Project Reports
Projects have started and we've gotten a couple of project reports from our club members!

Project: Painted Rocks
“We enjoyed painting rocks in the first painted rock project meeting. We painted the 4-H website on some painted rocks that we made and then we later got to put them in Montclair park. So now other people would see them and learn about 4-H. Everybody did very different painted rocks. we enjoyed making the rocks and hiding them.”
- Wyatt

Project: Sewing
I've been part of the Sewing Project for three years with Oak Town 4-H. I think it's super fun because you can make stuff that is really cool and fun. For example a few years ago I made a whale stuffy and a reusable sandwich bag that I still have.

This year we meet at my parent's house so I don't have to move too far from the couch. Our first meeting we made pillow cases. I made the pillow case too long, but it's still fun to make. Next week we will meet for the second time and make trick or treat bags for Halloween.​

Our sewing project is always fun. We make useful things that we can use in our daily lives that are cool and fun. It is a great way to make new friends with common interests.
-Delilah

Skate Night is coming!! Do you like to skate? Do you want to get together with other county 4-H members and have some fun? Skate over to Golden Skate in San Ramon on October 27th starting at 6pm, and participate in our annual Skate Night! This event is an early celebration of Halloween, so wear your costumes! If you want to win a prize, then you can participate in the costume contest, with many categories to increase your chance of winning. It’s really fun, and the food is yummy. See you there!
-Leo :3

Our October Oak Town 4-H Club Meeting on October 20th will begin with a Trunk-or-Treat in the upper parking lot at Dimond Recreation Center. We are asking families to participate by decorating their trunk or hatchback in some Halloween/Fall/Dias De los Muertos manner, provide a very simple activity or game kids can do to win treats or small prizes. Your family provides the vehicle, decorations, game/activity and individual wrapped candy or inexpensive prizes. Participate and be a part of the fun! Sign up to add your family vehicle to the fun!
General Guidelines

• Set up for participating vehicles: 5:45 pm
• Trunk-or-Treat open 6:00-6:30
• all candy/treats should be individually wrapped and handed out by a teen/adult. 

 Date
10/20/2025 (Mon.)
 Time
5:45PM - 7:00PM PDT
 Location
Dimond Recreation Center Upper Parking Lot

May Oak Town 4-H Club Meeting

• May 13th, 6:15pm​
• Dimond Recreation Center
• Community Service: Color Me a Smile
• Speeches and Elections for the 2024-2025 Oak Town 4-H Officer Team (members turning 9 by 12/31/24 are eligible)
• Final Club House Meeting
• Parent Meeting
• Personalized Record Books 
• Club T-Shirts Available
• Snacks - Sign up here to bring snacks!
• Door Prizes!

May Club House Points
To earn your Club House team points towards winning the team prize in June be sure to do and bring the following to the May Club Meeting:

• completed the April Healthy Living Challenge (read 20 minutes a day outside of school work)
• wear a 4-H t-shirt
• bring a water bottle
• complete a Color Me a Smile in House Meeting
• prepare an Officer Speech

Parent Meeting
During the youth members' Club House Meeting there will be a companion Parent Meeting. This is a great time to bring up any concerns or ask questions. We will also be covering:

• Record Books
• County Fair and Cake Booth
• Club Officers
• Next Year's Oak Town 4-H

4-H Record Books
Tracking what you've done through your 4-H year is one of the Life Skills 4-H encourages and rewards. This year many members have worked at filling out their Spark Charts or Primary Reports and Annual Project Reports in Club House and Project Meetings. These will be returned to you at the May Club Meeting in a personalized 4-H Record Book cover. For those 8 and older, the Record Book will also contain a "My 4-H Story" worksheet. Take these home and complete the new form and add any forgotten items to the Spark Chart or Primary Report and bring them back to the June Club Picnic June 9th. Turning in your Record Book will get you your 4-H Year Pin and Stripe and also gain your Club House points.

For those wishing to go an extra step and gain additional awards, there is a County Record Book competition in September. More information is available about County record Books if you are interested.
Oak Town 4-H: Fair Submissions: Deadline May 15th!

For a list and information on what can be entered as Youth Still Exhibits, be sure to read through the Alameda County FAIR YOUTH STILL EXHIBITS GUIDE. 

• The link for entries in on page one of this guide
• The dates entries are due and the delivery dates are on page 2
• All youth photography entries must be accompanied by an uploaded image of the photograph
• Entry fees are made at the time of the online entry
• These additional entries can be included in our group “carpools” of entry items as space and local family drop-off sites can be arranged
• Baked Goods, Decorated Foods, Preserved Foods and Table Setting have entirely different entry and delivery schedules. Please check the above-linked guide for info on these
• There is also a Youth Gardening Entry Guide as produce, mini gardens, flower arrangements and such can also be entered by youth.

Please NOTE: We WILL need 2-4 families willing to accept club members fair Still Exhibit entries right before deliveries are due and ferry them out to the Alameda County Fairgrounds either Friday, May 24, 12-8pm OR Saturday, May 25, 8am-4pm.
Reminder, we get funding when you sign up for Farm Fresh To you!

We have a great fundraiser we've been doing for a couple years now and I want to remind folks about it. As a reminder, your club's promo code is OAKTOWN4H, and you earn 10% back from every delivery when someone in your community adds your 4-H Club's promo code to their account. 

Sign up here: https://www.farmfreshtoyou.com/

Get ready for Santa Clara 4-H Camp!
This year, sign up for Santa Clara County’s 4-H Camp June 23-27th! With a fun music theme, there is something for everyone at camp! Some examples of activities there are hiking, woodworking, arts & crafts, archery, and more! Sign up today!
Register here for Camp! https://surveys.ucanr.edu/survey.cfm?surveynumber=42077

-Jackson, Camp Youth Director

2024 Cake Booth is 6/29/24! Mark your calendars!
Oak Town has selected Saturday, 6/29/24 to be our Cake Booth day at the Alameda County Fair. Cake Booth is the one Countywide 4-H fundraiser we have each year. Each club selects and staffs an entire day and the kids really love to sell cake slices. Please sign up here! It's fun for the whole family. I've done this many times with my kids and the time flies by. The kids learn communication with each other and with the public, how to run the cash register, how to cut cakes, food safety/food prep. The adults have fun frosting and cutting cakes, and cleaning the knives and cake scorers. Please mark your calendars and sign up for shift! Oh, I forgot the best part, all the volunteers get free fair admission and a free parking pass for that day so you can attend the fair for free before or after your shift! WIN-WIN!

Oak Town 4-H June Picnic
Our last "Club Meeting" of the year is a June Picnic. This year it will take place on Sunday, June 9th, likely within the window of 2-6pm. We NEED help planning this party. If you would like to be involved in the planning process for food, games, activities and such, a paper signup will be at the May Club Meeting or contact the club by email at [email protected].

Although the Officer Team chose the date and general time, they would like you to be involved in making the choice of the location. There are two available options and you will be asked to vote for your choice at the May Club Meeting. Your vote counts so read the comparisons and decide which you would prefer.

Option 1
Venue: Dimond Park BBQ
Cost: $215 with $100 refunded if area is cleaned adequately
Location: Dimond Park right below Dimond Recreation Center
Amenities: BBQ (need to haul in supplies), picnic tables, grassy area, playground nearby. Ice chests would need to be hauled in, public bathrooms
Possible Activities: Picnic, Lawn games (parachute, bubbles, hula hoops....)
Cons: no AV set up

Option 2
Venue: Butko's home
Cost: $75 (Life Guard fee)
Location: near Oakland Zoo
Amenities: Pool, hot tub, BBQ w/ supplies on hand, refrigerator/freezer if needed, tables, indoor bathrooms, Projector and screen (for year-in-4-H slide show)
Possible Activities: BBQ, Swimming, Slide show, limited team games or STEM activities
Cons: limited space for "lawn games"

April Oak Town 4-H Club Meeting

• April 8, 6:15pm
• Dimond Recreation Center
• Craft Fair for County Fair Submissions
• Community Service "Color a Smile"
• Club House Meetings
• Parent Meeting
• Upcoming Events
• April Birthdays with Nyla
• Healthy Living Challenge
• Snacks
• Door Prizes
• TO BRING:
• Your water bottle
• Children's book donation for Little Free Library
• Your Club Name Badge if you took it home last meeting

Sign up to bring snacks to the April meeting!
Please check out the signup genius and sign up to bring snacks! https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C044CAEAC23A0FF2-48812968-snacks#/
Rising Stars 4-H International Field Day
The Alameda County 4-H Rising Stars Team has planned a fun event they hope you will come to, participate in and learn from! Eight booths will be available to learn about other countries, and Community Service opportunities around the world, sample food and playing games from that country and watching a performance related to that country. Attendees will get to vote for their favorite food samples and games, and earn candies or small prizes filling out their event passport as they visit the booths on France, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan (Oak Town's submission!), Poland, Puerto Rico as well as 4-H Programs around the world. The County Ambassadors will be giving information about the County 4-H Ambassador Program. 4-H International Field Day will be held Saturday, April 13th from 2-4:15pm at Hill & Valley Club, 1808 B Street, Hayward. Parking is available on-site. Members and their families and friends are invited and encouraged to attend.

Additionally, if you would like to earn leadership credits for helping with our Oak Town 4-H "Japan" booth, there will be an in-person work session Sunday, April 7th at 5pm at the Butko's. Help finalize our poster, design the arrangement of our booth, sample our proposed food samples and try our activity. Help is also needed staff our booth for short time periods so all attendees can visit other club booths as well.

4-H Record Keeping, Documentation and Record Books
One of the Life Skills 4-H promotes and patterns for youth is the ability to document what they have achieved. 

One of the ways 4-H offers its members the opportunity to practice this skill is by documenting what they've learned and done in their 4-H Projects which our Club Project Leaders should be working on with their members over the course of project work during the year. 

Another form we are using to help new and younger members track what they've done and earn achievement for it is the Spark Chart the Club House Leads have been working with their House members over the year. 

These two pieces of documentation go together with the member's "My 4-H Story" to create their 4-H year's Record Book. The annual Record Book forms are kept and added to each year to show the growth and achievements of the members. As members age, the thrust of the forms they are to complete change from trying new things for newer and younger members to setting goals for themselves on what they would like to accomplish to getting out and making a difference in their communities. 

But, for now, for our newer and younger members we are attempting to have them just accomplish small steps. Putting together the basics of a simple Record Book in the easiest, most painless, process possible. At our May Club meeting we will be giving back the Project reports and Spark Charts kids have been working on over the year in their Projects and Club Houses in a 4-H folder along with a form that they can fill out that mirrors what is usually written in a "My 4-H Story". Completing this form and adding it to their Spark Chart and Project reports and turning this in at the June Club Party will get them off to a good start, getting them acknowledgement for what they've done and the possibility for those that want to go a step beyond to clean it all up to make it look nice and compete at the County 4-H Record Book Competition. 

More information about the steps in this process will be out in May.

Oak Town 4-H: Fair Submissions

The Alameda County Fair is just around the corner. Our Club Members are encouraged to submit Still Exhibit items to the Alameda County Fair. How can our Oak Town 4-H members do this? Below are three sample routes for Youth Still Exhibit Alameda County Fair entries.

• At our April OT4H Club Meeting we are having a Craft Fair. Members are given the opportunity to create a few crafts that can be entered in the fair. 
• IF they fill out a short form (Name, craft item, craft title) their entries can be submitted by the Club. 
• Members would need to take their craft home and keep it safe until fair entries are due to be delivered and then 
• Entries will have the family email contact on file with the club as the “Contact Number” so you WILL get a notice letting you know the item was entered
• Our club member families will make every effort to set up “car pools” for the items to be delivered to the fair at the correct date/time
• Some Projects may be working on fair entries as part of their project work. Some of these items created MAY be able to be entered in the Fair by the Project Leader. Please check with your Project Leader to see if they are planning to enter any items made as part of their Project work
• Additional items can be entered directly by the member family. These Still Exhibits can be related to something they learned in their 4-H Project or can be something entirely different. For a list and information on what can be entered as Youth Still Exhibits, be sure to read through the Alameda County FAIR YOUTH STILL EXHIBITS GUIDE. 
• The link for entries in on page one of this guide
• The dates entries are due and the delivery dates are on page 2
• All youth photography entries must be accompanied by an uploaded image of the photograph
• Entry fees are made at the time of the online entry
• These additional entries can be included in our group “carpools” of entry items as space and local family drop-off sites can be arranged
• Baked Goods, Decorated Foods, Preserved Foods and Table Setting have entirely different entry and delivery schedules. Please check the above-linked guide for info on these
• There is also a Youth Gardening Entry Guide as produce, mini gardens, flower arrangements and such can also be entered by youth.

Please NOTE: We WILL need 2-4 families willing to accept club members fair Still Exhibit entries right before deliveries are due and ferry them out to the Alameda County Fairgrounds either Friday, May 24, 12-8pm OR Saturday, May 25, 8am-4pm.

Get ready for Santa Clara 4-H Camp!
Santa Clara County 4-H camp is June 23-27th. Jackson and I are both camp staff there this year and we hope to see more kids from Oak Town and Alameda county. There are fun activities like shooting sports, archery, various arts and crafts, and you also improve your computer science skills.
-Leo, Camp Staff

Register here for Camp! https://surveys.ucanr.edu/survey.cfm?surveynumber=42077

-Jackson, Camp Youth Director

​2024 Cake Booth is 6/29/24! Mark your calendars!
Oak Town has selected Saturday, 6/29/24 to be our Cake Booth day at the Alameda County Fair. Cake Booth is the one Countywide 4-H fundraiser we have each year. Each club selects and staffs an entire day and the kids really love to sell cake slices. Look for a Signup Genius coming soon with 3 hour shifts. It's fun for the whole family. I've done this many times with my kids and the time flies by. The kids learn communication with each other and with the public, how to run the cash register, how to cut cakes, food safety/food prep. The adults have fun frosting and cutting cakes, and cleaning the knives and cake scorers. Please mark your calendars and sign up for shift! Oh, I forgot the best part, all the volunteers get free fair admission and a free parking pass for that day so you can attend the fair for free before or after your shift! WIN-WIN!

January 2024 Oak Town 4-H Club meeting
Where: Dimond Recreation Center, 3860 Hanly Rd, Oakland, CA
When: January 8, 2024, 6:15 pm

• Club House Meetings
• Games
• Intro to Public Speaking and Record Keeping
• Refreshments
• Parents Meeting
• December/January Birthday Celebration
• Door Prizes

Oak Town 4-H Parent Meeting
At the same time as the youth members' Club House Meeting we will hold a parent meeting, likely in the kitchen at Dimond Rec, to answer any questions and talk a bit more about our efforts to promote public speaking, record keeping and community service. If you have questions and/or what to learn more about making the 4-H program work best for you and your youth pear plan to attend.

Club House Competition Credits
Our Oak Town 4-H Club Houses first met at our November Club Meeting. These sub-groups, Head, Heart, Hands and Health, meet monthly at club meetings and accumulate points for their member teams by participating and just showing up. In January points will be awarded to Club Houses for members that

• show up for the meeting
• bring their water bottle
• completed the November Healthy Living Challenge (read for 30 minutes twice a week)
• participate in the Club House activities
• Give a Project or Spark Report at the general Club Meeting
• Bring a book for the Little Free Library

Members of the Club House with the most accumulated points in June will all get prizes that are likely to include individual Ice Creamery gift cards. So....pay attention to monthly credits, show up and participate!

New Projects Commencing Shortly
While some Projects have ended or are winding down, Mini-Gardens and Photography will begin in January. If you haven't already signed up for either of these Projects but want to participate, please contact Barbara at [email protected]