Carlton County 4-H
December 2025 Newsletter
The 4-H Building Leadership and Understanding (BLU) regional leadership workshop is an exciting and fun leadership adventure that brings together youth from across Minnesota. Hosted by the Minnesota 4-H State Ambassadors, each retreat uses a youth-teaching-youth model to teach a leadership topic, participate in team-building activities, and meet other youth from their region.
This year’s theme is “Bloom into Leadership!” Youth will build important leadership skills at BLU by learning about communication and conflict. They’ll explore different ways people communicate, take a fun self-assessment to understand how they handle conflict and discover tools to help them work better with others.
Youth will also participate in an impactful service session centered on this year’s statewide service project theme Disaster Relief and Emergency Response, where participants will step into action through hands-on activities, meaningful service projects and collection drives that make a real difference across communities in Minnesota.
BLU will be hosted in five different locations! Four overnight and one, one-day experiences:
Jan. 31-Feb. 1 - Long Lake Conservation Center in Palisade
Feb. 7-8 - Camp Victory in Zumbro Falls
Feb. 7-8 - Concordia Language Villages in Bemidji
Feb. 21-22 - Camp Friendship in Annandale
Feb. 28 - Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall
To learn more about BLU and register visit z.umn.edu/4-HBLU.
Deadline to register is January 9th
** Please Contact Katie about scholarships **
NE 4-H Cloverbud Club and Clover Plus –Build a LEGO Cable Car
-The Northeast 4-H Cloverbud Club and Clover Plus invites youth in grades K-6 to join us for our next meeting on Saturday, December 13, from 10–11:30 a.m. This month’s hands-on STEM adventure will challenge young builders to design, create, and test a LEGO cable car!
Through this fun activity, youth will explore basic engineering and problem-solving skills as they work together to see how their cable cars can travel from one end of the line to the other. The Cloverbud program is designed especially for our youngest 4-H members, providing opportunities to learn by doing in a supportive, age-appropriate setting.
Come ready to build, experiment, and have fun with other curious creators!
🎄 Help Make the Holidays Brighter! 🎁
The holidays can be a difficult time for many families. Join Carlton County 4-H in giving back by donating to our Holiday Food Drive this November and December!
Drop-off Location: Carlton County Extension Office
Hours: Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Please donate non-perishable food items only.
All donations will go to local people in need — let’s work together to spread kindness and make sure every table is full this holiday season!
Get ready to explore the wild side of Minnesota—right from home! Discover amazing amphibians and reptiles, learn how they survive in our lakes, forests, and wetlands, and find out why they’re so important to nature. We’ll also share simple, fun ways to help protect these incredible creatures and their habitats. This exciting program is full of learning and discovery, designed to spark curiosity and a love of wildlife.Dates are December 4,18; January 8,15,and 22. Time is 7pm - 8pm in the comfort of your own home. For grades K-13. registration is through 4-H Online.
Amazing amphibians and roaming reptiles: Discover Minnesota's wild side | UMN Extension
All Butter Braids will be available for pick up on Saturday, December 13th at the Carlton County Extension Office. Pick-up time is TBD. Times will be communicated via email and Facebook once we have that information. Families must come to pick up their orders that day. Distributing pre-ordered Butter Braids are each members responsibility.
Do you have 4-H youth leaders who enjoy leading younger members or creating a fun virtual environment? We could use their teen superpowers to help build the Green Superheroes of Science (GSOS) program, where younger youth “show and tell” what they explored, tested, and discovered during weekly STEM experiments connected to polymer science. Youth will mix up moon dough (a cool bio-plastic), dive into green chemistry and fizzy foam fun, become a material engineer, solve a plastic litter mystery, create an art sculpture, and more!
Teens in grades 6+ (or very mature 5th graders) are invited to be a teen superhero and help lead large and small group activities during the LIVE Zoom GSOS gatherings on Jan. 22, Jan. 29, Feb. 5 and Feb. 12.
Teens are asked to join weekly 30 minute virtual prep meetings and a 1-hour training session in December or early January (date TBD by the group). Please share this opportunity! Interested teen leaders can apply by completing this form.
Application deadline: Jan. 5.
This on-going plat book fundraiser for the Carlton County 4-H Federation benefits the local 4-H kids. These include not only land descriptions but aerial photos as well. These plat books make a great Christmas gift! Please stop in the office to pick one up today. Cost is $40 cash or check made out to Carlton County 4-H Federation.
You can donate gently used children's books during office hours or put them directly in the "Little Library" in front of the office.
The Carlton County Extension Office will be closed on Wednesday, December 24th through Friday, December 26th, 2025 in observance of Christmas and Wednesday, December 31st, 2025 through Friday, January 2nd, 2026 in observance of the New Year. Please note that staff may be taking vacation around the holidays on top of the office closures. Please call ahead if you plan to stop by the office to ensure someone will be here to help you.
If you need assistance during the office closures, staff can be reached by email or by leaving us a voicemail. We will get back to you as soon as we are able.
Contact
4-H Youth Development: Katie Diggs, silta006@umn.edu
General Information: Mandi Haglund, haglu119@umn.eduEmail: mnext-Carlton@umn.edu
Website: extension.umn.edu
Location: 317 Chestnut Avenue, Carlton, MN, USA
Phone: 218-384-3511
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarltonCounty4H