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]

Where: Dimond Recreation Center, 3860 Hanly Rd, Oakland, CA
When: December 11th, 6:00-8:30pm

• Pot Luck Dinner - Sign up to bring a dish
• Silent Auction Desserts - Bring a dessert for fundraising!
• Community Service Drives and Hands-On Activities
• Adopt a Family - Sign up here
• Holiday Compassion Stockings - sign up here
• Holiday Cards
• Contests with PRIZES
• Ugly Sweater Contest
• Holiday Hat Contest
• Guessing Jars
• Games
• Door Prizes

Holiday Party General Schedule
Event Schedule 

• 5:30 Set up
• Check-In 6pm
• Guessing Jars Open: 6:00 pm
• Community Service (Adopt-a-Family Wrapping and Compassion Stocking Stuffing): open 6:15
• Meal time: 6:30
• Bingo open 6:30
• Dessert Silent Auction Bids Pulled 6:45
• Hat/Sweater Contests: 7:30
• Door Prizes: 8:00, bingo winners
• (Announce group toy/food packing at Davis Street FRC Saturday 12/16 9am)
• Check-Out
• Clean Up and out by 8:30

Dessert Auction at our December Club Meeting - Volunteer Opportunity!
Who loves the Great British Baking show? Would you like an opportunity to make your own Signature Dessert? At our December meeting we are hoping to auction off some beautiful homemade desserts to raise some money for our club! If you'd like to participate, please look out for the Sign Up Genius for our club meeting and sign up for the "Auction Desserts". Bring your beautiful creation to our club meeting along with a label that lists any pertinent allergen information (nuts, eggs, etc). 
Thank you for your contributions!
-Melina Moser

So we’d like to talk about bringing a buddy to 4-H. We are trying to let more kids know what 4-H is about this year. You can bring your friends, your buddies, your school mates, your cousins, your siblings, anyone in your family or outside your family. 

Our goal is just have more people learn about and maybe join our 4-H Club. When you bring your buddy, you will show them what 4-H means to you and they can do the same activities as you, but you will guide them. You can bring them anytime to the monthly meeting.  

Nyla , Recreation Leader

Learn about 4-H in your community. Meet our teen leaders and adult volunteers. Find out what project areas we will be offering this year.
Youth-led games and activities for current and potential youth members and more detailed information on the what's, why's. how's and where's of 4-H in general and Oak Town 4-H specifically.

• Sunday, August 27th, 4-5:30 in the picnic area of Dimond Park near the tot-lot.
  
• Light refreshments provided for all.
  
• Activities for youth
• Project and Enrollment information available
  
• Youth and parental units are invited.
  
• Meet and Greet our 2023-2024 Oak Town 4-H Officer Team and Adult Project Leaders

Our first Oak Town 4-h Community Club Meeting for the 2023-2024 4-H year will be September 11, 2023 in the same location.

More information on the 2023-2024 Oak Town 4-H Program Year coming soon.

Oak Town 4-H Families, our December CLub Holiday Party is just DAYS AWAY! Are you ready? We have several community service activities, at and beyond the party as well as a club fund-raising silent auction and a buffet of food to share. YOUR participation in some of these things will count as points towards YOUR Club House. These include:

• Sign up to help Saturday, December 10th at 9 am at Davis Street Community Center (3081 Teagarden St, San Leandro, CA 94577) packing food boxes and sorting holiday toys. Counts as a club Community Service also
• Sign up for the Adopt-a-Family. Each Club House has been assigned one of the four kids. Sign up, then buy and bring the item to the Party 12/12 to wrap and donate. If there are no slots left for your Club Houses sponsored child, sign up for something for the grandmother or the dad. Donating as well as wrapping the gifts also count as club Community Service. Note: if you belong to the "Head" Club House (Carmen, Anabel, Josie, Naia, Julianna, Rylee, Nyla, Marcus, Katalina, Chloe), your team desperately needs help filling 10 year old Lauren's wish list. Not in Head Club House and your house's sponsored child has a full list? Donate an item to one of the parental units (Grandmother Barbara or Dad Steve) wish lists.
• Sign up to donate some of the toiletry items for the Holiday Compassion Stockings. Then bring the supplies to the Club Party 12/12/22 and help stuff a stocking with the supplies ad a few holiday treats. Take the stocking hole to give away on your own to a person in need or leave with the Community Service team to give away.
• Attend the Club Holiday Party!~
• Participate in the Ugly Sweater contest.  (including those judging if they wear an appropriate sweater)- Wear a festive holiday sweater to the Club Party 12/12/22, check off that you are participating when you check in and see if you are one of the 5 Ugly Sweater Contest winners!
• Participate in the Club Bingo and get a point for your club while you meet and greet new and returning club members. Prizes will also be given out for those that complete 5 in a row!

Additionally your family can help by signing up to

• bring side dishes, salads and DESSERTS to the party!
• donate an item to our Club's fund-raising Silent Auction