Members baked cookies and served them to blood donors at the Springville Community Blood Drive. This quarterly event is one of our many community service projects.
The next event was the Springville Apple Festival. Members picked apples were donated by Rivendall Farms. They then spent three night making candied and caramel apples. Finally, the weekend was spent in our booth selling our wares. We sold out to the very last apple!
The last weekend in October was the Halloween Carnival. A joint effort with Springville 4-H, the Carnival has been put on as a community service project for at least 25 years. We live in a rural community, and in most place trick-or-treating is not practical. The Carnival is a safe, friendly place where kids can go to play games, have fun and win candy. It is a lot of work, but well worth the effort.
January 25th we held our First Annual Club Fair and Field Day. This event was set up to be a major record book bonanza. Diamond Star Evan Moffit spoke on how to give effective demonstrations. Members participated in a judging contest and gave demonstrations in preparation for County Presentation Day. Members also brought examples of their project work to exhibit. Participants were able to count this event as a field day, judging contest, project exhibit, demonstration and event attended. Some even got committee credit out of it. Not bad for a couple of hours on a Saturday morning!
This month our club meeting theme was "Dress to Impress". Everyone dressed in their best clothes, and local radio personality, Brent Gill, spoke to our club about how to present ourselves when speaking in public. He was so much fun that we invited him to teach a communications project next year! The Dog Care and Training Project went to Pre-Achievement Day. See their project page for details of that event.
Several members worked at the Tulare Farm Equipment Show in the Hi 4-H booth. They were able to tour the Ag Center grounds after their shift was over.
On March 15th, the dog project held a Canine Good Citizen Test as our community service project for the year. Members had the opportunity to do an one-hour radio show the morning of the event. We had many members of the community attend, as well as 4-H'ers. Almost everyone who participated in the CGC passed., and our project earned money for their agility course.
On March 24th, we boarded the "Cow" bus and headed for Monterey to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Presidio. The trip was incredible!! We left at 6:30 am and headed for the coast, arriving in Monterey around noon. At the Aquarium, we broke into groups and toured the displays for several hours. We met at the bus at 3 pm and headed for the Presidio, where we had a snack and listened to Major Dave Allred talk about the history of Monterey. We learned that the very spot we were sitting on was the site of the first European landing in the New World. After walking to the top of the Presidio, we drove to Sizzler. The people there were wonderful! They had 50 places set out and ready for us, and we enjoyed their large buffet. Finally, stuffed and tired, we boarded the bus and headed home. As we were leaving, the sun was setting over the Bay. What a beautiful ending to a wonderful day!
We are very lucky to live in such a wonderful town. Several area businesses and clubs have sponsored members so that all of our club is able to participate. Many thanks to Our Place Pizza, the Tule River Times, the Springville Lions Club , the Springville Community Club, and the Springville Women's Club.
On April 9, members again made and served refreshments at the Springville Community Blood Drive. Everyone always comments on how much they like the 4-H'ers there to pass out the juice and cookies.
The Dog Project went to Achievement Day and came away with almost all of the Obedience awards, and a couple of the showmanship and written test awards!
The last weekend in April was the Springville-Sierra Rodeo Parade. Our club had three entries. The float won 1st place in the Junior Float division, the Bicycle Project won 2nd place in the Decorated Bikes division and the Dog Drill Team won 1st in the General Junior division. Way to go Golden Hills!
The second Saturday of May was a family bike ride sponsored by the Bicycle Project. Everyone met at Lake Success for a ride into Bartlett Park. Lunch was a BBQ.
Our May Club Meeting was our elections meeting. Serving for her fifth time as President will be Malinda Velte. Vice President will be Cassi Staggs, Secretary will be Cassandra Groves, Treasurer will be Jessica Staggs, and Historians will be Angus Mills and Julia Zamora. This year we will have a team of Reporters consisting of Julia Olshefsky, Katherine McLemore, and Melissa Mendez. Congratulations!
The Porterville Fair was next. Again, we had many members enter their project work, with several coming home with ribbons and trophies.
The last event of May was the first ever Club Pajama Party (see the pictures at the top of the page). This was so much fun that we decided to do it for longer next year. We played beach volleyball, had a dress-up relay, and ate Hagen Daas Ice Cream (good stuff!). There was a pajama parade with awards for the best pajamas, hottest pajamas, most original, best adult, and a couple of others. Members did Demonstrations in a Bag, where they were given a bag with several items in it. They worked in teams and had a couple of minutes to figure out what they were going to say and do. The results were hilarious! Several boys picked a bag full of makeup, a couple of girls had materials for a make-over, one team was given a piece of wood, a hammer and a drill. Overall there were 9 different demonstrations. This was such a popular event that we decided to do a couple of "Demos in a Bag" at each club meeting. Eleven pm came much too quickly!
June 10th is our Awards Night and Luau. Everyone is going to dress Hawaiian. Our Luau committee has big plans for the decorations. There will be door prizes, the limbo, a hula contest and other fun activities. Members will get their record books back with their awards. We have a new Gold Star, several Silver Stars and several Bronze Stars. Julia Olshefsky won the Outstanding Officer Award and Melissa Mendez is the Outstanding New Member. Congratulations for a year well done!
Seven members and one leader attended 4-H Camp at Lake Tulequoia this month.
The Dog Care and Training Project will be sent members to the California State Fair on August 16th to compete in the Showmanship and Obedience Trial. All together there were 10 members, 6 parents and 7 dogs. They are spent 2 days and 3 nights there. Friday night, the group toured the University of California at Davis Veterinary Medicine Hospital. During Saturday's competition, members brought home several ribbons, including 1st place in the novice sr. showmanship class. Sunday morning was spent back at the Fair before we headed back home. Busy weekend!
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Last Updated: January 22, 1998
Updated by: Debby Kilburn