Texas Roundup Community Service Project, due June 5 at Roundup

Give back at Texas 4-H Roundup! 

As the Texas 4-H Council community service project this year, we are building “flower bombs” for the Bryan/College Station Junior Master Gardeners. We are asking ALL participants to bring seeds to put in the flowers! We are additionally asking Districts 1,3,5,7,9, and 11 to bring empty tissue paper rolls and Districts 2,4,6,8,10, and 12 to bring new OR used tissue paper of any color. All Roundup attendees are invited to participate in building the flower packages from 10:30-11:30 and 2:30-3:30 in Reed Arena. Stay tuned for the exact location coming soon.

Lake Dunlap Catfish Habitat Project - April 29

This is an opportunity to involve Comal County 4-H to assist Texas Parks and Wildlife and GBRA on a collaborative project building and deploying some large catfish spawning boxes to add habitat to the reservoir before it fills. They need folks that can help build and deploy along the bank of Lake Dunlap prior to its filling. 

Please sign up at: Lake Dunlap Catfish Habitat Project

Uvalde Hearts Project, July 13 or 18

Food Bank Donation

 

Community Service Project

All pillowcases will be delivered to either New Life Children's Center or St. Jude's Ranch for Children. Please contact Halie Stidhem if you have questions at 210-414-7491

Link to video tutorial: Tutorial Link

Material and instructions are available in a tote at the Extension office front porch.

Comal County 4-H Food Drive

 

Community Service Projects

 

Comal County Range and Pasture Grass ID and Range Evaluation - Community Service

Members of the Comal County Range and Pasture Grass ID and Range Evaluation teams spent time cleaning up the grass beds at the extension office this week.  The beds are used for educational purposes and are open to anyone wanting to learn more about Texas grasses.

Pictured left to right: Sally Boatright, Kasen Kreusler, Ray Allen Schaefer, and Keene Kreusler. 

 

Operation Face Mask Update-Youth mask request

We wanted to provide a quick update to Operation Face Mask. As of this morning the donation of 4800 masks have been entered into the Google form statewide! THANK YOU to those who have been involved in this effort and all of your volunteers! This is truly an awesome accomplishment. We have also had a request for a youth size pattern, so that is attached below. 

Community Service Opportunity

Community Service Opportunity

If you are watching the news, and who hasn’t been, you are aware of a national shortage of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), including face masks. Join us in our effort to help supply face masks to Texas Oncology. Once you have completed your masks please deliver them to:

 

Texas Oncology-New Braunfels

1448 E. Common St.
New Braunfels, TX 78130

Please call or text Sue Bush before to coordinate delivery at 830-310-4492.

 

Link to a pattern: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RJg6st31LaXpkDspi52GCr797ga8LgTu/view

Community Service Opportunity

If you are watching the news, and who hasn’t been, you are aware of a national shortage of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), including face masks.  There have been many social media posts with patterns, instructions and videos on how to make face masks and some health care facilities are requesting them.  We have been asked by Extension leadership to lead an Extension response involving our volunteers - particularly TEEA members, 4-H members, 4-H Ambassadors, Healthy Texas Youth Ambassadors, Master Clothing Volunteers, and Master Wellness Volunteers.   
First, and most important, is to recognize that these face masks are in no way meant to replace N-95 respirators and other PPE.  We all recognize that fabric masks are no substitute!  These masks are meant to be used in situations that will free up N-95 respirators and other masks for higher priority uses.  The CDC guidelines on homemade masks state the following:

“(Health Care Professionals) HCP use of homemade masks:
In settings where facemasks are not available, HCP might use homemade masks (e.g., bandana, scarf) for care of patients with COVID-19 as a last resort. However, homemade masks are not considered PPE, since their capability to protect HCP is unknown. Caution should be exercised when considering this option. Homemade masks should ideally be used in combination with a face shield that covers the entire front (that extends to the chin or below) and sides of the face.”

Instructions:  Below you will find written instructions and pattern for making adult size face masks.  A video demonstration is available at https://youtu.be/VgHrnS6n4iA.  We ask that you use prewashed 100% cotton fabric (with or without a layer of fusible interfacing).  When possible, please use non-scented laundry detergent and no fabric softener when prewashing fabric. 

Distribution:  We have identified several options for distributing finished product.  Please use the following Google form when distributing completed masks https://forms.gle/UBp6LteJPRRyeQct9.

1. We have been contacted by Dr. Tom Fisher, an oncologist with Texas Oncology, who is willing to accept ALL masks that we can produce.  There are 2 options for getting completed masks to Texas Oncology.  
1. You can deliver the masks to one of their 210 Cancer Centers across the state.  To locate the nearest facility, go to https://www.texasoncology.com/cancer-centers-search-results, select the nearest city and hit Search.  Locations in that city will be provided.  Nurse Managers have been alerted that they may be contacted about delivering masks.  They can provide more specific instructions for delivery.
2. If there is no site within a reasonable distance or you have no way to deliver the masks directly to a Cancer Center, you can ship all of your completed masks to the following central location and Texas Oncology will distribute them statewide.  Ship using FedEx and bill the Texas Oncology Fed Ex account 634235159. 

Ship to:

Lance Ortego

Director of Nursing Services

Texas Oncology

10408 Barbuda Trail

Keller, TX 76244

OR

2. Check with your local health care facilities to see if they will accept homemade masks.  This could include hospitals, clinics, cancer centers, medical offices, long term care facilities, etc.   You may want to meet any local needs rather than participate in Dr. Fisher’s challenge.

OR

3. JoAnn Fabrics is serving as a drop off point for completed masks.  You can drop off completed items at your local store.

Below is an example of a mask we made here in the office.

2020 District 10 Council Community Service Project

Bulverde 4-H community service

Bulverde 4-H Club made 11 animal blankets and 20 dog toys that we donated to the Bulverde animal shelter. 

Submitted by Rania Stidhem