Summer Fun

It's August! The summer has flown by here at the Nebraska 4-H Foundation. We had the 4-H/FFA Golf Classic in June, PASE/Life Challenge and Governor's Ag Excellence Awards at the end of June, and county fairs started in July! You may have stumbled upon one of our booths at a county fair this summer...the Nebraska 4-H Ambassadors took the booths out to promote our summer campaign, "Tell Us Your 4-H Story".

Here at the Nebraska 4-H Foundation we want to hear from you, the 4-H alumni. We love hearing your stories about experiences you had in the 4-H program. From sleeping in the barn with your friends and animals at the fair to meeting your spouse on a 4-H trip, 4-H seems to have played an influential role in many people's lives and we want to hear about it! If you go to our website: http://www.ne4hfoundation.org/ and tell us your 4-H story you will be signed up to win $1000 for the county 4-H program of your choice! Every program needs monetary help, and your gift of this money would be extremely helpful to whichever county you choose!

Also, Nebraska 4-H member Collin Shepherd returned from his trip to Tanzania in July. He was in Tanzania for 6 weeks working with the 4-H program there. Check out his blog to see pictures and learn about the 4-H program in Tanzania (did you know 4-H is in over 80 countries worldwide?)! http://collininafrica.blogspot.com/

The Nebraska 4-H Foundation is counting down the days until the Nebraska State Fair now - 14 days until it starts! If you come to the state fair, make sure to venture to the 4-H/FFA Exhibit Building - you will not only see awesome 4-H and FFA projects from 4-H'ers across the state but you will also see us! We will have booths, a place for you to tell us about your 4-H experience on video and decade boards scattered around the building. Also, on September 3rd from 3-5 PM we are hosting a 4-H Alumni Reception - make sure to show up early and get your ticket so you can enjoy cake, ice cream, and fun conversations with other 4-H alumni! Here's a taste of the decade boards you will see in the building:

So, check out our website to tell us about your 4-H experience and come visit us at the Nebraska State Fair in Grand Island!

17th Annual 4-H/FFA Golf Tournament

Monday June 13, 2011 the 17th Annual 4-H/FFA Golf Tournament was held at Quarry Oaks Golf Course near Ashland NE.
This event is a fun one every year! It brings together supporters of two wonderful youth programs, 4-H and FFA, who spend a day golfing and supporting the programs! This year, the Nebraska 4-H Ambassadors represented the 4-H program and FFA State Officers came as well to help with the tournament and keep things running smoothly.

Here's the FFA Officers and 4-H Ambassadors working the registration table at the golf tournament!

The tournament was started via a shot gun start. Here's all of the golfers/golf carts lined up waiting to begin!

We had many great sponsors that donated to the event and helped make it possible! These are signs that were posted around the golf course showing who the sponsors were.

Golfers competed in teams of four!

Thanks to everyone who came out and golfed at the tournament, along with all those who donated and supported the 4-H and FFA programs that way!

Busy Times!

It's been quite a while since our last blog post. We've been quite busy here at the Nebraska 4-H Foundation. Since the last time we posted anything, we have unveiled a NEW website! Here's the link to the website:

http://www.ne4hfoundation.org/

Along with the new website we also have a new logo:We also started a new program for 4-H alumni who are now in college. This program is called the Nebraska 4-H Ambassador program and is currently made up of five University of Nebraska-Lincoln students. Later this year, in the fall, we will be adding more ambassadors to this group. To learn more about the ambassadors check out this page on our website.

http://www.ne4hfoundation.org/resources/4-h-ambassadors

You can also keep up with the ambassadors via their blog which is at :

http://www.ne4hambassadors.blogspot.com/

The Nebraska 4-H Ambassadors have put together a program called the Nebraska 4-H Club of the Month. 4-H Clubs from throughout Nebraska can nominate themselves to be the Club of the Month. They tell their story (what their club has done recently, community service, etc.) and a club is chosen as the Club of the Month each month. The club that is chosen gets their story told via our Facebook page, Twitter, and also sent out to all of the counties and sent to their local newspaper! Also, the club gets a $50 cash card and certificate! Here's a link to more information about the Club of the Month program.

http://www.ne4hfoundation.org/resources/4-h-club-of-the-month

As you can tell, we have been BUSY!

The Final Lap

Nebraska State Fair, Husker Harvest Days, the Lucky Winner and Life Afterwords

Hey everyone! I hope you all are well… and that you’ve missed us! This is our final blog, it’s been the summer of our lives and writing for you has been a blast! Thanks for following!

Nebraska State Fair- Grand Island

Before we got to the state fair we’d heard a lot about it. What the grounds were going to be like, how things were setup, how different it would be but we also heard how great Grand Island would be. There were a few people that didn’t approve and we got an earful of that side too but when the time came to park the pickup and open the gates to the masses it was a success!

We loved the new state fair grounds. The buildings were beautiful and from what we heard from exhibitors, very functional. The overall feel of the place was a fresh start. A new beginning. Our only objection was the lack of grass. ☺ If you were there you know how windy it was and where we set up was the heart of the second dust bowl. Each day we left with a complete, head to toe, dirt skin!



Our location was perfect with the 4-H Pickup! We were parked right south of the 4-H and FFA Exhibition Building on the north end of the grounds. We caught the majority of the traffic flowing into the building and hit our best audience… 4-H supporters! Each day we were there we seemed to sell more than the day before!

We thoroughly enjoyed the state fair in Grand Island and wish it the best of luck in coming years!


Husker Harvest Days- Grand Island

After a few day break in Lincoln we headed back to the lovely town of Grand Island for the largest outdoor ag show in the world! Husker Harvest Days covers an amazing amount of ground with pickups everywhere! Every farmer in Nebraska plus some comes it seems! We decided that HHD was the only acceptable time for grown men to ride three wide in the front of a single cab pickup! ☺



We were set up with the 4-H Truck in the Midwest Ford Dealer booth on the northeast corner of the grounds in a very impressive display! We were again in a crowd full of our best customers and did great. We had Hall and Hamilton County 4-Hers helping us out too!



On Thursday when we were both there we got to drive the pickup through the masses to the NTV booth and onsite studio for an interview! We were on the noon news with Dan Jansen. We got to talk about our summer on the road and the 4-H program. We got calls when we left on our new celebrity status!


The Lucky Winner


At about 1 p.m. on Thursday after we got done with our interview we started putting the raffle tickets in the Nebraska Lottery Gold Drum and started spinning it up! We had a large group of people watching as we turned the handle and said thank you to the Midwest Ford Dealers and all the county 4-Hers that helped us over the last 3 months! We sold tickets up until 1:30 p.m. and Molly drew the winning ticket!



The winning ticket was Mr. Eric Wiota from Holt County, Atkinson, NE! Dan Jansen called the number listed on the ticket and his mom answered the phone. She was very excited but didn’t really believe us! We had to reassure her about 3 times that we were actually serious! What a surprise! She said she would call Eric and would call us back!

We later found out that Eric was a 10+ year 4-Her and is a freshman at UNL! We were sad to see the pickup go, we’d become very attached, but were happy to see it go to a great home!


Life Without a Sweet 2010 Ford F-150 to Drive Around



Well we are now back in Lincoln going to school and missing our pickup! We both feel so out of place in our cars! Molly is studying hard and working at the front desk of Burr Hall on East Campus. She is also going to work for the 4-H Foundation through the school year! Reese is also studying hard and is starting a marketing internship with Water Street Solutions. She will be starting at the GROW Nebraska Lincoln Holiday Store in Westfield Gateway Mall soon too!



We are taking time out from our busy schedules though to get together and have fun! We just went to the UNL Homecoming game together Saturday and had supper together last night! We had a great summer and each gained a GREAT friend in the process! It’s hard to adjust to not spending all our time together now!

Its been an awesome summer and advocating for 4-H was an honor!

Thank you all again! GO 4-H!

It Can’t be OVER!

How fast this summer has gone! This was our last adventure of the summer!


Otoe Co. Fair- Syracuse



On Wednesday, August 18 we headed to the Otoe County Fair in Syracuse! We got there for the parade and drove through with 4-Hers and Sarah Purcell, Otoe County Extension Educator, throwing candy. Once the parade was over we went to the fairgrounds and set up beside the food area, hoping to catch the lunch crowd!

Like in Cass County we set up with the CWF kids and their shed they were raffling off as well! We had good luck, selling raffle tickets for both! We enjoyed the afternoon talking to fair-goers and the 4-Hers planning to go on the CWF trip next year.

When we finished up we headed back to Lincoln for a day off between fairs! Thanks Otoe County!

Chase Co. Fair- Imperial



Molly left Lincoln in the truck and worked her way west to pick up Reese Friday morning. Reese was in Alma helping her boyfriend move into his new house! Once Molly got to Alma and picked up Reese we hit open road! We have been highlighting all the roads we’ve been driving on this summer on our map and this chunk of Nebraska was highlighter-free! It was exciting to be in new territory!

When we got to the Chase County Fair in Imperial we set up in an excellent location right inside the edge of their sale arena barn. This was the fair’s 125th Anniversary!

The sale started around two and the announcer gave us shout outs all through it! There was also another table set up with 4-H Council member selling tickets by where the people picked up there sale number and cashed out when it was over! It was a great place to be and they sold lots of tickets for us too! Reese’s friend Jake hung out with us and helped us sell tickets too! He even hooked us up with 125th Anniversary koozies! There were purple, blue and red ones… ribbon colors! How clever!

Once the sale was over we moved closer to the flow of traffic in the central part of the fairgrounds. We were so impressed with the Chase County grounds keeper! There were beautiful landscaping displays all over the fair! The flowers were all blooming and it just gave the place a festive feel!

We hit the road to Ogallala to stay for the evening and got to watch another beautiful sunset in western Nebraska! Once we got to Ogallala we went out for a nice supper to celebrate a successful summer!


Grant Co. Fair- Hyannis




Bright and early in the morning we headed to our LAST COUNTY FAIR of the summer. Number 42! It was crazy driving on curvy Highway 61/92 for the last time. We were both in awe of the fact that it felt like we just went to the Franklin County Fair last week! Our first fair! And now we were going to our last. Sad. ☹

We got to the Grant County Fairgrounds in Hyannis and lined up for the parade! We were number 19 in the lineup with a few after us! Impressive for such a small community! After the parade we went back to the fairgrounds and set up by the grandstand where the rodeo was going on! We caught a good crowd over the lunch break and even got to have some of our favorite shaved ice! We had it in Frontier County, they are based out of Sidney and top their shaved ice with whipped cream and a gummy bear! They made us feel young again! ☺

We enjoyed the Grant County Fair and were sad to see it, our last county fair, in our rear-view mirror. Thanks!

Pampering Ourselves



We headed back to Ogallala to take the interstate back and stopped at the Cowboy Museum! It was a stamp in our passports! After refueling the truck and refueling us with a couple Dr. Peppers we headed to Kearney!

We decided to pamper ourselves after living out of our suitcases for the last 2 months by getting manicures and pedicures! We stopped and got iced coffees (our summer obsession) and went to the mall for our appointment! It was so relaxing and got us ready for school to start on Monday!

Molly grabbed a bite to eat with her family and Ben picked up Reese and they went back to Alma! The last stretch of interstate went fast and the truck was back in Lincoln after a quick summer on the road! Crazy that portion is over! Now we’re headed to state fair!

Come see us on the south side of the 4-H Pavilion parked outside the doors to get your raffle tickets at state fair! August 27 through September 6 in Grand Island!

Molly's Solo Flight

Loup County – Taylor

Since Reese went back home to Iowa for one of her best friend’s – Kate – wedding, I was left all alone for the weekend! On Saturday, I took the interstate, Hi-way 281, and Hi-way 91 all the way to Taylor for the Loup County Fair. Upon my arrival, I set up shop on the street next to the square. That night they were having their premium livestock auction – in the middle of town on the road by the way! The Loup County 4-H program has about 50 members out of the 80 kids who attend the Loup County Schools. Great percentage! After the auction, I had a couple of 4-Hers keep me company as we waited in route for the Parade. The theme of the parade was ‘Take time to…” One of my favorite floats was for a Nail/Spa place with a college aged guy soaking his feet in a bubble bath with the theme of “Take time to…relax!” Once we drove through the parade, Extension Educator Jan, helped me sell tickets for a while before I had to head out. Thanks Loup County! We sold several tickets!

That night, I drove to Spalding to stay with my family friends – the Cockerills. We had a great time catching up and spending a lazy Sunday morning together!



Seward County – Seward

Around noon, I left and headed to Seward for the Seward County Fair. This was the last day of the fair so several 4-H members and families were cleaning up and taking home their exhibits and animals. That evening there was a demo derby which brought in a lot of generous people who bought tickets! A big thanks goes to Tammy Stuhr – Extension Assistant – who helped me set up and sell tickets! After the crowd died down, I headed down Hi-way 34 back to Lincoln.

Another Journey

Greeley County – Spalding

About mid morning on Tuesday, August 10th we left Lincoln and headed over to Spalding for the Greeley County Fair. We parked next to the livestock arena where the Beef Show was taking place. After the beef show, we sat up shop next to the grandstand where a singer from Branson was to perform.

We were also next to the 4-H Food Stand. They make 75 homemade pies every morning – and boy were they yummy! Before the concert began, Greeley County sponsored a Children’s Parade and Car/Tractor Show. It drew a large crowd making ticket sales a piece of cake! It was also a beautiful evening at the fair! We had a great time with the Central Four (Greeley, Valley, Sherman, and Howard Counties) 4-H Staff and we were sad to leave them!

After the fair, we headed to Halsey to stay at the 4-H Camp one last time. However, as we were almost there, we decided to continue our way to Valentine to cut back on our driving time in the morning. Once in Valentine, we stopped at the Motel 8 only to find that it had a ‘No Vacancy’ sign on their door. We then traveled over to Comfort Inn only to find out that they were full also, but luckily, they had another hotel under the same ownership just down the road. So finally, we ended up sleeping at the Dunes Inn & Suites. Thanks ladies for making our stay great!



In the morning, we had an extra hour and half to sight see before we needed to head to Gordon so we decided to get a couple more stamps in our Nebraska Passport! Our first stop was Smith Falls State Park – Nebraska’s newest State Park! It was also our first experience with a waterfall! Did you know there are1,302 gallons of water that pass over the falls a minute from 7 springs that are 3 miles away from Smith Falls? After getting our stamp at the visitor center, we hiked our way to the fall about a half-mile away. What a beautiful landscape and scenery! So pretty! Our next stop was the Niobrara State Park a couple miles down the road. We didn’t have much time to spare here, but we both plan on coming back to site see more!



Sheridan County – Gordon

After our tours of a couple of Nebraska’s State Parks, we drove the entire length of Cherry County (Nebraska’s largest county,) which by the way took an hour, to the town of Gordon located in Sheridan County. Waiting for arrival at the fairgrounds were 10 4-Hers and parents ready to sell tickets! We had such a great, enthusiastic group - selling tickets was a breeze! Thank you Sheridan County! We had such a great time!



During the fair, a couple of the 4-Her’s had a shake from a local store in town called the Covered Wagon. They raved about how amazing they were, so we just had to stop before we left. What a neat experience! The restaurant (well drive-thru) was shaped just like a covered wagon, and you drove through it to order and pickup your food! Reese ordered a Crème de Mint shake and Molly had a Peanut Butter shake and we shared a mix veggie basket. Talk about amazing! We might just have to make a special trip back to Gordon just for their shakes!

Rock-Brown County – Bassett

We hurried our way back across Cherry county, through Brown county and over to Rock county for the Rock-Brown County Fair in Bassett. We crashed the 4-H family barbecue and later checked out the team roping across the way. Thanks Rock-Brown for having us out! That night we went back to our friend Mary’s house in O’Neill.



Holt County – Chambers

We left O’Neill around 9:30 AM to head to Chambers. The Holt County members were very welcoming to us – the Fair Board members were very helpful and friendly!! We had a great location in between the food stand and show arena. The fairgrounds were busy with 4-H members and parents checking in 4-H projects and participating in the dog show. Holt County even had their own water bottles! The design was very unique and creative! We vote that Holt County has the best public bathrooms as well! Megan Lubke, the Extension Assistant, made an awesome announcement about the 4-H Truck Raffle for us across the entire PA system! Thanks! We had lots of fun!



Cass County – Weeping Water

We traveled almost for 5 hours all the way to Weeping Water zig zagging across the state after we left Chambers. We were lucky to have a great spot next to the Tractor Pull which pulled in several hundreds of people even in the dreaded heat! We had a couple of CWF members selling tickets with us to help raise money for their trip. Along with the 4-H Truck, they also had a large shed donated by a 4-H Parent out of Richardson County whose kid was going on the trip as well. We made a great pair! After a few hours in the heat, we headed back to Lincoln for the night. Molly had Orientation for her school job at the Burr Hall Front Desk and Reese left to go back to Iowa for one of her friend’s wedding! It was sure nice to sleep in our own beds for a change!