Service

The 4-H All Star motto is "SERVICE."

4-H All Stars exhibit this motto through county, regional, and state service projects to benefit their neighbors at home and around the world.

Although some things in Tennessee 4-H are changing, the All Stars' commitment to service isn't one of them.

County All Stars groups can submit their projects for the Don Bowman award, which is presented annually at Roundup. For the 2008 All Star Service Award, All Stars reported 151 projects, for a total of 102,601 hours of service. If you multiply the number of hours and the nationally accepted dollar value for volunteer time ($17.29 -- see information from Independent Sector), this equals $1,773,971.29! Not only that, but the All Stars helped 392,309 people!

Service is included in local, regional and state All Star conferences and meetings. For the July 2008 Roundup and State All Star Conference, 4-H members collected pull tabs, which were donated to the Ronald McDonald House.

You can strengthen your service experience by turning it into a service learning project. How? It's simple! Look at your community, decide what the needs are, and plan a project to meet the needs. Then, to make it true service learning, think about the skills and knowledge you can gain through the project and make those things your learning objectives. Conduct your project and reflect on what you've done. Then, evaluate and celebrate your accomplishments!