4-H agents gathered at Langston Hughes Academy, along with hundreds of other volunteers and Verint Systems employees, to construct a playground for students. Playground construction was made possible through KaBoom Build.

During their meeting on January 11, New York Life’s Youth in Governance 4-H Clubs at Success Preparatory Academy mapped their community. The activity was part of their curriculum in public adventures and designed to get the 4-H Club member to think about their community.

Shout out to VIET for celebrating MLK, Jr. Day by doing a day of service and helping beautify their community by planting trees and cleaning up the neighborhood!

Grant 4-H donated Christmas wreaths to residents at Colfax Reunion Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.

During the 2010 - 2011 year, members from all over the state have participated in service-learning projects. Take a look at the projects completed over the last year.

The Back Pack Project provided nutritious, kid-friendly food items to over 200 youth in the Vernon Parish schools during the holidays of Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter/spring break. Back packs were filled with these items – peanut butter/crackers, cereals, fruit, juice, pudding cups, granola bars, etc.

The Lafayette 4-H Jr. Leadership group has working on an environmental service-learning effort since 2005 spurred by an evacuation of their Junior Leader planning retreat due to Hurricane Katrina. Initially the response was focused on response to human needs and has continuously developed with a strong emphasis on environmental restoration due to the impact of hurricanes.

The Green Teens of Calcasieu parish started as a result of the involvement of the Calcasieu 4-H Junior Leader club in a tri-parish service-learning effort called What Happens in the Environment Stays in the Environment! The 2007 original project involved 253 4-H youth leaders and 25 adult leaders from the tri-parish area. After the completion of the effort, a core group of teens thought there was still more learning and work to be done, thus the creation of The Green Teens.

The Cameron Parish 4-H Jr. Leader group is a teen group that focuses on leadership development and service. The group involves youth from throughout the parish and all parish high schools. The Cameron 4-H program always includes an environmental program through both educational and service efforts.

The group collaborated with local businesses to conduct the voter registration drive and the “get out the vote” campaign. Educational lessons were conducted on political propaganda, local elected officials and the effects of campaign materials on voters' decisions.

The Vernon Parish 4-H Teen Leader club won this year’s Service-Learning Group Award for their “Hulking Out Cancer” project. After learning that one of their 4-H members had lLeukemia and recognizing that many of their family and friends had either survived or died from cancer, the Vernon Parish 4-H’ers were motivated to raise funds and awareness for cancer education and research.

Here are 2011 State Service-Learning Records Competition winners.

The Jeff Davis and Lafayette 4-H Jr. Leaders were rewarded for their work throughout the 2009-2010 school year with an awards trip to San Antoino, Texas, from July 12-15, 2010. Jr. Leaders are involved in 4-H service projects in their parishes and assist 4-H events throughout the year to be able to attend the awards trip. To find out more...

Webster 4-H Junior Leader Club members are pictured with March board game donations from parish schools to their "Rainy Day Box Collection" for 4-H Summer Camp.

Youth from Tensas parish participated in the Tensas Community Garden service-learning project. The goal of this project is to gain cooperative and leadership skills and provide produce to the community. To find out more...

The Catahoula 4-H members participated in the Tobacco-free service-learning project. The goal of this project was to reduce the use of tobacco products among the students in Catahoula Parish as well as the general population. To learn more...