Alpaca With An Agenda

We meet monthly from March - December. The children are assigned one of our alpacas at the April meeting. The great thing is with our club is that they do not have to own their own animal. They arrive 1/2 hour before the meetings to work with their alpaca to teach them the obstacle course. Everyone is given a project notebook to keep record of club activities, training records and of course informational pages to fill out about alpacas in general and information about the alpaca they are training.

Meetings are conducted by the officers after the practice session. There is always an educational subject taught after the business meeting followed by a light snack. Some of those subjects consist of teaching them about alpacas, learning body parts, how to read a registration, etc... The members especially enjoy when the veterinarian pays a visit and ultrasounds the "moms-to-be". They enjoy seeing the different stages from just a heart beat on some to actually seeing a rib cage or head on others. We have a nature walk in September which puts the alpacas to the real test. The children lead their alpacas through the woods, over a wood bridge and many other natural obstacles. Each year a fiber project is taught such as wet or needle felting, dying roving and yarn as well as weaving. Some members enter their fiber projects in area fairs.

The club has its annual 4-H Round Up Show at the farm in August followed by a picnic for the members and their families. Everyone looks forward to that! In October we participate in the Manheim Farm Show where they have an obstacle class for our club. During the year we do have some of the members help us out at nursing homes, church events, fairs, etc... as well as Eastland Alpacas Annual Fall Open House in November where they do obstacle course demos as well as helping hand out feed or alpacas to lead, answering questions or even just watching gates!

In December we have our End of Year Party! This is for the members and their families as well. Project Books are judged and awards given that night. The evening is enjoyed by all - everyone from members to parents.

It is amazing the friendships that have been made in the club. Our goal is to have the children learn about these amazing animals, getting to work with animals, make new friends and above all - have fun! We are very fortunate to have this opportunity to have the club and share our love for alpacas!