Fashion meets Photography!

We had the joy of gathering many of the 4Hers involved in Clothing & Textiles and Photogrphy projects at a local nursing home.

The Clothing & Textile group (Brianna, Laura and ?) set up a nice backdrop with shimmery material and gift-wrapped boxes in a corner of the center.  It was a nice corner that already looked homey with bookshelves and comfortable seating.  There was nice lighting also so it helped the photographers avoid their flash.

Then they helped assure the residents looked their best for the photo.  Sometimes this included removing baseball caps and adding a dress shirt (cut down the sides so it could be slipped over the head) and a suit jacket.  For the women, a nice scarf to add color to an outfit.  Often times the residents had heard we were coming and got dressed up on their own.  (It was nice to know that they remembered us!)

Then our photographers (Aaron, Emily, Sean, Edward, James, Katie, Laura, Henry, and ?) came in for the photographing.  They did such a great job.  It was really great to see them interact with the residents to get them to smile.

We were able to take portrait shots of about 30 residents.  We had the always happy Eddie who could not wait to talk to the 4Hers.  We had Miss Sadie who was 103 years old!  We had two older couples who were still in love after all those years...holding hands and giving a kiss on the cheek....such precious moments.  Then the ones who had no idea what we were doing but smiled at the camera nonetheless.  And my favorite...the mom who invited her children to be in her picture with her!

These are moments to capture that I hope the 4Hers will not forget.  I know I will not soon forget myself.

My only regret...not enough batteries to stay and take even more pictures!  Note to self...charge batteries and bring extras!!!!  We managed to scrounge around and get everyone photographed but it sure would ease the stress if I had done this simple task!

We get together tomorrow to look over all the pictures and make them look nice...then return to give out the photos after Thanksgiving.  So thankful for this group of youth who shared their talents  to "make the best better!"

Another 4H Monthly Meeting

I blog about the every day events of our club each month along with the special events.  Each month I wonder if my blog is really that interesting to anyone else.  I really started this blog to help my husband stay involved with our 4H events.  I never imagined anyone else would read my ramblings.  Every once in a while I send a link to the blog because I cannot help but be proud of all the things the boys and I do with 4H.  It is such a joy to be involved with such a great youth organization.  So, even though it seems odd to write about the ordinary workings of our club, I enjoy sending these posts out for anyone who cares to read them.  Maybe in doing this others will be inspired by the youth of our club.

So, tonight we gathered for our monthly meeting.  We began with our pledges and then Katy introduced our guest speaker, Dr Guy.  He is a local dentist but he actually came to us to speak about building character traits.  He presented a wonderful talk about how important it is to have good character traits.  He even told us he meets with his staff to discuss these traits using a program called Character First.  He then focused on the character trait 'wisdom.'  It was nice to have his reflection on this for the youth and adults in our club.  Thank you so much for joining us for the evening.  He is one of the few speakers who actually stayed for the remainder of the meeting and spoke with our youth after the meeting as well.

We then had a short business meeting.  Katy read a poem (Be Thankful) which went nicely with Dr Guy's talk.  Then we had another interesting roll call...each member gave a word that related to Thanksgiving to announce their presence at the meeting...followed by the minutes of the last meeting read.  Sean was able to give his treasurer report with little difficulty (YAY!) and then project reports were given.

The main project announcements were:

Wildlife-I announced our results from the contests and let everyone know we had completed the project for the year.

Robotics-Sean told the group that we were taking a break from Robotics until January.  He then announced the parent meeting that would take place after our general meeting tonight.

Photography-Henry announced the project we have for the nursing home to take portraits of the residents for Christmas.

Forestry-Joseph announced the continued effort to meet at the park for Forestry on Fridays. (Hopefully we will actually get to a meeting this week!)

Food & Nutrition-James announced the results from the county Food Show.  Congrats to all those who participated.

It was nice not to have a lot of business to discuss and we were able to quickly end our meeting. This was followed by refreshments.  The table was nicely decorated for Veteran's Day, which included a picture of a past 4H member who is now serving in the Marines (I hope I have that right!).

Then the 4Hers played 7-up...I had not seen that game played in years!  So glad my boys were given the opportunity to play!

We then had a Robotics meeting...It looks like we have some more details worked out to gain funds to buy Lego Robotics kits.  We hope to start back in January with kits to teach the different age groups.  We have a parent for each group who will lead.  The goal is to have a kit for each group.