Cypress Heart & Hands – Faith Absher, Reporter
Fall Fun with Cypress Heart & Hands 4-H Club! On Tuesday, October 8, we had our second meeting of the 4-H year. While the bigger kids had a club meeting, the Cloverbuds did a fun jack o ‘lantern project with dot markers. After the business meeting, both groups worked on a fun fall craft. We were able to pick from a leaf, pumpkin, or scarecrow. All of the crafts were cute and turned out great. For the snack, we had pretzel spider webs with a frozen yogurt bark. Everyone enjoyed this yummy snack. Each of us also left with a spider ring. We learned a new song called “Fried Ham”, and all our members liked this silly song.
Since our meeting in September, we have had a few of our members attend some county events like sewing and archery. These members had a lot of positive things to say about these events. We also worked hard on our window display in October. After the meeting, we also had some exciting news and discovered we placed first in the window display contest. We are also looking forward to the pumpkin decorating and costume contest in October. The Cypress Heart and Hands members have had a fun year so far.
Wild Clovers Outdoor Club
The Wild Clovers had a very special guest this past month at our club meeting. We welcomed Ashley Melvin and her friend Smokey Bear to come and talk to us about Smokey’s story. She brought a campsite craft for the members to construct and goodies to share with us! It was such a fun time, and I think everyone enjoyed getting to meet Smokey Bear in person! 
Hollymount – Frankie Joella, Reporter
We started our October meeting by cleaning Conley’s Chapel Cemetery. After we finished, we went to Conley’s Church. We had pizza while we started our regular meeting. The beach cleanup was on September 14, and there was a wonderful turnout! The Achievement Banquet was held on September 29. October is a very exciting month for 4-H because of the infamous Pumpkin Contest. The Pumpkin Contest is on October 19, and there is a costume contest portion that is new for this year. As for new business, November 13 will be our Cards for Heroes party. November 23 will be the International Foods and Talent Show. October is an extremely fun month, but November is very exciting as well! Our next meeting will be held on November 7.
Harbor Lights 4-H Club – Phillip Cunningham, Reporter
The Harbor Lights 4H club has had a lot of fun at our September and October meetings. At our September meeting, we elected new officers. They’re all new to their positions. We also started our new project groups. We have aviation, gardening, and animal science. Cloverbuds have their own group too. They made a pumpkin craft. At our second meeting, we started with a rec activity like flag football, but without the football. You had to try to take peoples flags. The person with the most flags wins. Then we had our business meeting. After the meeting, we had a snack of apples and caramel, popcorn, and cookies. Then we met with our project groups again. Many of our members are planning to attend the pumpkin contest. We planned an adopt a highway date and are planning to go caroling at a nursing home soon.
Seaford Blue Jays – Jayda Riefler, Reporter
The Seaford Blue Jays met on October 9th, at the American Legion in Seaford. Our current President, Janet, brought the meeting to order and our new officers for the 2024-2025 club year were inducted. Each received a tiny clover charm with meaning for each office. Caydance, our new President, ran the meeting. She reminded everyone that had not paid club dues to do so and also announced that all club members had registered for the year. Several members helped with the Coastal Cleanup and those that were able to go to the banquet said the food was really good and the decorations looked great. Our club was excited to hear we got third place on the window decoration. We learned that the Jr. Council had a firefighter visit and they were working hard on the haunted trail for the pumpkin contest. Cadence won the leader scholarship too. Our club donated money to the American Legion because they allow us to use their building for free once a month. We also made cards for the Legion to take to an event remembering the fallen soldiers. Caydance reminded everyone about meeting at the Dover Airforce Base for a club tour on October 27th. Our meeting ended with snack and craft from the Genshaw/Riefler families. Next month we will meet again on November 13th for a special photography workshop hosted by the Callaway’s and Shultie’s. Happy fall!!!!!!!
Lord Baltimore Helping Hands – Cassidy White, Reporter
Lord Baltimore Helping Hands October meeting was on the 13th of the month. To start with we welcomed two new members, Jane and Grace. Then we said the pledge of allegiance and the 4-H pledge. Next, members went over old businesses such as the award ceremony, and new businesses like the pumpkin contest and decorating a Christmas tree and wreath for DE Hospice soon. We then went on to our health activity led by Madison (one of our Cloverbuds) who taught us the importance of exercise and led warm-ups. We added to our 4th H by playing a game of Ships and Sailors before going inside for a vegetable tray shaped like a pumpkin. After we finished eating our snack, we went inside to do our craft for the meeting, which was a light-up glass scarecrow. To do this, we stuffed wine bottles, or a mason jar for the clover buds, with straw and lights, then created the hat out of ribbon before finishing the bottle by putting on a face with electrical tape. This concluded our October meeting. Our next meeting will be November 10th.
Dublin Hill – Raegan O’Day, Reporter
This month’s meeting was held on October 17th and we had a craft before the meeting. The craft was making a pumpkin with puzzle pieces. At the meeting awards were passed out from last year. Then we sang a song. It was a repeat after me song called the “Moose song”. During the meeting we discussed past and future events such as the sewing classes, archery classes and the pumpkin contest. We also discussed future club activities such as Christmas light decorating and Wreaths Across America. Then we played a fitness game. After that we had a healthy snack that was celery with peanut butter, cinnamon rolls and cupcakes. Everyone had a good time at the meeting.
Sussex County Junior Council – Linda Adams, Reporter
On October 7th, Junior Council held their meeting at the Carvel Research Center. Our meeting started with a guest speaker, Stan Bradley, who spoke on how we all could work together as a team and explained how to have our voices heard. This included an obstacle course team-building exercise. At the September meeting, each officer chose a month to lead a 15-minute activity and other members could sign up to help them. This month’s meeting was led by President, Ainsley. Keira & Claire had also signed up to help with snacks. In honor of last month’s Service project, Ainsley invited a firefighter/EMT in as a guest speaker. Todd Warwick Jr. gave us a wealth of knowledge about his career as a firefighter and EMT at the young age of 18. He also invited our group to a Q & A about his experiences. After his presentation, we were proud to present him and his co-workers with our “Thank a First Responder” service project which included a thank you card and a keychain as a reminder to be proud of the work they do every day. Ainsley also demonstrated how to properly use a Fire Extinguisher with the PASS motion and the importance of changing the battery in your smoke detector. Our team energizer, Lillie, led a fun communication exercise and then Ainsley led the business meeting that included recent and future events. Everyone was excited about our upcoming Haunted Trail at the Pumpkin Contest/Fall Overnighter on October 19th. Thank you to all who helped with the meeting this month. Our next meeting will be held on Monday, November 4th, 7 PM at the Carvel Building where we will have a new guest speaker, work on a new service project, and plan our upcoming “Night with the Grinch” event sponsored by Junior Council. (See Flyer in the newsletter for details).
Bridgeville Mustangs – Cole Carpenter, Reporter
Our monthly meeting was held on October 10th in Bridgeville at 6:30pm. Miss Gina Anger welcomed many new families into our club. Miss Susan DeFord led a fire-prevention activity with the Cloverbuds while President, Juliette Anger, led the business meeting. We discussed upcoming county activities such as the Pumpkin Contest and Fall overnighter. Many of the Junior leaders will be helping at the Haunted Trail. This year it will be a Haunted House theme held inside the Redden Lodge and there will be a costume contest. We also discussed our Soda Booth fundraiser at the Apple Scrapple Festival and the Bridgeville town clean up after the festival. Miss Amy Hale led this months’ craft which was a cute, recycled craft made from a sock, poly-fill stuffing, and juke twine. These are perfect for the fall decorating season and can also be entered into the fair. Our meeting ended with members enjoying a balance of a sweet and healthy snack. The weekend after the meeting was the Apple Scrapple Festival. The weather for Apple Scrapple was great, with just a slight chill in the air overnight. After 2 days of soda booth fundraiser,13 members and 7 adults collected 12 bags of trash left from festival patrons. This annual tradition has been helping us give back to our community for many years. Can’t wait to see everyone again at our next meeting to be held on November 14th.
