Laci Schilmiller, Floyd County
Grant Award: $615
Name of Project: Raise 4‑H Awareness

“Painting a mural on the side of our county 4‑H hall building will raise awareness of 4‑H in our community. We will paint with the help from our school system art teacher, Mrs. Mary Arnold.  She is guiding us on what type of paint to use and how to apply it properly so that it will last for decades. The side of the building faces the oncoming traffic of a main road, and everyone will see it every day.”

Gabi Boerner, Posey County
Grant Award: $1,000
Name of Project: Fashion Forward

“I would take six elementary school students in need of back-to-school clothes shopping with this grant. Every student would have a $150-200 budget so that they could get about a week’s worth of new school clothes, a jacket, socks, underwear, and a new pair of gym shoes. My mother, some peers, and I would take the students shopping to ensure that the students get clothes that fit and match their style.”

Anna Fritch, Morgan County
Grant Award: $1,000
Name of Project: Fire Safety

“Nearly 4,000 Americans die each year in house fires, and over 2,000 are severely injured. Our project is going to decrease this risk for residents of Morgan County. With the help of this grant, the 4‑H Junior Leaders are proposing to buy smoke detectors to increase this county’s safety from home fires. The bulk of the grant is for purchasing smoke detectors to give away at our county fair. We plan to buy them at $8 a piece at Walmart. We will be distributing them with the help of the Morgan County Farm Bureau, who is the sponsor of the day for the county fair on July 6th. We will spend 3-4 hours at the sponsor of the day gazebo where we will have a display and hand out smoke detectors to the public. We may also hand them out at the 4‑H Junior Leaders food stand. By doing this we will be helping to protect lives in our community.”

Lilyan Kreischer, DeKalb County
Grant Award: $1,000
Name of Project: DeKalb County 4‑H Junior Leaders

“With this YES Grant, our club will gift bookbags and school supplies to impoverished students within the DeKalb County Community. Each bookbag will include two folders, a notebook, pencils, pens, highlighters, glue sticks, colored pencils, crayons, scissors, and pink erasers. Every bookbag will include a flier explaining what 4‑H is and its impact on our community. This flier will encourage these families to get their students involved in 4‑H. We will find students who need a bookbag in several ways. We will gather the names of individuals in need from local churches. We will also send advertisements to the local schools to post on their social media so families in need can contact us if they need a bookbag for their students. Members will be responsible for buying supplies, packaging bookbags, and dropping them off to families in need. This project will benefit children in grades K-12 who cannot afford bookbags and school supplies necessary for their education.”

Payton Dalton, Lawrence County
Grant Award: $1,000
Name of Project: Lawrence County 4‑H Horse and Pony Club

“Our project would be a service project to our community. We would like to coordinate with our local Cancer Treatment facility to come up with a care type bag filled with usable items for their current cancer patients. We would like to start with a goal of 20 care bags and hope that we possibly might be able to do more. However, more than these 20 patients will be affected. We will be working with their nurses, office staff and families to make our bags patient specific. So those having any part in this process will also be helping in our project. Our goals for the community would be to recognize that the members of our club take pride in 4‑H and the values that it supports.”

Liza Browning, Johnson County
Grant Award: $1,000
Name of Project: Help 4 Hygiene

“This project is going to consist of hygiene packs for four different community outreaches. These non-profit organizations are as follows: Johnson County Senior Services (services given to the elderly in our community), Clarity Pregnancy Services (helping new mothers in our community), Tara Treatment Center (organization dedicated to the rehabilitation of people addicted to drugs and/or alcohol) and Franklin Ivy Tech Food Bank (organization that provides food for college students). Our goal is to create approximately 80 hygiene bags and send 20 of them to each of the four organizations. Extra items will be donated or made into additional bags. The 4‑H members of the club will be putting the bags together and writing encouraging letters to put in each bag.”

Sebastian Rzadkosz, Lake County
Grant Award: $503
Name of Project: Garden Beds for Seniors

“Our project aims to give seniors an opportunity to be outdoors and grow fresh food. Our project would provide a garden bed for the seniors at the nursing home. With a garden bed, they can grow fresh vegetables to eat, be outside, and have fun. In the future, we can expand to other nursing homes across the county.”

Adelyn Moore, Putnam County
Grant Award: $1,000
Name of Project: Putnam 4‑H Junior Leaders/Putnam Giving Tree Partnership

“The Giving Tree is a heartwarming program that has been a beacon of hope for families in Putnam County during the holiday season. Our mission is to help this organization ensure that every child in our community, from birth through high school graduation, experiences the joy of Christmas. We work to use Junior Leader funds to partner with this organization and have historically contributed about $250. There are rarely enough funds to provide for all of the needs. One of the unique aspects of The Giving Tree is our focus on providing gifts that go beyond the traditional toys and games. We recognize that many families in our community have practical needs that can be difficult to meet during the holiday season, so we strive to provide a mix of both fun and practical gifts. This might include clothing, shoes, or even household items such as bedding or room decor that can make a real difference in a family’s life. In addition to providing gifts, we also try to supply each family with a food basket or a grocery store gift card. This ensures that families have access to nutritious meals during the holiday season.”

Scout Marsolf, Parke County
Grant Award: $1,000
Name of Project: Learning to speak dog

“Last year the 4‑H club completed a YES grant project that allowed members to make snuffle mats for their own dogs. They also met monthly and made 62 mats that were donated to a local shelter and rescue to bring awareness about the importance of dog behavior and enrichment. To expand upon their project this year, members are looking to complete community service projects where individuals come to an enrichment and behavioral class, listen to a guest speaker, and the members teach them how to make their own mats for their own dogs. 4‑H outreach would include working with the new members at their first club meeting on enrichment and making mats; setting up mini 4‑H where young members would participate in PORTYL and create an enrichment puzzle that uses dog treats and paper towel holders, and finally, offer an option for other counties to come to one or two sessions and participate in PORTYL, learning how dogs learn, and creating their own snuffle mats that they would take home with them.”

Charlie English, Vanderburgh County
Grant Award: $1,000
Name of Project: Backpacks to School

“I plan for the members of the Junior Leader organization to help prepare backpacks for the youth at the Boys and Girls Club of Evansville. The backpacks will be filled in late summer so they are ready for back to school. This will give them a backpack filled with the basic tools they need. I will ask the Junior Leaders, the Armstrong Hi-Lighters 4‑H Club, and the Star 4‑H Club to make encouraging notes for back to school.”

Anna East, Owen County
Grant Award: $1,000
Name of Project: Owen County Pathfinders 4‑H Club

“We would love to offer the independently-living seniors in our community an opportunity to be outside, enjoying natural beauty. We want to connect with them individually through socializing and cards. We recognize that these elderly folks spend much of their time inside away from people. So, we want to give them opportunities to do both, by equipping them with a garden of their own and spending time with them during the process, building relationships with them. After we beautify the residents’ homes, we will leave age-appropriate tools for them to continue with minimal maintenance on their own, and we plan to reconnect with them later on to help with the up-keep of the plants and previously formed relationships. We are hoping to leave these residents with a positive experience both from our visit and the summer-long garden. In these ways, we want to remind them that they are not forgotten, even when they feel lonely.”

Blake Youngclaus, Hancock County
Grant Award: $1,000
Name of Project: School Supply Drive

“I am wanting to host a school supply drive to help gather backpacks and other supplies that students need to be successful in the classroom. Backpacks and supplies would go to all schools in the county.”