Arapahoe County offices, including the Extension Office, are closed to the public indefinitely. At this time staff are directed to not have any face-to-face meetings. If you need to reach out to our staff please use their emails.
Ethan Cahill – ecahill@arapahoegov.com
Shaylen Florez – sflorez@arapahoegov.com
Claudia Meeks – cmeeks@arapahoegov.com
Jean Walton – jwalton@arapahoegov.com
4-H Member Spotlight
Hi, I’m Hope French. This is my sixth year in 4-H. I am the secretary for the Lucky Clovers 4-H Club. The projects that I am doing this year are foods, ceramics, dogs, and rabbits. My favorite project is the dog project because it is a lot of fun teaching my dog new things. It also helps me create a stronger bond with my dog. My favorite part of 4-H is being able to showcase everything I’ve learned at the Arapahoe County Fair each year in July. I love seeing what other people learned and did through the year as well. It’s also fun if you are able to have the opportunity to do round robin, and show all of the animals. I love to compete and the fair is the “big” competition of the year. 4-H has opened many doors for me. It has opened worlds of knowledge that I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to have. It has opened up the opportunity to make new friends and meet new people. Most importantly it has helped me gain life skills to prepare for life in general. A few of these life skills include, public speaking, cooking, and taking notes.
Get Your Purple On!
The Colorado 4-H Military Partnership invites you to wear purple on April 24-25 in support of military children and to honor their sacrifices and commitment!

Post a picture or short video to social media of you “getting your purple on”. #PurpleUp! #VirtualMOMC #colorado4h #monthofthemilitarychild  
The 2020 Arapahoe County 4-H Fairbook and the 2020 Open Class Fairbook have both been posted on the Arapahoe County Fair website. Please click on the appropriate button below to access the books.
Community Service Opportunities
The nursing homes are in need. So many elderly dying from this dreadful virus and to add to the anguish, sadness and pain, these seniors are alone and can’t have contact with family, etc.

4-H members could use some of this "boring time" at home to set pen to paper and write generic notes to these seniors telling them about themselves and their projects and/or just well wishes that are very upbeat and give these seniors something to read, something to brighten their day, to put a smile on their face, allow them to feel that they are not forgotten individuals locked away for what has to feel like forever.

They can make them colorful, draw pictures, make their own stationary, etc. This could be just like the cards that are written every year and sent to our soldiers overseas. The members get them to their leader and the leader can put them in a manila envelope and write a general explanation note and get them to a senior center in their area. Members could even write more than one with a different topic or theme.

The whole point is to give these wonderful but unfortunate seniors something for their minds to absorb other than the current sad news.
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Some of our Master Gardeners are organizing the effort to collect goods for the patients that will use the Arapahoe County Fairgrounds for recovery. These goods include:

1)      Blank notecards
2)      Personal care items (travel size)
3)      Coloring pages or crossword puzzles
4)      Markers
5)      Crayons
6)      Stamps

There will be a collection bin set up at the east side staff entrance of the Arapahoe County Extension Office from Monday - Friday, 1 - 4 p.m. if you would like to drop off any of these items.   

The items will be taken out to the person in charge at the Fairgrounds by one of our Horticulture staff members. Staff in charge at the Fairgrounds have indicated that they will remove these items from the trunk of the vehicle, so our staff will not be entering the Fairgrounds facility at any time for delivery. This way they can follow safe sanitation practices.  
Swine Tag Check-Out
Due to the cancellation of Arapahoe County Fairgrounds events through May 10 th , there is an alternative for Swine Tag Check-out being developed which was originally scheduled for April 22 nd . An email will be sent out to those members enrolled in the Swine project when more information is available.
Sheep and Goat Tag In

We are currently working with the State 4-H Office and Arapahoe County to put into place a plan for sheep and goat tagging. If you have questions, please reach out to Ethan at ecahill@arapahoegov.com  
County Fair and Camping

As of today, county fair is still scheduled as planned. We ask that families are understanding that this could change at any moment. We will keep our 4-H families informed as we receive information. Camping information will be released at a later date. 
Horse I.D. Deadline
ATTENTION ALL HORSE MEMBERS!
Do not forget the Horse I.D. deadline is May 1st to upload your animal I.D. in 4HOnline. If you have any questions, please email Ethan at ecahill@arapahoegov.com .
Swine, Sheep, and Goat I.D.
An email has been sent out to all sheep, swine, and goat members with information on how to upload your animal I.D. using 4HOnline. If you have not received it or have any questions with how to upload pictures, please email Ethan at ecahill@arapahoegov.com 
Jr. Livestock Committee Announcement

ATTENTION! ATTENTION! Calling all livestock members: we are searching for new members to join the Junior Livestock Committee!! We are a small, active, fun-loving group that learns a lot about our projects, have fun practicing and competing on Livestock Quiz Bowl, party at Christmas time, and organize, plan, and run the Red Carpet Prospect Show. With no extra time with friends and no sports practices or games – NOW is the time to come try us out! We meet the first Tues of the month, usually at the fairgrounds, but right now, through ZOOM! We would like to give a big shout out to our new Adult Advisors, Brice Hanlon, and Anna Miller. Our next meeting will be Tuesday, May 5 th at 6:30. - by David Vetter
Colorado State 4-H Media Guidelines

Now that we are in a state of using social media as a communication tool the Colorado State 4-H Program has adapted guidelines for social media. 
Online MQA Training Available

ATTENTION LIVESTOCK MEMBERS! Due to the cancellation of MQA Training resulting from COVID-19, there is now an online training available for youth who have yet to complete their 2019-2020 4-H MQA requirement. If you still need to complete this training, email Ethan at ecahill@arapahoegov.com . When you email him, include the 4-H Member names and their 4-H ages (age as of 12/31/19).
Attention Teens: Join us for the Virtual Exchange Program
Arapahoe County 4-H is participating in a virtual exchange program with Maury (pronounced Murray) County Tennessee. This program will allow for Arapahoe County 4-H teens to socialize and learn about 4-H programming in the state of Tennessee without leaving the comforts of their home.

Our next meeting is Thursday, April 30 at 5:00 PM we will learn about 4-H projects and other 4-H members. Please email Claudia ( cmeeks@arapahoegov.com) if you are interested in joining!
We hope this is reaching everyone healthy and ready to get back to normal! Thank you to all for being understanding and patient during this time and for staying in communication with us. Just a reminder to Club and Organizational Leaders, please continue to communicate with your youth and check in with them. This is a stressful time for all and communication is key. With little to no face to face interaction, a call or email can show that we are doing our best to keep everyone involved and up to date. Stay healthy and safe and we look forward to when we are able to get back to face to face programming and meeting as usual! Also, as another reminder, if you need us to set up a Zoom meeting for your club, please reach out to us to see if our Zoom account is available for the date/time you need.
Upload your Cat & Dog IDs in 4-H Online!
The deadline is fast approaching for the Dog and Cat ID. Please make sure that all of your information is uploaded on 4HOnline by May 1. That is the absolute deadline to get them uploaded. 
4-H Online Animal ID Deadline
May 1, 2020 - Horse, Dog, and Cat
Click on the dates below for more info.
Cake Decorating Contest - This will now be a virtual contest.
(303) 730-1920
CSU-Extension@ArapahoeGov.com
6934 S. Lima St., Suite B
Centennial, CO 80112

Copyright © *2018* *Arapahoe County CSU Extension*, All rights reserved. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or marital or family status.