Free bus transportation to Minot will be available at 7 a.m. that day from four sites: Bismarck, Carrington, Devils Lake and Williston. The buses will return about 7:30 p.m. the same day.

 To learn more about 4-H Helping Hands Day, register and select the project you’d like to work on, visit www.ndsu.edu/4h/. The registration deadline is Oct. 7.

Projects for the volunteers include cleaning up the state fairgrounds, setting up the Coats for Kids program at the Salvation Army, stocking and running the Our Lady of Grace Food Pantry, and preparing and serving a meal at First Lutheran Church. The projects can use the skills of 8-year-olds to adults.

Project sites and buses will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.

Those who can’t go to Minot can be distance volunteers. For example, youth could volunteer to baby-sit for an evening and donate the money they earn to the flood cleanup effort. Or you could collect coats to the Coats for Kids program in Minot; collect pet food, toys, blankets and other items for the animal shelter; or arrange with a local eatery for a certain amount of money to go to charity for every pizza sold. Check the website at www.ndsu.edu/4h/ for more ideas on how to be a distance volunteer.

“The Morton County 4-H Council already has donated $100 to the cause and extended the challenge to other 4-H councils across the state to match their donation,” says Katie Tyler, the North Dakota State University Extension Service’s 4-H youth development specialist at the North Central Research Extension Center near Minot. “Encourage your 4-H councils to meet the challenge extended by Morton County 4-H.”

For more information about 4-H Helping Hands Day and how you can donate, contact Tyler at (701) 857-7682 or katherine.tyler@ndsu.edu.