Hi everyone,

Well, we're entering the busy time of year - fair season! I've got some updates and date changes to provide you for the next couple of meetings. Sorry for the long email; I've been saving up on stuff to send you.

Date Changes
Lorall and I are taking a class on Tuesday nights, so we're going to change the last few meetings to Thursday night. Here's the rundown:

March meeting - will now be March 20 at the Crows house
April meeting - cancelling the meeting for April 8 (spring break week) and only having a 4-Her (8 and up) meeting on April 17th.

Fair Projects
Fair projects are due March 15 at the 4-H office. Non-livestock entry rules can be found here . Each project needs to have it's own recordbook (also available on the 4-H website). The Cloverbuds (5-7) only need to fill out one project summary for all of their projects.

We're going to have a fair project workday at my house March 8 from 1 to 4 pm for anyone who needs help with projects, recordbooks or entry forms. Please take a look at the entry book. There are a lot of fun contests and activities happening - rocket launches, bicycle rodeos, cookie bake-offs, bbq contest, etc.

Fair Helping
Our club has been asked to help with several things at the fair. We've been asked to man the county 4-H booth on Saturday, March 29, from 12-3:30 pm. I need 1 adult and 2 members to volunteer to do this. Please let me know if you're available.

Each club is also asked to help with set up or take down of the exhibit building. We'll be helping with take down on April 1 from noon to 4 pm. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Service Project
Wendy Wilbur, the Alachua County horticulture agent, is going to be teaching us about community gardening. We've been asked to help put in a butterfly garden at Tower Road library. Wendy will be coming April 17 to talk with the older kids about the logistics of the project. This will be a long-term project for us and will be considered our club service activity for several years. Wendy will help us with the design of the garden and show us some installation techniquest. The garden won't be very big. We'll need to get plants donated, have a workday to get them planted, and then continue with maintenance (mainly weeding) throughout the year. We're planning on the workday being Saturday, May 3. Please let me know if this would work for you and if morning or afternoon would be better. If we can get most of our members there, we should be done with the planting in a very short period.

Also, don't forget to be collecting change in your cow banks for the Heifer International project.

County Activities
County Events Day has moved to April 19. This is an opportunity for members to give presentations, posters, etc. on their projects. It's a great leadership skill building activity.

Junior Congress is coming up on May 9 and 10. Congress is an overnight camp where youth have fun, learn new skills, make new friends, and get an idea of what Senior Congress is like. Several Senior-level 4-H youth have signed up to teach classes at Jr. Congress. If you are also interested in teaching or need more information, contact the Extension Office at (352)-955-2402 . The registration deadline for Jr. Congress is May 2, 2008.

End-of-Year Party
We'd like to do an end-of-year party to celebrate what a great 4-H year it's been! Anyone have any suggestions on where it should be held? My family has a lakehouse in Melrose which we could go to for the day and swim and bbq, but it is 20 miles east of Gainesvillle. What do you think of this? Any other ideas?

Parents' Meeting
We'd like to do a parents' meeting in May to discuss next year's schedule, where we could use some help, field trips, summer camp, and ideas for more summer activities. How does Thursday, May 15 sound?

T-shirts
Would anyone be interested in doing customized Stars & Stripes 4-H t-shirts? See examples. I think the kids would love it, but I want to know if there's interest before pursuing this. It would be great for field trips, fair, etc. County Council is also offering t-shirts for $10 as a county fundraiser.

I know this seems like a lot, but it's been a great year and we still have so much more to do! Please consider participating in the fair this year. If you have any questions, give me a call.
Emily