4-H’ers Jam-Packed November!
Written by Dustin C, Prairie Winds 4-H Club
In November, the members of the Prairie Winds 4-H Club attended two events: a glass blowing experience at a local workshop and a budgeting workshop sponsored by an oil company.
For the glass blowing workshop, members made either a Christmas ornament or a paperweight. The process of making ornaments involved many steps. You start by dipping a hollow metal tube into molten glass from a kiln. Next, you dab your molten glass in your chosen colour of coloured glass shards and reheat the glass in a furnace. Once the colour is almost melted, you get a large pair of special tweezers and pinch the end of the glass and tuck it onto itself to mix in the colour. Then you blow air through the hollow metal tube, so your breath heats up and expands the glass while you pinch the top of the glass. After that, you clip off the top and create a hook for the ornament. The ornament then goes into a freezer to cool.
Later in the month, the 4-H members were visited by a presenter from Frogskin U, a non-profit organization devoted to educating youth about debt, credit scams and much more. We learned things such as how to recognize scams like pyramid schemes, how to invest in stocks and the law of diminishing returns. Each time members commented or asked questions they got fake money and at the end of the workshop, you could exchange the “money” for candy or spins on a jackpot wheel to win toys.
Whether budgeting for their Christmas list or adding ornaments to the tree, this was a very educational November for the members of Prairie Winds 4-H Club.
