Plane hopes to land 4-H booster club

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — Creating a booster club for the 77 Cibola County 4-H members is one of the top priorities for this year for Cooperative Extension Agent Jimmy Plane.

"A booster club would offer an opportunity for adults to help 4-H club youth members with their projects, mentoring, providing one-on-one advice," Plane said.

"They could teach showmanship skills to the youth and provide workshops as well," he said.

The club would be made up of adults only and there is no requirement for the adults to have been a 4-H member or leader in order to join, he said.

For information on joining a booster club, contact Plane at the extension office from at (505) 287-9266.

The booster club would fund its activities through fund-raisers, he said.

The recent wet weather has brought some of the range back for grazing, he said.

In Cibola County there are 15,000 head of sheep, mostly in Acoma, Laguna and Ramah and 12,000 head of cattle, he said.

One project Plane said he will be working on this spring is to have a wool growers sale where sheep are sheared, the wool weighed and shipped off for sale.

Place also said he is working on various projects and plans for events for 4-H members, including recruiting.

"I am going to try to work with teachers at the schools to talk to classes and make presentations. Maybe we can get some of those students to join," he said.

One of the events Plane plans on taking place this year will be a community service project, on Feb. 14 at the Good Samaritan Center.

"Club members will make goody bags, with sugar free candy and fruit, and we will deliver them to seniors at Good Samaritan," he said.

There will be about 70 bags made up by club members, he said.

Four-H clubs will be doing fund-raisers to help raise money to fund projects such as a district horse show.

On Feb. 13, 4-H council members will elect officers including president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, song and recreation leader and parliamentarian, Plane said.

An awards program is set for Feb. 14 in the multipurpose room at Future Foundations Family Center, for 4-H club members who turned in their record books for 2006.

There will also be several contests during spring and summer giving 4-H club members an opportunity to compete and judge one another in various categories, such as steers and hogs.

There are diverse categories of projects that youth can participate in, such as: engineering, rocketry, wood carving, wood construction, sewing, clothing, sports fishing, photography and wildlife projects.

4-H is not only "cows, sows and plows," he said.