Welcome to 2021! It HAS to be a better year, right? I sincerely hope everyone had a peaceful holiday season, filled with good food, warm fires, and a sense of love and belonging. I saw some touching instances, even in my own family, of reaching out to those that had a particularly rough year. Please do the same as we could all use a smile, friendly gesture, and an open heart.
We have some great things happening this month in our awesome 4-H District. Please keep an eye on the District calendar for updates and information on everything listed here.
Some clubs are meeting in-person, and I appreciate all the safety training they have gone through to keep our kiddos safe and engaged. If you are interested in in-person meetings, please reach out to me and we can get the process moving. Alternately, if you want to meet via video conference (yes, I know we are all sick to death of them, but we need to hang in there for a bit longer), please let me know and I can get you set up for that. I have had some requests to join clubs from new parents/kiddos. If you are meeting and are willing to take on a new 4-Her or two, please let me know. If you haven't sent me your Club Annual Financial Statement from last 4-H year yet, please do. Also, if you have approved Mitigation Plans and are meeting in-person, remember that I need to have a copy of your screened questionnaire within 24 hours of each club meeting. Scan and email or text me a photo of it. Have a great rest of your week! Ann abiddle@alaska.edu
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![]() “Welcome to the 4-H Western Heritage Project” meeting will be virtual through Zoom, facilitated by Todd Kesner of Montana 4-H. This change of format opens the door to anyone in the country interested in learning more about the Western Heritage discipline of 4-H Shooting Sports. He invites anyone to attend. And, even though the name would imply, you don’t have to live in the West to participate in the 4-H Western Heritage Project. It’s the firearms we use in competition that are most often associated with the Old West. Our opening orientation meeting will be online nationally on Monday, December 21st at 6:30 p.m. Mountain Time/8:30 Eastern. The introductory meeting will be followed by hands-on virtual workshops including: January 25, 2021 – Making Paper Cartridges (I’ll post a list of supplies needed) – Make your own replica of Civil War era paper cartridge for a cap and ball revolver out of coffee filter paper and ground coffee (in place of gun powder). You will learn the advantage of having a self-contained cartridge instead of loose powder and shot – even though its paper. February 22, 2021 – Making Pemmican (a form of Native American jerky) – We will use peanut butter as a replacement for bison meat that was traditionally tenderized by chewing it before drying. If you want to be 100% historically correct, have your mother chew the meat before putting it in the sun. March 22, 2021 – Making your own black powder bullet lube (Dr. David White, Oregon State University – 4-H) – Lube on historic bullets served two purposes. One was the coat the barrel in vaporized lubricant as the bullet passed through in order to keep the black powder fouling soft and maintain the accuracy of your firearm. The other purpose lessened the amount of lead building up in the barrel. Learn how it was made. April 12, 2021 -Hands-on topic to be determined Materials for each of the hands-on workshops will be listed on the website at 4-hwesternheritageproject.org. Please contact me for zoom video conference info: abiddle@alaska.edu I hope this finds everyone happy and healthy! Here are a few reminders of fun stuff happening in the District and around the State:
Have a great weekend! Ann ![]() Calling all 4-H Teens! We are collaborating with the Alaska Teen Media Institute to create media that showcasing our amazing 4-H teens and their 4-H stories. Our first meet up is Monday, December 14th, at 2pm. Check out the flyer and register with Kendra to attend! We are excited to collaborate with ATMI and to hear from our 4-H teens across the state! You can learn more about them and check out their work here: https://alaskateenmedia.org/ Please email Kendra Calhoun your name, age and location and she will register you for the event! klcalhoun@alaska.edu I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving, filled with good food and relaxing times with your closest loved ones. It was a cozy dinner at my house: my older daughter home from college (tested, quarantined, blah), my son from Anchorage, and my youngest daughter (vegetarian, so preparations for a big dinner, are even more involved). An elaborate game of Apples to Apples lasted over 3 hours, which allowed for a little digestion and room for pie.
**Congratulations to Joseph H. for placing 3rd in the Mars Rover Solar STEM Challenge! He had a really cool obstacle course that he put his rover through. You can check out his video HERE. We rounded off the STEM Challenge with a Meet the Scientist event last week. We hosted Dr. Ralph Lorenz, planetary scientist. He chatted with the kiddos about his work on planetary rovers with NASA. Thanks to our partner at Renewable Energy Alaska Project (REAP) for the October challenge, and to our partners with the UAF Arctic and Earth SIGNS project, who bring us the great connections with NASA! We have a few things happening this month in the MatSu/Copper River 4-H District
A few clubs are starting to think about meeting in-person, and I appreciate all the safety training they have gone through to keep our kiddos safe and engaged. If you are interested in in-person meetings, please reach out to me and we can get the process moving. Alternately, if you want to meet via video conference (yes, I know we are all sick to death of them, but we need to hang in there for a bit longer), please let me know and I can get you set up for that. For those clubs that have not yet sent me your club annual financial statements from the 2019-2020 4-H year, please get them in! Otherwise I will start hounding you and you will get sick of me real soon. For those that have sent them in already THANK YOU!! I am putting out a call-out for photos and success stories of your 4-H youth and leaders for a newsletter that will go out early in the new year. Please send me photos, stories, quotes....anything you would like to share with everyone else! Thanks everyone and have a great week! Ann https://gov.alaska.gov/newsroom/2020/11/01/alaska-native-heritage-month-2/
What are some things you are doing to recognize and honor Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and Native American cultures? A wonderful play, Spirit of the Valley, through Perseverance Theater, I highly recommend for the whole family! Get tickets here: https://www.ptalaska.org/ Here's a couple of links to some national sites and educational programming available this month... https://www.nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov/ https://education.skype.com/pg/smithsonian-s-national-museum-of-the-american-indian Hello Everyone!
Welcome to the new spot where you can read all about what's happening in your Mat-Su/Copper River 4-H District and about Alaska 4-H Statewide events and activities. I will be updating this as needed, but at least once per month. If you have something that you would like announced, added, anything at all, please send me a note and I'll highlight it! Just a note: I don't magically know what is going on with each of your clubs at every moment, so please share! My plan for disseminating information to you and about you is through this news page and through a quarterly newsletter that I will mail out. Check your email, as I also sent out information today. The highlighted happenings coming up are: --November 24th we are hosting a "Meet the Scientist" with Dr. Ralph Lorenz. He is a planetary scientist with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Registration will be up in the enrollment system in the next few days. Please enroll and watch for the event! --Beginning in December, we will be hosting a monthly video meeting, highlighting 4-H project areas. We will have experts on to show us all of the bells and whistles of the subject and answer any questions that our kiddos may have. Please let me know if your kiddos have project ideas that they want to know more about. --Kodiak 4-H has invited all of our Cloverbud youth to participate in their Cloverbud video meetings! They are having a GREAT time and would love to connect with other Cloverbuds around the state. Please email me if your Cloverbud wants to join in on the FUN! --Thanks to Corine for putting together the latest info on the happenings of the Horse Council. You can read all about it HERE. That's all for now! Hope everyone has a great end of your week! Stay safe. Ann |
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April 2021
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