The Clark County 4-H Junior and Teen Leadership clubs are heavily focused on Leadership and Community Service.  In May of 2017, the final Jr. and Teen Leadership club meetings took place for the program year.  Both clubs were asked to provide insight on the direction that they would like to continue in the 2017-18 program year.  Both clubs vocalized wanting to do more community service as their number one priority. As a result, Clark County community benefited from the following service learning involvement by 4-H Teen club members:

1.     3- 4 teens assist the club leader during monthly4-H Cloverbud Club meetings.  

2.     During the 2 night Halloween Festival that took place at Parks and Rec, 10 teens offered their time managing activity booths for the many young families that take part in the community event.

3.     8 teens helped distribute toys during the Teal Pumpkin Project at downtown Halloween Mania during the county’s trick or treat

4.     33 teens participated in bringing and packaging items for 20 Operation Christmas Child boxes that were delivered to children in Madagascar.  The response in the number of items donated was so great, that in addition to these 20 stuffed boxes, the club’s outreach also extended to:

-        18 pairs of gloves, 18 wash cloths, and 18 soap bars were delivered to the Clark County Men’s Drug Rehab Center

-        21 pairs of gloves, 28 wash cloths, 22 bars of soap, 5 coloring books, 2 small boxes of crayons, and 7 pencils were donated to the Clark County Beacon of Hope

-        16 coloring books, 2 large boxes of crayons, 4 boxes of colored pencils, 8 pencil packs, 20 wash cloths, and 20 bars of soap were delivered to the Clark County New Beginnings Pregnancy Center

5.     Numerous teens donated over 15 garbage bags of clothing for the local Salvation Army.

6.     17 teens donated their time at the County’s Empty Bowls service outreach.  During the event 314 bowls (all donated by Dirty South Pottery) were filled with community volunteer made soup and given to the needy at the Emmanuel Episcopal Church.

7.     3 teens showed 4-H hospitality by helping register, stock supplies, and clean up at the Good Giving Challenge Chili Cookoff.

8.     5 teens helped families (150 kids) put at the Parks and Rec community Gingerbread House event.  This offering provided supplies for making gingerbread houses at no expense to participating families.  Teens set up supplies, placing gumdrops in cups, gingerbread crackers and icing at tables, monitoring ingredients, assisted as needed with building the houses, and cleaning up following the event.

9.     17 teens donated time during the Clark County Operation Happiness event.  This culminating community outreach collects, packs, and distributes 1300 food boxes at the Emmanuel Episcopal Church.  It takes a total of 600 volunteers over the days leading up to the distribution to make the service project a success. Specifically, our teens worked over a 4 hour period packing food boxes.

10.    13 middle school 4-Hers and 13 teen 4-Hers attended D4 Middle School and Teen Retreats respectively where each participated in the district service projects of making warm fuzzy blankets for cancer patients.

The impact that teens involved in the Clark County 4-H Junior and Teen Leadership Clubs made over the course of the program year in service work alone was undoubtedly impressive.