Woodridge 4-H Club Elects Officers for First Time

The Woodridge Voyagers 4-H club has elected its 2011-2012 officers. 

Claire Creedon, a third-grader from , was elected president.  Vanessa Lopez, a third-grader from Meadowview, was elected vice president.

Cady Murphy, a fourth-grader from Meadowview, was elected treasurer; Kaela McPheters, a fourth-grader from Meadowview, was elected reporter and Emily Littlefield, a third-grader from Glendale Heights, was elected recreation leader.

You can read their officer responsibilities here. 

It was the first time the club, which started in 2010, elected officers. Brian Murphy and his wife, Angel, after they and their two children spotted the 4-H displays at the 2010 DuPage County Fair. Angel is a 4-H alumna who participated as a student in Ohio.

“We hadn’t seen 4-H in Illinois,” Brian Murphy said. “We saw the opportunity to participate.”

When the family heard there was no club in Woodridge, they decided to start their own. 

Six million kids ages 5 to 18 participate in 4-H nationally, both in completing projects and in 4-H's leadership, in-school and other programs.

Just 300 of those students are involved in DuPage County's 22 4-H community clubs.

4-H community clubs meet throughout the year as students research and complete projects in more than 150 categories, from aerospace to child development to music and animals. You can show off a garment you sewed, a study on water quality or a pie you baked. 

These projects are presented and judged at the county fair. Some projects are selected to go to the state fair. 

4-H's curriculum focuses on three main missions: engineering, science and technology; healthy living and citizenship. 

At this summer's DuPage County Fair, now-treasurer  in Textiles I for her sewing project, a tote bag with pockets. 

Her project would have gone to the state fair, but you have to be 10 to qualify, and Cady was just 8 at the time. 

The Woodridge Voyagers club has grown from seven to 13 kids in the past few months. At its start, the seven children came from just four families, and all of them attended Meadowview. Although 4-H includes students from kindergarten to their senior year of high school, the Woodridge Voyagers started with a young group of students ages 5 to 9. 

“We started off with the idea that we would start small and see how it went,” Murphy said. “It’s new to all of us.”

McPheters, who was elected reporter, said the kids run the club, though their parents attend meetings, as well.

For the election, each candidate made a poster to describe why he or she was a right for the job. Some positions were more hotly contested than others, she said. She's happy she was elected reporter, since she likes to write. The reporter's job is like the PR chair for the club. 

Now the club is deciding what they want to do for the county fair and planning an event. 

"We're thinking of some activities or things we want to do," McPheters said, "like a service project so we can raise some money or do something fun like have a party." 

McPheters said she decided to join 4-H because her mom gave her the option of Girl Scouts or 4-H. She wanted to try something she hadn't heard of before, she said. 

The Woodridge Voyagers club is looking for new members. Anyone interested can attend the club’s meetings on the third Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. at the 

You can also e-mail voyagers4h@yahoo.com.