee, please do not hesitate to attend the next meeting. We are trying to confirm November 20 at the Pearl City Urban Garden Center 6:30pm. We are planning an exciting program for Friday, April 9—more information will be forthcoming.

The Federation Board’s mid-year meeting has been moved to Saturday, December 5 on Manoa campus. Don’t hesitate to contact any officer or your county representative prior to the meeting if you have any concerns you’d like to address.

Bertha Kaui

The American Red Cross Holiday Mail for Heroes
The American Red Cross (ARC), with the support of Pitney Bowes, is pleased to once again sponsor the Holiday Mail for Heroes. Our goal is to let the military, their families, and veterans know that America cares. People can send their cards to the American Red Cross special mailbox from November 2, 2009 through December 7, 2009. We must strictly adhere to this date to ensure that there is time to screen, sort, and distribute the cards. Please visit our website for the address (it will be posted on November 2, 2009) and additional information, including guidance for making and sending cards.

If you know of a group of military members, family members, or veterans who would like to receive cards, or if you have questions, please email the ARC Holiday Mail for Heroes point of contact.

Growing Memories through Intergenerational Gardening
What better place to “grow” treasured family memories than in a garden? Gardens provide opportunities for adult family members to pass along traditions, knowledge, and skills to the next generation (or share the experience of developing skills if new to gardening). Young people bring their contagious enthusiasm for learning and life, exciting everyone involved in the growing process.

Need help getting started?
Download our tips (PDF) for a successful intergenerational garden.

Apply for the Heinz Wholesome Memories Intergenerational Garden Award
Recognizing the power of gardens to connect individuals of all ages socially, culturally, and emotionally, the H. J. Heinz Company is proud to sponsor the Heinz Wholesome Memories Intergenerational Garden Award, designed to foster family focused garden efforts in communities across the country. The award will provide 57 families with a $500 award package containing the tools needed to embark on a successful gardening adventure that will foster lasting intergenerational memories while growing wholesome food.
Who is eligible to apply: The award is open to any adult in the United States who wishes to garden with preschool to high school-aged family member(s) and feels that gardening is a great way to build lasting memories.  Applications are due by January 10, 2010.

4-H Exchange Opportunities

These are two exchange opportunities.  If your club is interested, please contact the exchange coordinators directly.

• Hello from Western Mass:  I am the leader of a 4-H exchange club here in Massachusetts.   We are currently half through with an exchange with Calif.  We are starting to look to the future exchange for 2011-12 and were wondering if any exchange groups in Hawaii might be interested in exchanging with us.  Please let your clubs know of our interest in an exchange and I look forward to hearing from you.  Carol Inman, inman300@comcast.net
• Greetings from the Mainland!  My name is Robin Henrikson and I am the leader/coordinator for the Douglas County Interstate Exchange group in Oregon. We are looking for our next county exchange partner for the 2010-2011 summers. If you have an interest in traveling to and seeing the sites in Oregon, please read the following about our wonderful program.

The Douglas County, Oregon exchange group is a fun-loving, friendly group of people that loves to make new friends, visit new places, and show the beautiful state of Oregon. We have just recently finished an exchange with Carver County, Minnesota and in the past have exchanged with Pennsylvania, Iowa, Tennessee, Virginia, and Florida.

Our group is very family oriented with at least one family day to do whatever the guest would like to do and the rest of the 7 days are spent seeing as much of Oregon as possible. We always travel to the deepest lake in the U.S., Crater Lake National Park which usually still has some snow in July and to the Pacific Ocean where we have camped, taken tours of the sand dunes, visited lighthouses, visited Sea Lion Caves, explored tidepools, and taken a jet boat trip up the scenic Rogue River where we've seen eagles, deer and bears. We have toured the local industries of logging and sawmills which is very big in our county, floated our local river, hiked to waterfalls, toured a local fire lookout in the Umpqua National Forest, and visited our local Wildlife Safari animal park to name a few things. We also have picnics, bbqs, swimming and whatever else time allows us to do! We try to fit in whatever the guest county would like to see and do. 
    
If this sounds like fun or you have questions, please contact us soon so we can begin planning another great exchange.

Robin Henrikson     henhouse@peak.org    541-673-8702

4-H Clover Corner News
For additional articles on 4-H youth development nationwide, check out the National 4-H Clover Corner News at http://www.4hblogs.org/ccn/

We welcome your story ideas.
Please e-mail them to nakatsuk@hawaii.edu

The 4-H Name & Emblem are protected by 18 USC 707.