More than 75 4-H club members and volunteers participated in the annual 4-H Food & Fitness Camp held Feb. 23 & 24 at Camp Grant Walker. The theme for the camp was “Birthday Bash of the Century,” and camp participants were treated to hands-on educational experiences focused on the 100th birthday of 4-H, reports Lois Brister, Rapides Parish 4-H agent. The purpose of the annual camp is to help children learn basic nutrition, simple food preparation techniques and fun fitness activities they can do alone or with friends. The lessons are created and conducted by members of the State 4-H Food & Fitness Board. These teens work all year to develop educational activities that reinforce the nutrition and fitness lessons the children learn in school and in the 4-H club program. In addition, two collegiate 4-H’ers, four adult volunteers and three board advisors guide the teens in developing all aspects of this camp.
This year, the camp participants attended food preparation sessions where they made homemade ice cream, black bean salsa, chicken tortillas, fruit pizzas and no-bake peanut butter cookies. In the fitness session, 4-H’ers played salamander soccer, learned to dance the hustle, played games with hula hoops and beach balls, and learned to rope a bull. They also “dodged the paparazzi” and enjoyed taking a swing at the 4-H clover piñatas.
Additional educational sessions included table etiquette/manners, a visit to mypyramid.gov in the computer lab and fun carnival games related to healthy lifestyles. 4-H’ers made and decorated party hats to honor the 100th birthday of 4-H.
In the service-learning component of the Food & Fitness camp, 4-H’ers watched a video about childhood cancers. They also collected pull tabs from soft drink cans to help raise money for cancer treatment. Camp participants were asked to bring donations for cancer patients and responded by collecting more than eight boxes of fun games, supplies, hats and journals for hospitalized children. They also created “Cards of Cheer,” and the 4-H Food & Fitness Board will deliver the cards to hospitalized cancer patients across Louisiana as well as at St. Jude’s in Memphis.
According to Eve Franchebois, 4-H Food & Fitness Board president, some of the comments made during the evaluation of the camp include: “everyone was so friendly and helpful”, “the games were cool”, and “I loved everything!” A complaint that was echoed was that the camp wasn’t long enough -- a pretty good indicator of the success of the camp. For more information contact the 4-H Food & Fitness Board Advisors: Lois Brister, Rapides Parish; Ada Palermo, Concordia Parish; and Denise Holston, State 4-H Office.