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Welcome Spring! I am ready for the nice weather and sunshine! I am also ready for all of the fun events and activities that 4-H has to offer this time of year. This email is packed with information about upcoming events and activities. Please take the time to read over it and as always, if you have questions, please let me know!
Melissa
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New Year Information
Enrollment
The 4-H Online enrollment system will be up and ready to talk 4-H member enrollments starting October 3rd. Please use this link to enroll in 4-H!
Updating the Email List
As enrollments come into the 4-H Online System, I am updating our email list. On February 29, all emails will be removed from our list that is not associated with a 4-H family. If you are removed from the email list, you will no longer receive the monthly newsletter and other important emails. Please take the time now to re-enroll and keep your email current. Once enrollment is received you will be added back to the email list.
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Ambassador Happenings
The Ambassadors would like to invite everyone to attend our first annual Family Fun Day. This event will be held on March 17. It will be held from 2:00 to 4:00 at the Kingman VFW. There will be a project fair, event promotion, and family game fun. If older 4-H members would like to have a project booth or display, please let Melissa know. If you are new to 4-H come join us to learn about our program. If you are not enrolled yet, come see what 4-H is all about. You can find the flyer here!
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Kingman County Fair
Fair Pre-Entry Date Set
All Fair Pre-Entries will be due on the Fair Entry system by May 10. We are aware that this is an early deadline, however, the Fair Board needs time to order awards and Fair T-Shirts without as much waste as in the past. Please note, that entries can be made and then scratched when the fair gets closer. So, I recommend making entries on everything that your members might take. Example: five entries for foods, seven entries in visual arts, and that extra educational poster or notebook. If something happens that something doesn’t get made or finished, just toss that card closer to the fair. There is a deadline of June 14 to confirm these pre-entries. No additional entries can be made at this deadline, but if anything needs to be removed that can be done. Watch for more details to come.
Livestock Tag Information
This year any animals that will only be showing at the Kingman County Fair will use a county-specific ear tag. All tags will be available at weigh-in dates. If an animal will be showing at the Kansas State Fair or Kansas Junior Livestock Show, EID tags will still be required. Members must know at the tagging events which tags they will need. Cost for the County Tags will be $2 for Beef, $1.50 for Swine, Sheep, and Goats. EID tags will cost $3.50 each for each species.
Cloverbuds and Livestock Projects
In the State 4-H Policy it is stated that Cloverbud members are not allowed to show livestock at the County Fair. To stay in policy, the Kingman County Fair Association to be starting a PeeWee show this year. Watch for more details to come.
Fair Board Meeting
The next Fair Board Meeting will be held on March 21 at 7:00.
Fair Button Design Contest
The Kingman County Fair Association is proud to sponsor the Kingman County Fair Button Design Contest. The contest is open to all ages. The winning design will be featured on the 2024 County Fair Button and in Publications. The theme this year is “Barn Lights and Fair Nights.” You can find an entry form here. All submissions are due in the Extension Office or post marked to the Fair Board by March 25th.
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Upcoming Activities
Kingman County 4-H Day
Join us on Saturday, March 2 for County Club Day. Even if you are not registered to give a talk or talent event, you can take part in the Photography Judging Contest, Family and Consumer Science Judging Contest, or have breakfast at the Ambassador’s Free Will Breakfast Concession Stand!
Regional Club Day will be on March 23 at the Medicine Lodge High School
Kingman County 4-H Scholarships
Calling all High School Seniors! 4-H Scholarships will be due to the Extension Office by March 28th at 5:00. The application can be found here.
Livestock Weigh-In Dates Set
Beef weigh-in will be SUNDAY, March 3 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm.
Small animal livestock weigh-in will be Saturday, April 27 from 7:00 to 9:00 am.
Both weigh-ins will take place at the Livestock Barn and the Fair Grounds.
YQCA Trainings
If members will be showing at the Kansas State Fair or the Kansas Junior Livestock Show this year, you will need to attend a YQCA Training. We have four training dates set to try to help with families’ busy schedules. Members only need to attend one training. Training dates will be March 18, March 25, April 1, and April 8. Each training will be held at 7:00 at the Extension Office. Members will need to register for the training at yqcaprogram.org and there is a $3 fee to attend.
Please note that YQCA has recently changed its website. The correct address is yqcaprogram.org.
Here is a video from YQCA on registering for an instructor lead training. If you have any questions, please let me know.
We have added points to the 4-H Activity Sheet for attending the in-person YQCA trainings.
Wild Horse 4-H Camp!
The year Wild Horse 4-H Camp will be held June 11-13 at Silver Maple Campgrounds. Registration will be open shortly, watch your email for forms to be sent out. The registration fee will be $125 per camper. The Kingman County 4-H Council will have a $50 camp scholarship available to members. Members will have to submit a paragraph telling why they would like to go to camp and how camp will benefit them as a 4-H member. Scholarship forms will be available with camp registration forms. Campers must be ages 7-12 to attend 4-H Camp.
If teens are interested in being camp counselors, please let Melissa know. Counselors need to be 14 and over. Counselor training will be held on June 10-11.
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Club Corner
Junior officers lead Hawk Club’s February meeting
Junior officers led the Hawk club meeting on February 12, 2024, 7pm at Livingston’s Community Building. Lily Sparks was the junior president and Scotty Sparks was the junior vice president. Logan Sparks was the junior secretary and Brooklyn Smith was the junior secretary. Brooklyn Smith was the junior treasurer and Brinley MacArthur was the junior reporter. Blake Reese led the Pledge of Allegiance and 4-H pledge. Members answered the roll call question “Do you like cats or dogs better?”. Blake led the song “ If you’re happy ( 4-H version)”. The Kingman Historical Museum sent a thank you letter to the Hawk Club for their $50 donation.
The Fair theme for this year is “Barn Lights and Fair Nights”. Abigail Fitch led the recreation game of “Tug o war”. Shirley Boos, the leader, reminded the club members that the registration deadline for the County Club Day was on February 16th and the 4-H Club Day was on March 2nd. The beef weigh is on March 3rd. The club members voted to buy t-shirts for the members. Blake Reese gave a project talk about Beef Cattle Feed. Scotty Sparks gave a project talk about his Bucket Calf. Payton Boos gave a project talk about poultry and her rabbits. The next meeting will be March 11, 2024 at 7pm.
Shri Sai Vaishnavi Kamesh
Reporter for the 4-H Hawk Club
Whispering Willow holds February Meeting
The Junior Officers lead the February Meeting of the Whispering Willow 4-H Club. 22 members answered the Roll of “What do you want to be when you grow up?” We welcomed two new members into our club. Welcome Erin and Nolan Hayes! We were reminded about the Family Fun Day to be held on March 17 at the Kingman VFW from 2:00 to 4:00. There will be a project fair, games, and snacks. Our next meeting will be on Monday, March 4 at 7:00 p.m.
Joe and Sam Thimesch
Club Reporters
This year I would like to share club highlights each month in the 4-H newsletter. If club reporters would like to email me a short paragraph about what your club is doing each month, I will include that here! Please email that to me at mthimesch@ksu.edu by the 20th of each month.
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Record Book Round Up!
Section Four: Project Exhibits and Showcase Opportunities
This month we are looking at Section Four of the Project Report Form. This is where you will list what you exhibited at the County Fair, but so much more can go here! At the Zenda Public Library, we hold an event called County Fair at ZPL. Members in the area are invited to bring in their fair exhibits and talk to patrons about their project work. If members are not able to attend, but bring in their project work, that is OK too. This event would go here. If your school allows members to showcase projects in the school at the beginning of the year, that would go here. If you put your project work in a window for 4-H week, include that here. If it is a showcase-type event, the result column can be left blank or just write “showcase” there.
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4-H Council Information
The next 4-H Council Meeting will be held on March 20 at 7:00 at the Extension Office.
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State Events
The Kansas Association of 4-H Volunteers is hosting "Spring Into Volunteering" on Saturday, April 20 in Salina, Kansas on the K-State Campus. Registration will begin at 9 a.m. and the day will conclude at 3 p.m. Fee includes materials, snacks and lunch.
Flier/Schedule
Registration Link -
Fee $20 - Take to your local Extension Office
Deadline to Register: April 5
Wanted Host Families for 2024
Looking for fun and excitement this summer? Host a new friend from Japan in your home this summer, July 23 – August 15. Kansas 4-H International Exchange Programs are offering hosting opportunities for 35-40 families this summer. Host families are needed who would be willing to host a Japanese boy or girl. The Japanese youth will be between the ages of 12 - 16. Our responsibility is to make host family assignments matching each delegate with an American same-gender host sibling as soon as possible so that families and exchange delegates can communicate and get to know each other.
Any Kansas family with children aged 10-17, who is interested in the Japanese culture, may host. A separate bed is required, but not necessarily a separate room from the host sibling. Delegates are 100 percent medically covered with 4-H insurance and bring their own spending money. They can go on host family vacations, camping trips, or join their host sibling for summer camps and the county fair. The focus is everyday family life.
Interested families can complete the application at https://www.states4hexchange.org/apply/host/ to start the process. The Japanese Delegates personal information forms arrive in February.
If you have further questions, please call Pam Van Horn, Kansas 4-H Japanese Exchange Coordinator, at 785-826-8917, or e-mail pvanhorn@ksu.edu.
Discovery Days
Discover Days will be held June 5-7, 2024 on the K-State Campus. Watch for more details to come.
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Other Extension Programs
Walk Kansas
Would you like to take part in a fun challenge with your friends to get yourself more physically active? Then Walk Kansas is for you! K-State Research and Extension - Kingman County will be offering the Walk Kansas Program again this year. Walk Kansas is an eight-week program where participants log their physical activity. There will be a weekly newsletter for participants to gain health information. Teams are made up of four to six people or a solo walking option is available. There is a $10 registration fee per person to participate. Registration for this program opens up on March 4. If you have your team together, you can register at www.walkkansasonline.org.
Anaplasmosis Control Meeting
Join Kingman County K-State Research and Extension and Kingman County Conservation District for a Round Table Talk on Thursday, March 21 at 6 p.m. at Livingstons Community Center (1830 N Main St, Kingman, KS 67068) for a meeting about Anaplasmosis Control. For this meeting, we will have Dr. Gregg Hanzlicek, Clinical Associate Professor from the K-State Diagnostic Lab, discuss some Symptoms, Diagnosing, and Prevention of Anaplasmosis in Livestock. This is a great opportunity to have questions answered and a discussion with a knowledgeable source on how to control Anaplasmosis.
Save the Date for Tractor Safety Training
Kingman and Harper County Extension Offices will once again be teaming up to present the 2024 Tractor Safety Training. This event will be held in Harper on May 21. Watch next month’s newsletter for more information.
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Dates to remember
March 2 County 4-H Club Day Kingman Elementary School
March 3 Beef Weigh In 2:00-4:00 at Expo Center
March 17 4-H Family Fun Day 2:00-4:00 Kingman VFW
March 18 YQCA 7:00 Extension Office
March 20 4-H Council Meeting 7:00 Extension Office
March 21 Fair Board Meeting 7:00
March 23 Regional 4-H Day Medicine Lodge
March 25 YQCA 7:00 Extension Office
March 28 Kingman County 4-H Scholarship Applications due to Office
March 29 Extension Office Closed
If you have questions regarding the information in this newsletter, please contact me at:
Kingman County K-State Research and Extension Office
Melissa Thimesch
125 N Spruce
Kingman, KS 67068
620-532-5131
mthimesch@ksu.edu
K-State Research and Extension is committed to providing equal opportunity for participation in all programs, services, and activities. Program information may be available in languages other than English. Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities, including alternative means for communication (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, and American Sign Language) may be requested by contacting the event contact Melissa Thimesch two weeks prior to the start of the event at 620-532-5131 or mthimesch@ksu.edu. Requests received after this date will be honored when it is feasible to do so. Language access services, such as interpretation or translation of vital information will be provided free of charge to limited English-proficient individuals upon request.
Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service
K-State Research and Extension is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
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