98 Ways to Celebrate National 4-H Week:
Source: "Tennessee 4-H Ideas" August 28, 1998.
Authors: Peggy M. Adkins, Associate Extension Specialist and Ruth Henderson, Associate Professor

Celebrations:

1. Create a media event by inviting your town (school or county) to wear green and form a giant Clover photo.
2. Have a reception at your courthouse, downtown or at a local mall. Serve limeade!
   
3. Distribute green bottles of bubbles. Invite everyone to have a green bubble-blowing party and 4-H week reception.
   
4. Have a green balloon day. Give away 4-H balloons.
   
5. Have an ice cream social with 4-H'ers, county officials and volunteers. Showcase youth projects and exhibits.
6. Select a National 4-H Week baby! The first baby born during 4-H week in the county (if you have a county hospital that delivers) is named the 4-H baby. Get sponsorship from local vendors for diapers, gas to carry baby home, milk/formula, flowers, baby clothes, etc. Give the baby a 4-H membership card.
7. Have a National 4-H street party under a big 4-H banner.
8. Have a car show . . . anything from 1914 to 1999! After all, there have been a lot of changes in vehicles and 4-H since 1914!
9. Have an up-to-date minute fashion show and 4-H Week reception. Include an outfit from 1914 as a reminder of how 4-H'ers clothing has changed since 1914.
10. Have a gala premier of your newest video (or slide set) of 4-H highlights from the past year.
11. Kick off 4-H Week with a Battle of the Bands. Invite everyone.
12. Have a county-wide 4-H scavenger hunt. Advertise a list of items (a real four leaf clover, a 4-H enrollment card, the autograph of a 4-H volunteer, the autograph of a 4-H donor, a snapshot of a 4-H'er, etc.) The first person to bring all the correct items to a designated volunteer or the Extension Office, receives a savings bond or donated prize.
13. End the week with your annual 4-H awards banquet. Give it a new twist with make-your-own-omelet, make-a-crepe, world's longest sandwich supper, late-night breakfast, chili cook-off, salad supper, fish fry, outdoor chicken barbecue, finger-food-fellowship, spaghetti-17 ways, the 4-H dinner, funniest 4-H video contest, 4-H academy awards, unsolved 4-H mysteries (with skits about 4-H'ers and leaders), a TV Guide party (with 4-H related spoofs from a variety of shows), a Wheel-of-4-H Night where participants are chosen from the audience to guess (and fill-in the blanks for) major 4-H successes from the past year, or other ideas from your 4-H'ers healthy imaginations.
14. Ask local organizations to acknowledge 4-H week and recognize the 4-H'ers of their members.
15. Invite outstanding local 4-H alumni for an autograph-signing party.

Media and Marketing:

16. Provide the local newspaper with articles written by members, volunteers, alumni and donors for a 4-H insert.
17. Select a dozen entries in a call for PSA's on 4-H. Let the authors tape the spots for local radio stations.
18. Have fortune cookies made with a 4-H message inside. Distribute them in restaurants and in other public places.
19. Schedule 4-H members and/or adult leaders to present at PTA and civic meeting programs.
20. Distribute a thought-for-the-day for each day of National 4-H week. Send them to all philanthropic organizations in your community for inclosure in their newsletters.
21. Put a 4-H message on grocery bags.
22. Make 4-H badges or buttons to wear and distribute.
23. Get 4-H balloons. Distribute them everywhere.
24. Have a call for 4-H bumper sticker designs. Let a local printer or artist select the winning entry. Unveil and distribute the bumper stickers during 4-H week.
25. Initiate a 4-H'er of the Week photo feature during 4-H week. Let a panel of volunteers select the featured 4-H'er using fair criteria and including all ages and interests.
26. Cover your county with 4-H posters! Encourage EVERY 4-H'er to bring a 4-H poster to their club meeting. Let a committee of 4-H'ers and volunteers be responsible for distributing signs to every business and public place.
27. Ask to place 4-H promotional place mats in local restaurants.
28. Use a local cable station to convey 4-H messages and announcements.
29. Fly a 4-H flag on the town square.
30. Radio contest: Use questions based on 4-H history and 4-H today. Callers who give correct answers, win a prize (e.g., 4-H camp T-Shirts, 4-H pens and pencils and other promotional trinkets).
31. Ask businesses that utilize continual play televisions to play 4-H videos.
32. Use 4-H promotional/educational exhibits at businesses, fairs, schools, banks and supermarkets.
33. Distribute 4-H appreciation items or 4-H survival kits to 4-H teacher-leaders and school principals (green life savers, 4-H pencils, 4-H calendar, etc.).
34. Ask local businesses to put "4-H is Great: Get Into It" on their marquee during the week.
35. Solicit billboard designs. Select one to unveil during 4-H week.
36. Have a two-way teen membership marathon. Include a fun-run race and a teen recruitment race. Plan a special short trip or event for the top 10 recruiters and their new teen members. Let other teen members host the event and invite every teen who participated in the fun-run.

Events and Activities:

37. Have a First Annual National 4-H Week Pet Show!
38. Have a 4-H cookie-baking marathon and deliver cookies to police departments, teachers, school board members, fire departments, and other community services.
39. Have contests for T-Shirts, posters, bumper-stickers, 4-H displays, PSA's, essays, and feature stories. Use them!
40. Have a milk shake marathon or a taste-of-our-county event.
41. Have a 4-H Family Fun Night.
42. Have a 4-H Carnival.
43. Have a 4-H Family Hayride.
44. Have a 4-H Family Scavenger Hunt.
45. Have a 4-H Family Chili Cook-off.
46. Have a 4-H Family Open House where people visit one of several homes in which 4-H pictures and project memorabilia are displayed.
47. Organize a 4-H Week committee for next year's events!

Club Meetings:
Let 4-H'ers know that 4-H is big. It's fun! It's different! Include some of these meeting ideas to add some sparkle.

48. Have an enrollment party at each meeting.
49. Have a reception for your local school principal and teachers.
50. Give a clover sticker to everyone you find smiling.
51. Distribute something 4-H'y for every bulletin board.
52. Distribute a list of celebrity 4-H alumni. Scramble the names or have them fill-in-the-blanks.
53. Invite teen 4-H'ers and 4-H alumni to explain 4-H.
54. Give door prizes (4-H pencils, T-Shirts, Blue Tick Tickets, etc.) by drawing completed enrollment cards.
55. Take a jar of green jelly beans to each meeting. Let members guess how many jelly beans are in the jar. Let the number equal the number of 4-H'ers in your county or in the state last year. Explain that it would take a certain number of jars to hold that many jelly beans

Recognition for Donors & Other 4-H Supporters:
Remember the people who make 4-H a success in your county.

56. Have 4-H'ers deliver green and white mints.
57. Have 4-H'ers write thank you notes.
58. Have 4-H'ers distribute thank you posters for windows.
59. Have 4-H'ers distribute 4-H T-Shirts.
60. Have 4-H'ers distribute cookies.
61. Invite 4-H youth to a donor-appreciation campfire!
62. Have 4-H'ers deliver original thank you poems or singing thank-you-grams.
63. Mail or deliver an audio or video cassette of 4-H'ers saying thank you.
64. Mail them a video tape of the past year's 4-H highlights.
65. Have 4-H'ers grow or transplant shamrocks to deliver to donors and other supporters during 4-H Week.
66. Have youth distribute 4-H pencils.
67. Have special ribbons made (rosettes are great!) that read 4-H VIP.
68. 4-H'ers make and deliver jars of green and white jelly beans.
69. Mail donors a video (or even audio tape) of a massive standing ovation!!
70. Have 4-H'ers deliver 2000-01 4-H calendars to them.

As A Club:
Encourage your clubs to turn National 4-H Week into a memorable event. Use these ideas to trigger their creativity.

71. Make a quilt.
72. Make a flag or banner.
73. Make clover-shaped cookies to deliver to shut-ins.
74. Present a skit.
75. Sing a song.
76. Have a reception for parents.
77. Do a service-learning activity.
78. Prepare a meal. Invite the parents as guests.
79. Have a talent show. Invite friends, parents, and donors.
80. Do a service project.
81. Honor an adult volunteer, teen leader, or donor.
82. Make cookies for the school custodians, secretaries, cafeteria staff, and bus drivers.
83. Prepare refreshments for the teachers' lounge.
84. Decorate a bulletin board.
85. Present a thought-for-the-day over the school intercom each morning.
86. Display the 4-H flag for the week.
87. Advertise a wear-green day. Distribute green and white mints to everyone who wears green that day; or distribute tickets to a fun 4-H event.

Last Minute Ideas:

88. Take a potted plant to key supporters. Stick a paper 4-H Clover on a florist step in a pot.
89. Have a phone-a-thon. Have 4-H'ers phone donors and sponsors to say thanks.
90. Distribute books or packs of lifesavers with a note "You've been one for us this year! Thank you."
91. Distribute One Million Dollar candy bars with a note "You're worth more than this. Thanks for being a friend to 4-H."
92. Add a 4-H Week message to every e-mail and written correspondence during the week.
93. Have everyone in the office answer the phone with "Happy 4-H Week!"
94. Have 4-H'ers deliver small toy bulldozers with a note "We'd move the earth for you. Thanks for putting wheels on 4-H this year."
95. Take a donor to lunch each day during 4-H Week. Recruit volunteers and co-workers to do the same. If possible, let 4-H'ers take a donor or volunteer to lunch, even if it's in the school cafeteria.
96. Send sticks or packs of gum with notes attached "Thanks for sticking with 4-H!"
97. Make a request to manager of a large office building to turn lights on at night to spell 4-H . . . that is if you have a building large enough.
98. Ask volunteers to stop by the high schools where your teen 4-H'ers attend. Deliver them a care package that includes a note that says "good luck with all your tests this week" along with a small surprise (piece of wrapped candy). Sometimes schools will have office helpers put these surprises in the lockers for you.