From WOOD COUNTY 4-H
Wood County 4-H will bring its pledge of “hands to larger service” to life on Sunday, April 19, from 1–4 p.m. during a county-wide community service event at the Wood County Fairgrounds, 13800 W. Poe Road, Bowling Green.
From building beds and packaging meals to making pet treats and stuffing pillows for hospice patients, hundreds of 4-H members, families, and the public will work side-by-side on projects that directly support local organizations.
The 2nd annual Hands to Larger Service is hosted by Wood County 4-H and the Wood County Clover Legacy Foundation. The success of the inaugural event in 2025 convinced the organizers it was a project worth repeating.
The event was recently awarded a 2026 Ohio 4‑H Community Service Award, which recognizes exceptional service at the local level.
Participants will come together on April 19 with the shared purpose to support the work of a variety of local organizations:
- Assembling buckeye keychains for the 4-H Camp Palmer camp store
- Making jump ropes for Bags of Love
- Creating greeting cards for military veterans for Flag City Honor Flight
- Packaging 20,000 meals(doubling last year) to be delivered locally, nationally, and globally for Kids Coalition Against Hunger. The work will be completed in two one-hour shifts and require registration in advance of April 19
- Preparing headboards and rails for 50 twin beds (20 more than last year) for future assembly in family homes for Let’s Build Beds. Advanced signup is also required to help build beds
- Stuffing and sewing small pillows for local patients at Hospice of Northwest Ohio and Bridge Hospice
- Creating notes, coloring pictures, and crafting bookmarks for area cancer patients for The Victory Center and The Maurer Cancer Center at Wood County Hospital
- Hand tying fleece blankets in conjunction with the Traumatic Brain Injury Resource Center
- Completing improvement projects for the Wood County Agricultural Society
- Assembling dog treats and toys for the Wood County Dog Shelter and Wood County Humane Society
- Planting and decorating flowerpots for area nursing homes and senior citizen centers with support by the Wood Soil and Water Conservation District
- Crafting items to be distributed through the Wood County Wheeled Meals program in collaboration with the Wood County Committee on Aging.
As an initiative to show the community one of the many facets of 4-H and community service, the day will be an open house format for volunteers from across the county to come anytime in the afternoon and stay as long as they would like.
The goal of the event is to provide an impactful, hands-on experience for local 4-H members, their families and other volunteers to give of their time and talents, learn more about local organizations that support our communities, and provide the necessary “sweat equity” to give back in a big way.
Two of the projects—Let’s Build Beds and Kids Coalition Against Hunger—require specific time commitments and volunteer sign-ups prior to the event. Fifty volunteers, from 4-H clubs and the community, are needed for Let’s Build Beds, and 200 volunteers are needed for Kids Coalition Against Hunger.
Volunteers can sign up for these opportunities and learn more about the event and its beginnings at www.cloverlegacy.org/serviceday.
