Saturday, March 12, 2011

Making the Best Better

That's the 4-H motto.

Today I was at the Ohio 4-H Volunteer Conference. About 1000 adults and about 700 kids. That's a lot of people. There were educational sessions and a big lunch-awards thing.

In the morning, as part of the state dog committee, I helped with a presentation on the dog program this year. I got to talk about our camp, how to teach CPE games, and a little about teaching rally.

Our club advisor had nominated our camp crew for the Innovator Award. And we were one of three groups to receive the award. We have a big fancy plaque to ....hang on the wall when at camp?

But it was amazing to hear about all of the great things people are doing. One of the other innovator receivers had created a day long cattle camp. Another was a kid who heard her county would be shutting down 4-H due to lack of funding...so she raised THOUSANDS of dollars to keep it running.

And there were a ton of other really great things. One group of cloverbuds (under 8 years old) had some sort of sponsorship program...they read at the library and got little clovers on the wall representing money raised for the time reading. And then they used the money for hundreds of dollars of books to be donated to their library.

There were also special awards for adults who had been volunteering with 4-H for a really long time. One of them had been a volunteer for seventy years. To be dedicated to the same program, for THAT long, impacting THAT many kids. Wow!

Then, on the other hand, this is my fifth year as a volunteer and in some ways it seems like forever, and in other ways, not enough time at all.

So... we'll keep playing with our 4-H curriculum. We'll keep working on our new projects. We'll keep changing what we're doing with the dogs. Well keep making the best better.

4 comments:

Urban canines said...

Congrats on the well deserved award!

Anonymous said...

Great that you are always looking at ways to expand and improve. Do you have some info on the curriculum as it stands now? Just curious as I work with kids and dogs although not in the way you do. And I am always looking for new approaches.Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Great that you are looking for ways to expand /imporove. I work with kids and dogs though in a different capacity and am always looking for new ideas. Is there somewhere I can see your curriculum as it stands now? Thanks!

Kristen said...

Thanks all,

Elizabeth: We have a rough "Curriculum Guide" on the resources of our website: www.ohio4hteendogexperience.com Those are the things we do with our teen (and experienced!) campers.

With our local kids, I do not currently have anything online about our curriculum, however I'd be --very-- happy to discuss it at any point!