Service-learning helps 4-H members reach out to the community “Learn by doing” is the well-known 4-H creed. But many are unaware that, in addition to learning to sew, keep animals, build Web pages and cook, 4-H members are crafting kind hearts. The concept is called “service-learning,” in which learning opportunities are combined with community service. Ultimately, the activities are intended to change both the recipient and the provider of the service. Each year, the California 4-H Youth Development Program provides grants to neighborhood 4-H clubs to fund service-learning projects that address significant environmental, economic or social needs. Reviewers are currently considering service-learning project proposals from California 4-H clubs to fund in the coming year; the recipients will be announced in October. “Most people see 4-H as more of an educational club than a service club,” said Sharon Junge, acting director of the California 4-H Youth Development Program. “However, one of the Hs in our emblem stands for ‘hands,’ which members pledge at each meeting to ‘larger service.’ In addition to learning a wide variety of skills in 4-H, the children are developing a sense of compassion and caring for others.” 4-H Youth Development grants funds for service-learning projects Last year, six projects received grants for service-learning that ranged from $250 to $2,500. For example, a $2,500 grant that was awarded last year to the Elbow Creek 4-H Club of Tulare County allowed the group to host a Halloween experience for blind youngsters from infant to 6 years old in collaboration with the Blind Baby Foundation. The 4-H members made arrangements for fun festival activities that stimulate the senses of touch, hearing and taste. The blind children and their families touched the soft coats of goats, sheep and calves, listened to pigs squealing and a turkey gobbling, and felt the petite size of a miniature horse. They enjoyed a hayride to a pumpkin patch, where small beepers led the blind children to the pumpkins. The children decorated cupcakes, ate lunch prepared by the 4-H members and took home “touch and feel” books. The grant helped fund the 2006 event, but the 4-H children have sought other sources of revenue to continue holding the Halloween experience for blind children. This year’s blind Halloween festival is planned for Oct. 20 at the Rowley Dairy, 32592 Road 144 (East side of street between Avenue 320 and Avenue 328.) 4-H playground tipi part of 1,000 Hands Playground in Visalia The four-sided tipi sports a stylized 4-H clover marking the organization’s involvement in this community activity. The 1,000 Hands Playground project was designed with ideas from local children and accessibility for the disabled in mind. It was built in one week by 500 volunteers. “Our club wanted to leave a footprint in the community,” said 4-H leader Nobuko Bairstow, “and that’s what we’ve done.” The playground architect designed the tipi, but the task of building the structure was left entirely to 4-H members and adult volunteers. The 10-foot-tall tipi was constructed the week of Sept. 17. “All we had were boards, nails, screws and tools,” Bairstow said. “For a week, we were sizing and cutting boards, digging holes to plant the posts, and putting the tipi together.” The tipi is a place where children can have “peace meetings” and emulate early Native Americans, according to the service objectives written by club member Andrew Price. “It will open their creative minds and help them think of fun games to play,” Price wrote. In the process of this service project, the 4-H members learned much about how city governments operate, what life is like for disabled children, how to construct a playground, how to collaborate with city agencies, businesses and service clubs and how to use grants as a fundraising tool. Children learn to serge and help the homeless A $250 service-learning grant went to the Belmont 4-H Club in San Mateo County. The children involved in the sewing project used the funds to make fabric toiletry bags for residents of the Shelter Network, who share community restrooms and often do not have basic supplies such as soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste and shampoo or a handy way to carry them. The children sought donations of heavy-duty fabric to construct the bags and toiletry articles to fill the bags. They learned how to use a serger or overlock machine, which sews over the edge of one or two pieces of cloth for edging, hemming or seaming and trims the edges of the cloth as it is fed through. “Using a serger will make the bags more durable because of the four threads that are woven together rather than a single stitched thread made via a sewing machine,” the 4-H youth wrote in their proposal. In all, the children serged 146 bags, filled them with supplies and delivered them to homeless individuals and families at the Shelter Network. The 4-H members learned how to operate a serger independently, but perhaps more importantly they developed a greater understanding of the circumstances of the homeless in their community and gained a new appreciation for what they may have taken for granted in their own lives. Funding for the 4-H service-learning projects was made possible through a generous gift to the California 4-H Foundation by The Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation. (October 2007) |
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Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California. All contents November 20, 2009 Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. |
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