MONTHLY NARRATIVES
(Program Highlights)

RICHLAND COUNTY

CROPPING SYSTEMS
Dale L. Siebert

4-H ACHIEVEMENT DAYS
The annual Richland County 4-H Achievement Days were held in Hankinson on July 16-17. Static exhibits were shown and judged on July 16 in the gymnasium of the convent located there. Livestock exhibits were shown on the convent grounds with the horse show located at the Huufda Hotel 3 miles east of Hankinson. A considerable amount of preparation goes into Achievement Days in making preparations and locating judges for the different categories. A total of 628 exhibits were shown this year. The Hankinson location works well for Achievement Days and since this was our second year at that location everything went smoothly. I also judged the horticulture exhibits that were shown on July 16. Achievement Days are the culmination of the year�s work for 4-H�ers and a chance to show and tell the judges what they did and learned this past year.

MARKETING CLUB
The Mooreton Marketing Club continues to meet. On July 1 a joint meeting was held with the Kent, MN group at the NDSCS Tech Center. Progressive Ag from Fargo updated us with the recently released crop report on planted acres and the effect on the market at that meeting. The group met again on July 21. Continued price declines and excellent crop outlook were on the minds of producers at this session as strategies were discussed for pricing the remainder of the 2004 crop.

RICHLAND COUNTY CORN GROWERS
The directors of the Richland County Corn Growers met on July 8 to plan their annual Field Day . The Plot Tour is planned for September 7 at the plots near Mooreton. The plots are in excellent shape this year and the Corn Growers are anxious to view the results.

MISCELLANEOUS
Crop and horticulture questions continue to come in during July as cool weather continued to delay crop development. Many of the questions can be answered immediately while others require a site visit to determine the cause of the problem. I also took some time off during July to have arthroscopic surgery on my shoulder which limited my activity for a time.

FAMILY AND CONSUMER SCIENCE/4-H
Colleen M. Svingen

ACHIEVEMENT DAYS
We had another successful county Achievement Days in Hankinson due to the cooperation of our hosts, the Sisters of St. Francis, a large number of volunteers and a great bunch of 4-H�ers, leaders and parental support.

Please enjoy the pictures that truly are worth a thousand words.

NELD
I was also able to enjoy the third in the series of the National Leadership Training. Each session has seemed more of a privilege than the prior session. These workshops are very thought out educational leadership experiences that push us to expand our thought processes and question our existing patterns of conducting our work. We wrap-up our last session in Washington D.C. in November.

PARENTING LINKS
It was fun to see the 21^st Century Afer School Librarians reconvey and continue to fine tune their track on the Parenting Links Web Page. They are receiving good feedback from their work and really enjoy getting together developing a great product. I encourage all of you to get involved in the community reads and join us for the online community book club this fall as we kick off the school term.

FNP
Pamela Leino-Mills

SCREENING
Early in the month I was invited to a meeting headed by Muriel Hedrick, the Community Resource Coordinator to help plan a screening for employees of the Dakota Magic Casino. The event was held on July 20^th . It was successful for the programs represented and well received by the casino employees and management. My display was well attended, and brought to 65 people awareness of the services offered by FNP in Richland County. The feedback we received from casino personnel indicates that future events like ours would likely be even more well attended.

AGING COALITION
I participated in the quarterly Aging Coalition meeting this month. The professionals who participate in this organization are perceptive, caring people who facilitate service to the elderly in our community - helping to keep many from falling through the inevitable cracks.

HOME VISITS AND CLASSES
To help several individuals improve their food choices and stretch their food money, I made five home visits and held three classes in homes. I held one class at the grocery store. I also conducted 5 short classes to EBT customers.

21^st CENTURY COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTERS
Adrian Biewer

NEW GRANT
The Afterschool Program is pleased to announce that on August 1 we were the recipient of a state 21^st Century Grant of $215,000. This grant will allow us to fund our program with only minor changes. We will maintain the elementary and high school programs for the school year. However, summer programs will be limited. Adult education programming will be conducted as sustainability allows.

We have initiated a fee schedule for programming this year. While grants and donations have funded a large portion of our program, we are still faced with some short falls. Some grants require nonfederal funds to match what they have awarded to our program. Programming fees of $20/month per student with a $30 cap per family will generate enough income to meet matching requirements and make our budget at this time.

With the August notice of the grant award, we are slightly behind in distributing registrations and other information. Registrations have been sent to parents who have enrolled their children in the past. Other families will receive their registration forms the first week of school. Programming will start on August 30.