ABOUT US

Palomares 4-H is named after Palomares Road, and has been around for 50 years, while 4-H itself has been around much longer. In 4-H, members have a chance to learn things and meet new people by joining projects, and have a chance to share their knoweledge with others by running a project. A project is a group of people from the club who get together once a month, aside from club meetings, to talk about, do activities for, and learn about a certain subject. Palomares 4-H has many different projects, technological as well as agricultural, that teach about such subjects as Veterinary Science, Shooting Sports, and Robotics. For more infromation on the projects we have please check out our projects page.

Each month, Palomares 4-H does some sort of a community service. These community services have been all sorts of things, from visiting firefighters to thank them for their services to going Christmas caroling at the Senior Center to serving at a crab feed at Chabot Elementary School. In addition, each year we have a booth at the Ag Day event at Rowell Ranch, where third- and fourth-graders from a number of districs go on a field trip to learn about agriculture.

Each 4-H year follows the school year. In the 2018-2019 4-H year, Palomares 4-H drafted a float committee to design and build a parade float for the annual Rowell Ranch Rodeo Parade. Borrowing a trailer and using supplies purchased by the club and donated by members, the group built a parade float with the words "4-H Inspires Us" on an arch at the top, according to the theme for that year of what inspires us. Palomares 4-H won second place in its category for the float, and the float committee voted unanimously to present the award to Micheal Busch, who let us use his trailer and property for building the float.

4-H promotes "learning by doing," encouraging members to take a hands-on approach and try to do things themselves. This is fully played out in the projects, which are guided by an adult volunteer (who is screened through the county), often a teen leader (member), and sometimes a junior leader (also a member). Any member who wants to be a leader can lead a project, and any adult who wants to share a skillset can lead a project. A good example of the hands-on approach is in the Veterinary Science project, in which the members were taught how to use tools like a scalpel to dissect sheep brains, cow eyes, and more. The float committee is another example of this, as members learned how to use screwdrivers and to paint; and how to build strong, braced framework; and teamwork (such as lifting the arch into place on the top of the float and holding it in place while others bolt it on). Another example of learning by doing was the Fenton's Ice Cream Fundraiser. Each year for one month, Fenton's Ice Creamery in Oakland will donate 10% of the profits from that month's special to 4-H. The 4-H members set up a booth outside the shop to talk to people about 4-H, bringing with them operational robots from the Robotics project, an electrical troubleshooting display, and even a violin to entertain guests and themselves. Afterwards, everyone got the month's special, a very tasty, very filling, and very large Ode to Melvin sundae!

Anyone who is interested in 4-H is welcome to come to a club meeting to check us out and get a first-hand experience of what we do. Or, to find more about us, they can download and read our monthly newsletters, Palomares 4-H Gazette, which is written to keep the club members informed of club doings here. If you are an adult wishing to volunteer for 4-H, you can visit a monthly club meeting or contact us through our Facebook page. We look forward to seeing you with us, and are looking forward to growing 4-H and the interest in agriculture, technology, teamwork, and other life essentials.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and come visit us soon!