My 4-H Story--1998--Fourth Year in 4-H

My 4-H Story

Written 1998

Age: 10

Year in 4-H: 4

My name is John Trammell and I am a junior 4-H member this year.  This is my 4th year in 4-H.  This has been a very busy and exciting year for me.  I am just finishing 4th grade at Cram Elementary.  I have a sister, Ashley that is in 1st grade.  My dad, Steve, is the photography leader for our club and my mom, Rozie, is the community leader.  I have a Dalmation dog named Ryce and a cat named Buster.  I also have a Beta (type of fish) and I call him Mr. B.  I like to collect rocks and fossils and I also like to collect Lionel Trains.  My favorite sport is swimming.  I LOVE to go to the beach.  My favorite place is Laguna Beach.  We try to go on several educational family trips each year.  Each place we go we try to learn something new.

My 4-H year started out great with one of my photographs that won a Best of Show at last years San Bernardino County Fair that was able to go to the State Fair's Best of Show competition.  We mailed it and then I got this beautiful big 3rd place ribbon and an invitation to come up to the Fair.  My mom and dad took my sister and me up there in August and we spent three days in Sacramento.  We had a lot of fun.  The State Fair is a big and fun place.  I got to see all the pictures that were in the Best of Show competion.  There were very few awards given out.  There were maybe 2 1st place photos, 2 2nd place photos, and 4 3rd place photos.  The rest were given an honorable mention.  I was very surprised that me picture did that well.  My dad said that as a 4-Her none of his photos made it to State Fair.  What a special honor to start out my year in 4-H.

  

This year I also ran for an office in our club.  I became the club photographer at the July meeting.  Danny and Ronnie did the installation.  It was a lot of fun.  I get to take the club pictures at the different events.  This way I get to practice taking pictures, which will help me in my project too.

  

July 4th started out our club fundraising project.  My mom and dad worked at the County Councils Firework booth in Chino.  At the Redlands Sylvan Park we had a craft table.  My mom said that anyone who wished could make some really neat things to sell at the table.  The profits would then be split 50/50.  The person who made the craft would get 50% of the price and the club gets 50% of the price.  Some kids made over $30.00 and the club made about $150.00.  My mom worked there all day.  My sister, dad and I worked in the morning.  Some of the other club members came and went during the rest of the day.  That was fun but it was very hot day.  Toward the end of the day we had a little excitement.  Right in front of our booth about 100 feet away some kids were playing with firecrakers and the started a fast and hot fire.  One pine tree just about exploded into flames.  It took the fire department over 25 minutes to get there.  Fortunately, a house close by had a hose and people started to hose down the fire.  When the fire trucks finally did get there, all they did was made sure that there were no other sparks left to start a new fire.  That was very scary.

  

The next event we went to was Achievement Night.  It was a great night because several of our club members got medals for their record books.  But the best part was when our club got a special award for our Community Service Project we did for our local park.  We planted over 36 trees at Aurantia Park.  That was a lot of work.  I sure am glad that the tree planting project is done.  We want to do other projects like putting identification signs in for the trees and getting some park benches.  But that is for another year.  

 

Our club day camp was that next Saturday.  We went to Glen Helen Regional Park.  I was the food chairman for that.  Everyone was to bring something.  I sent around a list.  Then I called everyone to remind them to come and bring what they signed up for.  Two girls from the club were the recreation chairpersons.  First we played a lot of fun games.  Then we ate our food.  Then came the biggest fun.  We got to play on the water slides and in the pools.  The club paid for all the members that had already paid their memberships.  All other had to pay a small fee.  We got a discount rate because we are a 4-H group.

  

Next on the club agenda was a trip to the Wildlife Waystation.  This is a very special place that rescues wild animals from around the world.  They only do tours on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month.  We made this a community service event.  Everyone was to collect items that the Waystation needed and then we would take it there and donate it to them.  Last year we also donated our Birthday Jar money to them.  Danny and Ronnie went with us to see this place.  All members that paid their memberships only paid 1/2 price, everyone else paid full price.  It was  a very hot day.  We drank a lot of water and sodas.  There we got to see a lot of animals.  All of them had a sad story.  Everyone should go and visit this place.  It is better than the zoo.  You get to see the animals real close.

  

The next special thing to happen was our trip to the State Fair.  Mom had volunteered to do State Record Book Judging this year before she knew that I got a ribbon for my picture.  So we all traveled together.  We got to see the fair together, but after that, mom did the record book judging and dad got to show us around town.  We got to see the State Capitol building and Sutter's Fort.  In 4th grade we study California History, so this really helped.  We also got to see the old part of Sacramento.  The last day, we drove up to Sutter's Mill where the gold was discovered.  It is in really pretty country.  It was very exciting to see all that.  While in the old part of Sacramento I got to see a really neat train that once was part of the San Bernardino Line.  It is a red and yellow diesel.  I took a picture of it.  Maybe it will be good enough to enter in the fair. 

 

In September a group from our club went tent camping at the East Fork of Barton Flats in the San Bernardino Mountains.  My dad took us.  My mom stayed home because she had another thing going on and couldn't go.  When we got out of the car we saw a coyote.  We learned how to set up a tent.  We learned how to cook on a open fire.  Then we went to bed.  My sister went to sleep with her friend Sadie-Belle.  I slept with my dad in my tent.  In the morning we went to Jenks Lake to go fishing.  We had caught 5 fish.  This was a fun experience.  For us, we go camping in our 18-foot travel trailer.  We camped only one other time in a tent and after that dad bought the trailer.

  

In November mom went to the Asilomar Leaders Conference.  We went along.  While mom was in her meetings and sessions dad took us to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, to the San Juan Bautista Mission, and other pretty places there.  Of course, along the way we were busy looking for good pictures to take.  It has been raining and there were many good pictures to take with the beautiful clouds in the background.

  

December came and there were many of our club members that got the flu.  There were only a few of us that came to our Christmas party and caroling.  But we did have a lot of fun.

  

In January we started getting ready for County Field Day since our club was hosting it.  There was a lot of work that had to be organized and done.  Mom had a lot of extra meetings with the other leaders/  Everyone had to do a lot of work.  I was very glad when it was done.  IN between all the work for the field day, mom helped me get ready to do my demonstration.  She kept after after me to get the boards done.  She kept after me to practice what I was going to say and how I was going to do the demonstration.  She also helped my sister with hers.  But that wasn't all.  All the other kids in our club that wanted to do a demonstration asked her for help, so she did that too. I think she was real glad when Field Day was over.

  

After that there was Fashion Review.  My sister Ashley wanted to enter a T-shirt and do clothing selection.  So there were all those preparations.  I just got to watch.  My cousin Krystal also entered a painted T-shirt.  She is one of our new club members this year.

  

Soon after that we took a small break and then started getting ready for Regional Field Day and the San Bernardino County Fair.  Regional Field Day was a great learning experience.  Even though I got a Blue Seal, I learned a lot and maybe next year I can be a Regional Medallist.  That is one of my goals for next year.  At the same time I had several of my photos enlarged and mounted them and got them ready for the Fair.  This year I got only first place on my 2 color photos and my 2 black and white photos.  I also entered my rock collection.  The title this year was, "Volcanoes, (Mountains With Tummy Trouble) and the Rocks They Through Around."  I got a first place on that display.  I entered my Science Fair project and my mission too.  My science Fair project got Best of Show and my mission got a second place.  

  

This year I tried a new project, Foods and Nutrition.  I was the only boy in the whole group.  There was a lot to learn.  I learned how to cut the food the safe way and how to work with the stove safely.  I learned about the food pyramid and what the different food groups are.  I even used one of the fun foods I learned to make as my demonstration for Field Day.  I even cooked a couple of dinners at home for my family without my mom's help.  She helped me with the clean up afterwards.  Everyone liked the food that I cooked.  Well actually, my sister who is also in the project also worked on the dinners.  I didn't let her work with the stove or the sharp knives, but she got to do other things.

  

In my photography project I did a lot of work.  One of the things I learned to do better this year was how to mount the photos on mat board and get them ready for the shows.  I also learned how to make a pin hole camera.  We took several photo field trips at different times of the day to learn about how to work with natural light.  One of the things that I did was enter the PTA Reflections competition.  I entered my red train that I took up in Sacramento.  The title I had to work with was, "Wouldn't it be Great if...".  I titled it "Wouldn't it be Great if All Trains Looked This Good."  I won at the school level, the Council Level and went on to District Level.  I didn't win to go on to State Level, but for my first year, I think it was a great start.  Next year maybe I can do better.  Another thing I entered this year was the First Annual Photo Calendar for National 4-H.  I didn't win this time but next year I will try again.  After all, they were looking for 13 pictures and they had over 200 entries.  So it gives me something to work toward. 

  

But that wasn't all that kept me busy this year.  This year I started at a new school.  Not just a new place but a "new" school.  The school that I was at had so many kids that a new school had to be built.  Since we are transfer students the District moved us to the new school.  This was a very fun and interesting experience.  It isn't often kids get to start out in a brand new school.  But the name of the school was named after an old school that was in Highland in the late 1800's.   It is called  Cram Elementary.  There were 5 other Cram Schools before this one.  So in January there was a big Rededication.  There were 3 days of performances.  The band, the chorus, and the classes played songs, read stories and did dances.  We had a lot of fun but it was a lot of work too.  Right after that we started in on the Science Fair projects.  I decided to try and grow crystals to work it in with my rock and crystal collection.  I hoped to go on to District Level but I didn't quite make it.  But it was real fun growing crystals.  I grew neat salt crystals and borax crystals.  I entered it in the San Bernardino County Fair and got a Best of Show.
  

In April mom and dad took us to Boron for their rock and mineral bonanza.  There we went into the mines waste heaps and we got to dig for different rocks and mineral crystals.  It was very, very windy because the day day before it had rained.  The desert always is windy after a rain.  We got very muddy but we got some really neat rocks to add to my collection.  Then we went out to Baker.  We drove around the desert out there and collected some more interesting rocks for my collection.  We had a lot of fun.  We also went to other rock and mineral shows as part of my project.



  

One of the other new things that I am doing this year is playing in the school band.  I had been learning to play the piano.  But in the beginning of the school year the band teacher came and showed us all these really neat instruments.  I got really excited about it and wanted to learn to play the clarinet.  I then learned that my dad used to play clarinet in a band also when he was in high school.  Mom and dad didn't have to pay for a new clarinet.  They just had the old one refurbished.  It took about a month, so we had to rent one.  I had a lot of fun learning how to play with other people.  There are a lot of kids that wanted to be a part of the band.  The first place we played for the public was in the Redlands Christmas Parade.  The other kids from the other elementary schools also were part of this, so there were a lot of kids playing Jingle Bells.  Then we played for our school dedication.  We also had a really BIG concert at the Redlands Bowl with all the kids in the music program, even the ones that are in Jr. Highs and the High Schools.  All the chorus people were there too.  we started the program at 7:00 and didn't finished until 10:00.  By the time we got home it was 11:00.  We had school the next day. I was a little tired, but really glad that I got to be a part of this fun concert.  There were also other concerts that we played after that for the parents and the kids at Arroyo Verde Elementary and Cram Elementary.  We were really busy.
  

One of my big school projects was to do a report on a California Mission.  I had to write a report and build the mission for it.  I chose La Purisima Mission in Lompoc.  I remembered that one the best when we took one of our family field trips there.  I really liked that mission.  It is a State Park now.  That took me about 6 weeks to do.  Right after that I had to work on my Reflections entry.  Then I had a big Science Fair project to do.  And to end the year we had to do a big report with research and all on an animal.  We were not allowed to report on the Ocean Animals since we already done a report on one.  I chose the Panda.  I found out a lot of interesting things about pandas.  It made me very sad to find out that they are endangered and why they are endangered.  I had the most pages in my report.  But this is when I learned ow to work using a computer.
  

We finally got our computer.  My mom works in the computer lab at the school and she knows how to work with the computers, so she showed me how to do it.  We have a lot of really neat programs so that we can do a lot of learning games, make cards, do special reports, and play some fun games too.  This story I wrote using our new computer.  We are all very excited about having our own computer.  The next thing I want to learn to use is the internet.  Mom is very strict about when and why we, my sister and I, are on the computer.  She watches us carefully to make sure we don't do the wrong things.  I want to also get a digital camera and learn to work with photography on the computer.  That will really be interesting.
  

My sister had to do a couple of dances at the Orange Show this year.  I am not happy with the Orange Show since they don't have any entries anymore.  I really liked entering in that Fair, but for some reason they stopped having people enter their stuff.  If it weren't for my sister dancing we would not have gone at all to the Orange Show.  My sister and I entered in the San Bernardino County Fair again this year.  We entered a lot of stuff.  Other people from our club entered too.  We took all the stuff up there and brought it back for them.  My cousins entered their rabbits.  They did really good.  I guess they got a lot of first places.  Everyone did really well at the fair.
  

This is about it for this year.  I had a very busy and fun year with all the things that I got to do this year.  Next year will probably be just as busy and fun.  I hope so.