The Seventh Annual Statewide Teen Weekend will be held February 15-17, 2013 at the W.E. Skelton 4-H Educational Conference Center at Smith Mountain Lake in Wirtz, VA.  The State 4-H Cabinet has worked hard on planning this event and it promises to be the highlight of the season. This event provides an opportunity for teens (age 14 - 19) across the commonwealth to come together for a weekend filled with educational programs and leadership experiences. This year’s workshops include: Healthy Snacks, Wacky Science, Smart Apps, Zumba and Smoothie Wars.  Participants will also take part in a reality store simulation and a service project. 

The cost for the weekend is $90.00 and space is limited to the first 100. If you are interested in attending, please send Lenah Nguyen (lgeer@vt.edu) a note to receive the registration form.  

Please note that the deadline to register is February 1, 2013.

4-H'ers Kate Fisher (Hampton Horsefeathers), Kira Baugh (Krazy for K-9's) and Arielle Ampeh (Krazy for K-9's) helped with many other 4-H'ers to offer about 200 pony rides at Frying Pan Farm Park's Farm Harvest Days.    

Get SET Reston 4-H club finished their regional FIRST LEGO League tournament yesterday early in November.  Their all girls team (division I, under 12) took a Judges Special Recognition Award for teamwork. This is particularly notable since their primary coach was 16 years old (this July) and none of the members had prior experience with Lego League and only one of them met the 9 year old threshold to officially compete (others were 7 and 8; FLL does not hold anyone back from competing). Their teen coach received several positive comments at the tournament for the member's cohesive performance and her dedication to serving this young girl's team. She is really excited about the results, and has enjoyed building the camaraderie with the girls.

Their other teams (Division II, 12 to 14) had a great time, did well, but did not take any awards. The Div II members did an active outreach session to the Southgate Community Center, which serves a title I elementary school community, to recruit additional members for the club’s third team.

On December 1, 2012, the McLean Community 4-H club purchased gifts for 10 children and 2 babies and made several posters for the SHARE “Wishes” program for families in need. The club delivered them to director Bonnie O’Neil. SHARE plans to distribute them on December 8, with Santa doing the honors. While there she gave a tour of their McLean facility and operation, which serves over 200 families in the immediate area. www.shareofmclean.org

The Community Care 4-H Club participated in the Volunteer Fairfax 1K Fun Run this past Saturday, Dec 1, 2012.  It was a chilly morning, but with prompting from club members Reilly Demer and Colleen Jackson, they put on their warmest clothes and headed to Fairfax at 7:30am.  The race started at 9:15am and all runners made it to the finish line.  The registration fee paid to Volunteer Fairfax will go to support the great work that Volunteer Fairfax initiates in our communities.

The Time for Technology Club is a new club in the Fairfax area that is focused on Science and Technology.  The club has recently been working on Scratch. Scratch is a basic programming web page that you can make a cat (or whatever you want) move, talk, and do many other things. The club has also learned how to design video games and how to program an eco-bot.  An Eco-bot is a small robot that is made to clean up litter on the beach that can harm or kill fish and sea life.