Hello from Manhattan!  Kansas State Collegiate 4-Hers are starting off the year running.  We are involved in many activities, such as helping with county Officers Training.  We are also getting ready for Regional Conference and very excited to place our bid to host it in 2005. A change we have made this semester is we plan to have two meetings a month, one business meeting and one for training or just having fun.  We have changed our meeting date from the third Monday to the second and fourth Monday.  If you know anyone who is in Manhattan, please let them know about us and we would love to have them join us.  We would still like to become more involved and are excited about our expanding club.  If you would like more information or want us to be involved in an activity, please let us know.   

Cookbooks Available
We still have cookbooks available if anyone missed us at the State Fair.  They are packed full with over 180 wonderful county fair winning recipes.  The cookbook also has an inspirational poem about what kids really gain from being a 4-Her.  The cookbooks are now selling for $5 a piece, so please contact us to place your orders.   

Regional Conference 2004 in Nebraska
Collegiate 4-H members are looking forward to our trip to Nebraska   October 22-24 for Regional Conference.  We are excited to put in our bid to host conference in Manhattan in 2005 on October 14-16.  We have been busy planning activities for the three day event and have a tentative schedule for our Purple Paradise Regional Conference.  We plan on staying at the Ramada Inn since it is centrally located and close to campus.  We are optimistic about winning the bid in October so we can get people from all over the mid-west to come to K-State.  We are still busy thinking of new ideas for activities and fundraising, so if you have any ideas we would appreciate them.  We will have more information about next year’s conference after this year’s in Nebraska.

4-H Day with the Royals
The Kansas City Royals are sharing their October 3 game with 4-Hers and we are planning on attending.  We are thrilled to join other collegiate 4-Hers from Missouri, Nebraska, and Iowa at the game.  Missouri has been planning the event which includes a parade, tailgate, and a 4-Her throwing the first pitch.

Officer’s Training
We are again excited to offer officers training in counties throughout Kansas this year.  We have already been scheduled for five counties and enthusiastic about adding more training events to our calendar.  We have a lot of new fun ideas this year and can’t wait to build leadership and teamwork within the officers.

Pop Tab Collection
Our club has been collecting pop tabs for the last year for the Ronald McDonald House.  We are planning to stop on our trip to the Royals game at the Topeka Ronald McDonald House to donate the pop-tabs.  They have been collecting them for 15 years and have generated over $300,000.  We will still continue to collect them, so if anyone would like to help, feel free to contact us for more information.

Community Service
We are again going to continue helping with community service projects.  This year we decided to continue helping with Second Helping in Manhattan which provides a hot meal for the less fortunate in town.  We also helped with demonstrations at the State Fair.  We enjoyed watching the 4-Hers some of us had judged at club days.  We also had our Collegiate 4-H booth there with our newly finished Historians book which will be entered for competition at National Convention.  Please remember us when you plan your 4-H events, we would love to help!

Agents, please pass this letter along to your 4-H council and clubs.  We are looking for input on these items and any other areas that you would like us to help within your county.  For more information on any of our projects please contact us!  We plan to continue sending them out bi-monthly.