Hollymount – Francesca Joella, Reporter
Our last meeting of 2022 was held on December 8. We began the meeting by singing our favorite songs. We had a brief business meeting before moving onto some fun holiday activities for the night. Addison Freebery had some fun seasonal questions for us to answer. We pulled a question out of a bag and then answered it. Our next activity was decorating a human as a Christmas tree! We split up into two teams and each decorated one. Pictures of the “trees” were posted on social media for others to vote on their favorite. It was a blast! We then had some great holiday treats, fit for a December meeting! Among them being hot chocolate, and other fantastic snacks and treats. To wrap up the night, we made three ornaments to enter in the fair. We will also be making three more during our next meeting! Overall, this was an extremely fun meeting to wrap up 2022, and also a fantastic holiday party!
Seaford Blue Jays – Olivia Shultie, ReporterDecember was a busy month for the Blue Jays. We participated in the Seaford Christmas Parade on December 3rd with a “Frosty the Snowman” themed float. We had a great time and most of our club members were able to ride the float this year. Our club went shopping on December 4th for a needy family. We were able to do this with a grant from the Good Ole Boys Foundation. Our members and their families made cakes, brownies and cookies to be donated to the Feed Our Troops event at the Dover Air Force Base.
The December Club Meeting was held at the Seaford American Legion on December 14th. President Seth reminded everyone of upcoming 4-H events (State Skate event, Winter Fun Day, Public Speaking, and Favorite Foods Contest). Janet, Olivia, Caydance, Embrey, Zipporah, and Paloma will participate in the International Foods event. Caydance will play her flute in the talent show. We had a wonderful time exchanging secret Santa gifts and playing games. Everyone brought a dish to share.
Country Clovers – Sophia Noon, Reporter
On December 6, 2022, the Country Clovers held a holiday party at Sound United Methodist Church. The members Eddie, Kaitlyn, Emily, Bryan, and Sophie along with leaders Ms. Rebecca and Ms. Debbie helped to sew little stockings and stuff them with coloring pages and crayons for children in the TOTs Early Learning Center. Along with that there was also a lot of good food to enjoy throughout the party. Everyone had fun and it was a good time.
Stateline – Meredith Timmons, Reporter
At our December meeting, members of the Stateline 4-H club made and decorated cookies for local first responders. Each family made five dozen cookies for the platters. Club members also decorated sugar cookies together. We packaged them on platters and delivered them to our local first responders. Cookie platters were delivered to Seaford Police Department, Seaford Fire Department, Blades Fire Department, and Tidal Health staff in Seaford.
Sunset Branch – Demetreus Moutzalias, Reporter
At our January meeting, we first held our monthly business meeting. After the business meeting, we made posters for our groups. We used stickers, markers, and other supplies to create posters that showed our team name as well as images that we felt represented us best. We did this so our group members could work together and get to know each other better.
Cypress Heart and Hands
The kids in Cypress Heart and Hands have kicked off the new year on a good foot! For our monthly tray favor that goes to the local nursing home, they made accordion snowmen that would make Frosty proud. At our meeting, we played a public speaking-based “bag game” which allowed the members to become better equipped to talk in front of a crowd about a random object. They did really well and are interested in next year’s public speaking contest! We are currently not invited into our local nursing home due to illnesses but plan to continue our support of their residents through our tray favors and care bags. For our community service night, the kids are making no-sew fleece scarves for the homeless and care bags for a dialysis clinic.
Wild Clovers
The Wild Clovers had a great turnout for our January meeting! During this meeting, we got acquainted with each other by doing an icebreaker. Each kid shared their name, club, and favorite outdoor activity. Our theme for this month was Snowflake Science. We learned all about how snowflakes are formed and the different kinds. Afterward, each kid got to create and take home their own borax crystal.
Bridgeville Mustangs – Cole Carpenter, Reporter
So…. In December there was this menace that stole my report so I had to redo it in January! YESSS, you guessed it! It WAS that pesky GRINCH!
The December 1st meeting was called to order at 6:32pm by our president Paige Taylor. The pledges were led by James and Lillie. Our secretary’s report was given by Brooke Taylor. It was approved by Kyle Kerr and Cameron Hale. The leaders updates were given which consisted of the Horse Bowl Contest. Our clubs president then discussed Old business including, The holiday cards for heroes, And our Sussex County Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser. Austin Jewel talked about his experience there. We then discussed new business including, The float preparation on December 8th, The Hippology contest on December 10th, Also on December 10th, The Bridgeville Christmas Parade. Then Carter Bradley spoke on his experience last year at National 4-H Conference. Juliette, Taylor, and Cole will be helping at the Vanderwendes’ Santa’s Workshop on December 16th. After that we discussed our Project Groups. Our meeting was Adjourned at 6:57PM. Alyssa Carpenter led an activity for the 4th H for health, it was a game of “pin the healthy heart on the grinch”. Signs of the grinch were all around; there was a Jingle Bell cup pong game, Grinchy popcorn, Grinchy Dip and even Grinch Kisses. We also made Grinches out of crepe paper! Thanks to Cole, Juliette, Brooke, Carter, & Paige for volunteering to be Grinchified and to CJ for dressing as the Grinch.
Bridgeville Mustangs- Cameron Hale, Reporter
Our Cloverbuds met before our January meeting and did an experiment called Rainbow Milk. This taught them how the fat in milk could interact with dish soap to make an incredible rainbow effect. Our January club meeting began with our pledges, led by Bailey and Sarah. Then, our Old and New Business was listed and talked about by President Paige Taylor. Our club gave a donation to the Clover Knights 4-H club to support their community service project of purchasing Christmas wish list items for Harrison House residents. We learned that our club’s three Hippology teams, beginner, intermediate, and senior, all took first place in the recent Hippology contest. Go Mustangs! After the meeting was over, My Ceramic Studio provided us with the materials to paint ceramics. These items can be entered in the State Fair.
Sussex 4-H Jr. Council – Cole Carpenter, Reporter
December 5th was the Junior Council Meeting, there were 20 in attendance. In old business, Cards for heroes was discussed and many signed up as helpers for Winter Fun Day, Public Speaking Contest, Links to Leadership Days, Favorite Foods & Public Speaking Contests. There were 13 gifts turned in by junior leaders for our Giving Tree. We celebrated our Christmas gathering in our favorite Christmas gear and had a white elephant gift exchange. Snacks & Activity in December provided by Kyle, Carter Ainsley & Ashlyn.
January 9th was the next Junior Council meeting. Old business discussed included Santa Calls, State Ice Skating Party. Through our Giving Tree project, 14 students in need received hygiene packs along with some gifts of their favorite books, games, snacks & clothing for this community service project. President Kyle Kerr encouraged members to sign up for State Teen Conference and upcoming State Forums. We had an ice breaker snowball fight to learn more about each other and we decorated sugar cookies as a group for snack with the Hot Chocolate/ Apple Cider & Vanilla Chai bar. Snack & Activity this month was provided by Miss Cheri, Alyssa & Cole.
Harbor Lights – Robert Nagle, Reporter
The January Harbor Lights 4-H meeting started at six, ended at eight pm, and was hosted at Old Paths Church of Christ. We discussed past events like the Christmas play and the Christmas party during the meeting. The Christmas play was about the birth of Jesus and had a comedic twist. We had on-site reporters reporting about the birth of Jesus, talking with the shepherds, and two reporters and a weather girl reporting from the studio. Then we discussed club member Dakota Carmona’s service project bundles of love putting together care packages for nursing home residents. The Harbor Lights 4-H club is donating 70 boxes of tissues.
Additionally, we covered upcoming events like the favorite food contest. The favorite food contest is where you make a dish in one of the categories for your age group and have it judged, and if you meet all the standards, you get a blue ribbon. Usually, younger kids make things from cookies and brownies to maybe a slice of grilled cheese. But the oldest kids will make something more complicated and challenging to fit their age group better. We would love to have someone new join us for our next meeting, which the Harbor Lights 4-H club will host at Old Paths Church of Christ on Thursday, February 16, 2023.
Lord Baltimore – Cassidy White, Reporter
The Lord Baltimore Helping Hands December meeting was held on December 4, 2022. It started with people turning in their gifts for the exchange as they came in and we said the American and 4-H pledge. Then we reviewed old business with the card party for heroes, and the spaghetti dinner/ basket auction. Afterwards, there were the new events such as the International Dinner, Winter fun day, Favorite Foods, and more. We also discussed the grant given to us to help a family in need by the Good ‘Ol Boys. With this, each 4-H family focuses on giving one child from the family about $70.00 worth of presents. We also discussed the Selbyville parade with Cypress Hearts and Hands, which won 1st place in the non-commercial category. We planned on rejoining them on the 10th for the Dagsboro Christmas Parade. It was then time for our Holiday/ End of the Year party where we did a number of activities including a guess the smell, a tossing game, a candy trade game, and our annual gift trade between the families. With all this we also had delicious snacks provided by Ruby, Ms.Kira, and Ms. Kathy. Our community service project for meals on wheels was taken home by each family to be completed and brought back by the 19th. This ended our final meeting of 2022.
Our next meeting was held on January 15, 2023. The meeting started with the American and 4-H pledges. Then we discussed old business such as International Foods, the Ice Skating Party, and Winter Fun Day. Next, was the new business including the Wild Clover meeting, the Favorite Foods contest, Horse bowl, and the healthy living retreat. We then took a break and did our Health activity of the month, which was a race to hold a piece of paper with only the suction of a straw in your mouth from one side of the room to the next. Finally, we took time to update our General and Project books. Our service projects for Meals on Wheels were taken home by each family to create snowmen and return them in a week. This was our January meeting.
