Hello everyone, I hope you have enjoyed our beautiful weather. It’s almost Fair time, so we know the summer heat is on its way. It seems our hard-working FFA, 4-H and Grange kids are always caught in one of the hottest weeks of summer at our Stanislaus County Fair! It’s amazing to see the hard work and the effort that these kids put into their project animals. For most, their animals are purchased months before the fair. Since that time, they have been up early to feed and work each day with their animals. The kids spend countless hours walking, grooming, and calming their animals to show well in the show ring. For some, their animals will respond to daily walks and become calm and manageable. For others, their animals may be a bit more stubborn, even with hard work and putting lots of hours in sometimes the animal will just refuse to be calm. Our FFA, 4-H, and Grange kids feed their animals the very best feed they can get. Of course there is added costs of nutrients, shavings, and other items associated with raising a healthy fair project animal. The kids are writing their letters to potential buyers asking for support. Please if any of you would consider supporting one of our hard-working young people, please let me know. Our group leaders would be so happy to make that happen. There are lots of ways you can help a young person with a fair project. One way is to support by purchasing their animal outright on auction day, Saturday, July 19. But there are many other ways of helping these fine young people. If your pocketbook allows, a nice donation towards the cost of an animal is always greatly appreciated. However, if your pocketbook tells you that it’s not the right time, then maybe a smaller donation of any amount to a hard-working young person. I know they would appreciate it very, very much. Your support will make a huge difference in whether these young people will just break even, or maybe see a bit of a profit. Most of our young people either save any profit made for college or use it for back-to-school supplies. Please let me know if you are able to support in any way and I will put you in touch with one of our very dedicated leaders. Our leaders give up countless hours to help our kids.

We are excited for the many projects that our 4-H, FFA, and Grange kids enter in the fair. Some will enter vegetables, some will enter sewing projects, some enter crafts projects in the fair. These kids are awesome. We know that our Oakdale FFA is entering projects that our young people have spent many, many hours working on. Let’s all try to support our kids in whatever way we can! A huge “Thank You” to our 4-H Leaders, our FFA Teachers and our Grange Leaders.

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Please remember and attend if possible:

Valley Home MAC Meeting, Wednesday, July 9 at 6:30pm at the Park.

Fire Board Meeting, Thursday, July10 at 10am, Knights Ferry Community Hall.

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As always, you may reach me by e-mail at winniemullins51@gmail.com or by text or telephone at 209-985-5233. Until next time, “Happy Trails to All!”