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August 9, 2012

4-H Fun

Campers learn the value, danger of plants

Marivel Resendiz Jacksonville Daily Progress The Jacksonville Daily Progress Thu Aug 09, 2012, 08:26 AM CDT

JACKSONVILLE — If the children learned anything from the 4-H summer camp on Wednesday, they learned not everything shooting up from the ground is grass.

Participants in the summer camp, between the ages of 8 and 19 years old, will continue learning about horticulture, amphibians, insects, livestock and more this week.

Willie Arnwine, 4-H and youth development coordinator with the Cherokee County AgriLife Extension Office, said this is the first camp to have an agriculture base to the program.

“In the past it's always been science based,” he said. “Now we've added things like family and consumer science cooking done with (extension agent) Wendi Green and horticulture and science.”

Throughout the day, the students learned about different subjects and had hands-on activities.

“When people think 4-H, they always think livestock,” Arnwine said,” but there is so much more. We have kayaking, fishing, horticulture — if parents were to ask, I'm pretty sure we have a program for it.”

Touring the area of the Cherokee County Exposition Center, extension agent Kim Conway described the different plants growing on the property to the children as they picked their favorites for a plant collection.

Morgan Maddox, 9, held plants pressed between two cardboard strips, protecting the plant.

“I did a plant collection for a science fair once, and I won first place,” she said.

And just when things couldn't get any stickier, children discovered milkweeds growing in the tall grass.

“Some people find it irritable,” Conway told the children. “It bleeds white, funky, sticky stuff at the very end giving, it it's name milkweed.”

While the milkweed is not poisonous, Conway advised the children to be careful what they touch to be sure it is safe.

Students also learned about trees and the reasoning behind fallen tree limbs.

“You know how we normally get hair trims to trim away the dead ends,” Conway said. “Well, trees trim their own dead ends away called, self preserving. They do it when they are suffering from heat or water stress.”

After a camper asked, Conway said trees that libs lost during storms are usually limbs that are already weak and are dying.

Conway said children who participate in camps all have different personalities and interests.

“At these camps we have kids who might not find everything interesting, but when they do like something, they really like it,” she said.

Maddox said after participating in some activities at the camp she is interested in joining an archery club.

“The man in charge here said I had an eye for archery after I hit a bull's eye on my first shot 20 feet away,” she said.

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4-H Fun

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