Thank you to all of our member families who donated items for the auction and volunteered their time to set up, run the game booths, count tickets, sort prizes, haul items from storage, and do everything we needed to run our 7 club booths and the 2 shooting sports booths. It was a lot and our club pitched in to make it happen!
Our auction items raised a total of $1,400 for 4-H!
Our game booths pulled in a total of 11,288 coupons!
A special thank you goes out to:
Suzanne Leypoldt for being the big boss of the booths and prizes,
Hanna Copeland and Sharel Cameron for counting booth coupons all day,
Sarah Rodden for making the club auction baskets (wagons) look pretty,
Dave Buckardt for being the booth coupon runner all day,
Rob Ryan and Josh Ryan for being available to pitch in wherever needed throughout the day.
Since many of our members are new to 4-H, we wanted to explain a bit more about the upcoming 4-H Carnival.
This is Larimer County’s 65th year holding the carnival, which raises funds for the 4-H Foundation. The fundraising goal for this year’s carnival is $55,000.
The carnival is organized by the 4-H Foundation, with the assistance of the county’s 4-H clubs. The 4-H Foundation uses the funds generated to support youth with scholarships, awards, registration fees and travel expenses for conferences and competitions, equipment for projects like shooting sports, leader training, and so much more.
4-H members sell tickets for $1 beginning in January and leading up to the carnival in March. These tickets give the purchaser an entry into the cash prize drawing as well as door prize drawings held throughout the day. The center portion of each ticket can be exchanged for two coupons to play the booths at the carnival. Game booth coupons are also sold on the day of the carnival for 25¢ each.
The Foundation asks that all 4-H members sell at least 25 tickets. By helping to support this fundraising effort, 4-H members are eligible for scholarships and assistance with expenses. And 4-H members are encouraged to sell MORE than their 25 tickets. The members who sell the most and the club with the highest average receive cash prizes for their efforts.
The 4-H clubs volunteer to create and work at carnival game booths, and carnival-goers pay coupons to play. Every player receives a prize for participating. 50% of the funds from the booths goes to the organizing club.
Members and their parents sign up to work the club’s booths, and this as well as selling tickets counts toward community service to be noted in their e-Record books for the fair.
A highlight of the day is two Live Auctions, held at 12:00 noon and 2:00 p.m. Local businesses, generous families, and the 4-H clubs put together items and baskets to be auctioned to raise funds. Half of the money generated by each club basket comes back to the donating club.
Admission to the carnival and parking are free at the event.
Be sure to invite your friends, family, and neighbors to come and have a wonderful, fun time and support 4-H!
This year, the Larimer County 4-H Carnival will be held on Saturday, March 2, 2024 from 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. at the First National Bank of Omaha Building (FNBO) at the Ranch (5280 Arena Circle, Loveland, Colorado 80538).
Carnival tickets are available for all of the 4-H members to sell. Each member is encouraged to sell their 25, but we have more if you’re feeling ambitious! If you run out, email info@lc4hss.org or call/text Sharel Cameron at 970-672-7368 for more. Cloverbuds are not required to sell tickets, but can if they wish. We have an opportunity to sell tickets at King Soopers on Eagle Drive in Loveland on February 10–11. This is a great time to sell your 25 tickets and many more. Click here for the signup to Sell Tickets at King Soopers. (There are prizes for the Larimer County 4-H members who sell the most tickets!)
Our club voted to donate four baskets for the Live Auction with the themes of Outdoors, Cooking, and LEGO. Please bring items to be included in these baskets to the club meeting in February.
Our club will also have 7 carnival booths: Iron Man, Toilet Paper Toss, Rubberband Guns, Lollipop Pull, Smack the Quack, Plinko and Pluck a Duck. We ask that all High Country Handiworkers members and parents sign up to work a shift. Click here for the 4-H Carnival Booth Signup.
There are a lot of members of the Shooting Sports project in our club. Shooting Sports will have two booths (Skee Ball and Ammo Pull) at the Carnival and we encourage members to volunteer for the Shooting Sports booths as well. Click here for the 4-H Carnival Booth Signup for Shooting Sports.
December means completing our annual community service for Foster and Adoptive Families of Larimer County. Thank you to all of the member families who attended the club meeting to help us wrap gifts for FAFLC’s Christmas party. Merry Christmas!
We have our club meeting, the final one for 2023, on Monday, December 11 at 7:00 p.m. There has been a slight location change for this meeting. We are still in the McKee Building, but we will be in the Exhibit Hall instead of the classrooms.
Important agenda items to think about:
Read the November Minutes: They are posted on the website here. Our secretary Eden has done a great job and has worked hard to make sure they are accurate.
Carnival Basket Themes: Our club will vote to decide on the number of baskets and type of baskets we would like to do for the 4-H Carnival’s live auction in March.
4-H Carnival Tickets: 4-H Carnival tickets will be distributed to each club member to sell. Each member is asked to sell 25 tickets at $1 each. All funds support the Larimer County 4-H Foundation.
Office Elections: Elections will be held for the club officers for 2024. (We will go in order: President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Reporter, Historian, and Sunshine). If you would like to run for an office, please come prepared with a brief speech including your name, years in 4-H, why you want the office, and why you would be a good choice for the office.
Demonstrations: There are still plenty of slots to sign up to present a demonstration.
At the end of the meeting, members will be wrapping Christmas gifts for the Foster & Adoptive Families of Larimer County. This is a community service project, so be sure to take pictures for your record books.
Then, we will have a cookie exchange. We will share cookies and members can exchange and take home what is left. Please plan to bring a dozen cookies to share if possible.
Wrapping Presents at Murdoch’s in Fort Collins
As a club, we voted to offer our club services to wrap purchases for customers at Murdoch’s in Fort Collins. There is a Signup for the December 17 date.
We are asking for intermediate and senior members to sign up, along with a parent/guardian. We are lacking member support. Please go to the club website and signup for a time or two. This counts as a community service project for your member completion for 2024.
High Country Handiworkers members wrapped presents for customers at Murdoch’s Fort Collins yesterday. Thank you to the families who volunteered for this project, and to Murdoch’s for the opportunity!
Murdoch’s is offering free gift wrapping to their customers from November 24 through December 24. They have offered local groups the opportunity to wrap gifts and keep any donations. All of the materials for gift wrapping are supplied by Murdoch’s.
Our club is going to take a few of the time slots. We are asking for intermediate and senior members, along with their parents, to volunteer.
A big congratulations to everyone in the club who completed their projects this year! All of your hard work has paid off. It is hard to believe the 4-H year is over.
End-of-the-Year Potluck Picnic
On Monday, September 11, our usual meeting night, we will meet at Fairgrounds Park off of Railroad Avenue in Loveland for an end-of-the-year potluck picnic. Start time is 6:00 p.m. Please bring a dish or two to share. The club will provide sloppy joes, the paper goods, lemonade, and water. For members enrolled in livestock including dog and poultry, please bring your finished record books at this time.
4-H Open House
The Larimer County 4-H Open House will be on Thursday, October 5 from 5:30–7:30 p.m. in the McKee Building’s Exhibit Hall. Our club will have a table, and we need a few families who would be willing to talk about our club and 4-H in general to help get the public interested in 4-H. Yes, this is a community service to get you started on next year!
State Fair Project Pickup
This Wednesday, September 6 is the day to pick up your state fair projects. Come to the Fort Collins room in the McKee Building between 7:30–10:00 a.m. If you are not able to make it during this time, please let me know and I will pick your project up for you. For those who sent a project to state fair for the first time, sorry, but state fair does not pay premiums.
WOW! The Larimer County Fair is well underway. Interview judging is complete and I can’t wait for Friday afternoon when we find out how you all did. Now the members showing livestock are checking in animals for their upcoming shows. Cloverbuds have the opportunity to try their hand at Pee Wee Showmanship. Cloverbuds can show a Goat, Sheep, or Swine.
Dairy Bar Volunteers
My concern with a club as large as ours is that we can’t even fill 8 slots at the Dairy Bar on Saturday. Only 8! Please click the button below to sign up. I would love for us to fill more than two shifts (just 2-hour time slots). No experience is necessary and it is fun. I would think a club of our size should be able to easily fill at least four shifts. If the original slots get filled for Saturday and you try to sign up and can’t, then reply and we will look at adding more time slots.
