Projects



Oak Town 4-H 2025-2026 Projects

 
Arts/A&C: Hands on art and craft projects driven by member interest. Options include drawing, painting, stamp/print making, air-dry clay, collage, etc.  Meetings First first two: 10/19/2025, 11/16/2025. More TBD, likely sticking with the 3rd Sunday , alternating between the Project Leaders homes in Oakland and Castro Valley
 
Community Service: Hands-on community service activities at club meetings, drives, local clean-ups, fall gleaning, holiday work days. Meetings are held at a combination of Club Meetings and off-site service activities. Club Meetings are the 2nd Monday of the month and the service work days are TBD

Sewing : Learn basic sewing skills. We will be starting in the fall with small projects that can be done in two hours that teaches basic sewing skills. In the Winter we will do a longer format project that will last over the last three meetings. Meetings will be held at the DiLauro home on 9/20, 10/18, 11/15, 1/17, 2/21 and 3/21

Food Art: (ages 12+)  Decorated cookies/cakes, Charcouterie boards, edible flower, table setting, decorated foccacia, food mosaics, Meetings will be on the 4th Sundays, 2-4 pm January-April

Gardening: (ages 7/8 w/ parental participation, 9+) Seed selection and starting, garden bed preparation, irrigation preparation, transplanting, reseeding, weeding, garden maintenance, Fair plant judging, Fair Exhibits. Meetings Spring: March-June, 2nd and 4th  Sunday 2:30pm (3/8, 3/29, 4/12, 4/26, 5/24, 6/14

Hiking/ Environmental Stewardship: Hiking with an emphasis on environmental concerns. Initial hikes planned for 9/28,10/19 and 11/16/25. 

Painted Rocks: Painted rocks for PR/branding, community service, potted plant decoration and FAIR! Meetings: 3 Saturdays in Fall, 1 Sunday in Winter, all at 2pm: 10/4, 11/22, 12/6, 1/11/26

Photography: (ages 9+ or leader approval) We will cover the basics of photographic rules, technicalities and composition. We will plan out 4 photo field trips over the course of the year and follow-up critique sessions. Meetings: Initial Meeting: Sunday, 9/28/25, 10:30 am. At this meeting we will set dates and locations for field trips and critique sessions, likely all on Sundays' in-person.
 
Public Speaking: to be incorporated into club meetings, from Project and Event reports to impromptu speeches. Meetings: Many meetings will be incorporated into the OT4H Club Meetings, the 2nd Monday of the month. A couple Zoom meetings will be scheduled to practice for Presentation Day and a County 4-H Presentation workshop will be held in November that will be included as a project meeting. All members are encourage4d to give their Presentation at County Presentation Day in March and, if successful, compete at Regional (likely via zoom in April) and State (Zoom or in-person in lat4e May) Presentation Days.

Robotics: Building Robots for the CA 4-H Robotics Team Contest. Meetings will be held in Berkeley  beginning in winter Winter 3rd Sundays December - March 2025 

Small Animals/Small Pets: Cover several small animals, such as Chickens, Rabbits, Dogs, Cats and open the agenda up following initial topics to discuss small animals the project members are interested in. Meetings: TBD but probably 4 1.5 hour meetings, 2 in fall and 2 in spring PLUS one fair poster/presentation presentation workshop in early spring.

Oak Town 4-H Project List with more complete information.


Members choose one of more project areas to focus on each club year. The projects are led by adult and teen leaders. Projects meet may meet once monthly or more frequently for a short duration, 
  • Planned work in an area of interest to the 4-H member
  • Guided by a 4-H adult volunteer Project Leaders and Teen Leaders
  • Aimed at planned objectives that can be attained and measured
  • Meet for a minimum of 6 hours , some may meet much more
  • Summarized by some form of record keeping
Just about any interest can be turned into a project with the help of an adult volunteer Project Leader. County-wide projects are also available and include State Exchange (exchanging homes with 4-H members from another state for two weeks during the summer), Rising Stars (for kids 11-14 who want to DO stuff) and a County Teen Projects specifically for youth members 13+.

Meetings

The entire Oak Town 4-H Club membership meets once a month with Community Club Meetings from September through June. For the 2025-2026 4-H Program Year we will be meeting in-person at Dimond Recreation Center. These meetings are run by elected youth officers. At the meetings members receive information about upcoming events, and may watch and give presentations, participate in community service, play group games or listen to guest speakers.

Meeting Minutes

Other Activities

In addition to Club and Project Meetings, members have the opportunity to participate in many other club, county, state and national events as allowed by current health restrictions or meeting virtually. As conditions deem it appropriate, youth are encouraged to attend community service events, field days (day long events focused on a project area), conferences, presentation days, awards ceremonies, skit night, skate night, Alameda County Fair, and sleep-away camp. There are many leadership opportunities for youth on the local club, county, state, and national level.