Battle Creek Trip

7 lucky winners embarked on the Battle Creek Award trip on Friday, June 27th. The trip included a train ride to Battle Creek and an afternoon of fun at Full Blast Water Park. A fun time was had by all.

Food and Nutrition

The County Center & Richland Food & Nutrition project featured strawberries at their June meeting. They made strawberry freezer jam, strawberry-banana yogurt smoothies, strawberry shortcake and a strawberry pie. They compared totally homemade recipes to taste and ease of store bought convience products. Homemade won!

Branch County Livestock Camp

Kalamazoo 4H’ers had an opportunity to attend Branch County livestock camp this week. Over 200 kids, chaperones, and presenters attended from 22 Michigan Counties.

Fair subjects were covered in great depth over the three day camp. The projects included goats, poultry, swine, rabbits, beef steer, feeder calf, horses, sweepstakes, and dogs.

For added fun, on Monday attendees could choose from swimming, bowling, or gym (basketball or volleyball).

On Tuesday there was an awards ceremony; with Pizza for dinner. For dessert, ice cream sundaes were donated by the United Dairy Industry of Michigan.

Be sure to sign up next year so you don’t miss the wonderful opportunity to learn from experts in each field, to have a super-fun time, and enjoy some very tasty meals.

For the Kids who attended; what was your favorite part?

Vet Science

Vet Science has been hard at work preparing for the upcoming fair. At their June meeting they worked on their fair group poster to promote the project. Exciting things will be happening in the fall with Vet Science.

Kalamazoo County Fair Queen Pageant

Young ladies who are at least 16 years of age and will not have had their 20th birthday by August 4, 2008 are eligible to enter the Kalamazoo County Fair Queen Pageant.
The Kalamazoo County Fair will provide a sash and crown for the Queen and sash and tiara for her Court. Additional gifts include but may not be limited to:
2008 Kalamazoo County Fair Queen: $8,000 Scholarship to Wright Beauty Academy
2008 Kalamazoo County Fair 1st Runner Up: $250 Savings Bond
2008 Kalamazoo County Fair 2nd Runner Up: $100 Savings Bond
Complete entries must be postmarked no later than July 7, 2008 and mailed to: Kalamazoo County Fair Pageant 2900 Lake Street Kalamazoo, MI 49048

Click the link below for the entry form and pageant info:

Queen Pageant Kalamazoo County Fair

Exploration Days

Exploration Days at Michigan State's campus came to a conclusion on Friday, June 20. An excellent time was had by all. The participants wrapped up their time by swimming in MSU's olympic size swimming pool with a 5 meter "high dive", dancing with 4-Hers throughout the state, and participating in Fishing, Repelling, Judo, International Dance and Market Hog classes. If you have more pictures from this event and would like to see them posted, just email them to the office.

Exploration Days

59 4-H members from Kalamazoo arrived at Exploration Days. They are participating in exciting things like Sailing, Line Dancing, Jud0 & Tae Kwan Do, Market Hogs and Market Beef Cattle. They also were able to explore Michigan State University and were treated to a performance by Three Men and a Tenor. Check back for future Exploration Day posts.

Llama Project

Here are some exciting pictures from the Llama Project. One is Katie Baker, practicing showmanship with Fernando, one is a photo of one of our new crias (cria is a baby llama!) her name is Champagne Party, the other photo is from last year's llama exhibit at the fair. The llama project is open to anyone in Kalamazoo 4-H, we have llamas available for members to use at our home. Members must be able to commit to coming to work with the llamas about twice a month and more often in late June and July. We are planning on attending the Schoolcraft 4th of July parade as a group, come out and cheer for the 4-H Llamas!

County Center Swine Project

The County Center swine project met after their Community Club meeting. At this meeting they practiced Showmanship. They used a toy pig on wheels so they didn't have to worry about chasing around a real pig. Quite intuitive.

County Center Community Club

The County Center Community Club met at the Comstock Community Center. At this meeting they prepared for the Kalamazoo County Fair by signing up for jobs, filling out their fair entry forms, and finding an adult volunteer to be responsible for the food booth the entire week of fair! They were also able to enjoy many delicious treats.

Goat Showmanship Practice

The Augusta group will be holding 6 showmanship practice clinics at the Fairgrounds Arena. These clinics are open to all interested goat groups. All clinics will be held on the following Thursday evenings and will start at 6:30pm sharp:

June 12th
June 19th
June 26th
July 10th
July 17th
July 24th

If you have any questions, please contact Ann Vos at savosnova@yahoo.com

Cooper Families and Friends

Cooper Families and Friends Community Club meets at Cooper Elementary School on 14th Street. After conducting their club business, they were busy at work filling out their fair entry forms. They will definitely have their forms in to the Fair Office by the July 1st deadline.

June Newsletter

The June issue of the 4-H Newsletter is now available. It was bulk mailed to 4-H families on Friday, May 30, 2008. Check out the correction made on when Club Audits will be held.

June Newsletter