Volume 11, Number 4, 2003
A city garden, an abandoned orphanage, a hospital ward and a USO lounge are just some of the sites where Delaware 4-H is making a difference in the First State.
Although the 4-H organization always has emphasized community service, this past year has seen a particular focus on such activities, state 4-H coordinator Joy Sparks says. That's because the Delaware organization embarked on a yearlong campaign called "Our Hands for Larger Service."
Nationally, 4-H is the outreach youth development program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In Delaware, it is sponsored by the Cooperative Extension Service of UD and Delaware State University.
The service campaign came about as a way to celebrate the national organization's 100th birthday and as a response to President George Bush's call for volunteerism after the Sept. 11 tragedy, Sparks says. Several special projects were conducted in addition to Delaware 4-H's usual community service, including its annual statewide effort to mark national Make a Difference Day in October.
Following are just some of the ways that Delaware 4-H'ers have implemented the "Hands for Larger Service" campaign during the last 12 months.
Seeds to help a community grow
What once was a vacant Wilmington city lot, strewn with trash and covered with high weeds, has been transformed into what Sparks calls a garden of hope. The hope, she says, is that planting some seeds will lead not just to a bounty of fruits and vegetables but also to a growth of community spirit.
It took a lot of manual labor and 20 truckloads of soil to get the new community garden, at Coleman Street and Sixth Avenue in the city's Browntown section, ready for planting. The strong arms and backs that readied the plot belonged to New Castle County 4-H'ers, working in conjunction with volunteers from the AmeriCorps national service program, Boys and Girls Clubs and the Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) program.
4-H'ers donated five service days to the project and also called upon the College's Department of Plant and Soil Sciences for professional expertise. Carol Krawczyk, assistant professor of landscape design, helped by sketching a design outlining garden pathways. Volunteers used her drawing to stake out the 100-by-100-foot site for the community garden.
New life at an old orphanage
It has been almost a year since a group of 4-H'ers from New Castle and Kent counties began making a dream come true at a former orphanage in Clayton. The plan is to turn the dilapidated building into "St. Joseph's at Providence Creek," which will serve as a charter school, a working farm and a community services building.
In a single afternoon, 4-H'ers--ranging in age from 5-18--cleaned out former dormitories, loading up several Dumpsters with worn-out furniture, carpeting and debris.
On another day, the volunteers returned, along with others from AmeriCorps and the West Dover Boys and Girls Club, to plant 1,000 seedlings on the 300-acre site.
Packs of fun for hospital patients
If laughter is the best medicine, then a group of youngsters from Harrington, Del., delivered plenty of the right kind of remedies to patients at an area hospital.
Members of the Harrington Sunshine 4-H Club delivered handmade get-well cards and "fun packs" for children and adult patients at Milford Hospital as part of the 2002 Make a Difference Day. This national community service day was started in 1990 to encourage volunteerism on the fourth Saturday of October.
Twenty 4-H'ers put together activity packs filled with games, coloring books, crayons and reading materials. The club members also decorated 100 get-well cards.
In addition to the hospital care packages, the club made "fun packs" for the Dover Air Force Base USO lounge, for distribution to service men and women waiting to be sent to other bases or overseas.