Brooke 4-H program active online, in community

WELLSBURG -- As for most clubs, the past year has been an unusual one for chapters in the Brooke County 4-H program, but they have been keeping busy with online activities and community service projects.

Jason Rine, Brooke County agent for the West Virginia University Extension Service -- which sponsors the clubs -- said since returning to school, chapters at Brooke County Middle School and the school district's Alternative Learning Center have engaged in hands-on projects.

They included the installation of a Blessing Box outside the Brooke County Public Library in cooperation with the Brooke-Hancock Family Resource Network.

Rita Hawkins, program director for the community agency, said residents are invited to leave canned goods and other nonperishable food and personal hygiene products, such as toothpaste and shampoo, in the box for those in need.

Hawkins said materials for the box's construction were covered by a grant from Southwestern Energy.

She also expressed thanks to library officials for allowing the box to be placed there.

Hawkins noted the library has established its own Little Free Library, a similar box near its front entrance.

Unlike the Blessing Box, it offers free books for anyone. Its users are encouraged to replace the books they take with others so it will be full of reading entertainment for everyone.

Rine said the Blessing Box was stained and mounted by members of the Alternative Learning Center's 4-H Club.

Rine added the Brooke Middle School 4-H chapter have stained picnic tables for a garden they have planted outside the school and slated to receive gardening tips from one of the extension service's master gardeners.

He said with the exception of the Buffalo Clovers chapter, which meets at Brooke Hills Park, the Brooke County 4-H clubs haven't been able to meet in person much in recent months because of the pandemic. But Rine noted the extension service has employed the Internet to bring 4-H clubs together and inspire them to pursue a variety of activities.

He said clubs West Virginia's northernmost region have been invited "to take the No Pan Challenge," which he explained makes reference to an old 4-H nickname for the state's Northern Panhandle.