4-H Harvest Party brings in more members

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

Children and parents all got to enjoy games and hayrides in Nashua Sunday at the Borlaug Learning Center.

The 4-H Family Harvest Party served as a way to recruit 4-H kids and re-enroll existing members for another year. Computer pads set up in various spots allowed parents to type in their children’s registration information.

“All these families are re-enrolling their kids in 4-H,” said Iowa State University Extension and Outreach County Executive Director Lesley Milius. “We’re enrolling new kids, if there are new kids.”

Last year a little over 100 kids enrolled at the event, Milius said.

“For a lot of them it’s a great incentive to come tonight because they get an incentive to re-enroll,” Milius said. “We’ve got bingo, we’ve got crafts, we’ve got hayrides, food and lots of different things going on.”

The next step for the kids at the party is to regularly attend 4-H Club meetings, educational presentations and do community service projects, Milius said.

“They’ll start that club work,” Milius said. “For most of the year many of them will prepare for the (Iowa State) Fair.”

Last year 209 4-H kids from Floyd County were involved in the Iowa State Fair, Milius said.

“We’re hoping to hit that number again, if not increase it,” Milius said. “That doesn’t include our Clover Kid numbers or our school enrichment.”

Several of the children there had just had their first year of 4-H and were ready to re-enroll, like Abby Pippert, 10.

“I like listening to the presentations,” Pippert said. “I like to do the crafts.”

This year Pippert will be the club reporter for the Nora Springs Rolling Stones.