With the new year begun, the Looma Lights Club has been planning their hearts out. And plans are meant for action so please read on to find out what we've been up to.

Our Club consists of 16 members from nine to 19 years of age. We meet and ride just 10 minuites east of Beaumont at the Good News Riding Centre Ltd. Every month we have at least one meeting and one fun activity.

On Oct. 22, we had our identification (ID) day and then later on we had our second meeting of the year for our annual elections. During our ID day, we , as members learned how to measure our horse's height, weight, temperaturer and pulse so that we can track our horse's health throughout the winter.

This fall we had lots of activities like our club sleepover, the Cooking Lake Saddle Club Show, a clinic hosted by Paul Dufresne, highway clean p, attending the Canadian Finals Rodeo, a gymkhana fun show, a clinic with Gaile Tory, and our Christmas potluck/party/Secret Santa gift exchange as well as a public speaking workshop.

Just two weeks ago, our members completed the scariest activity you can imagine -- participating in our club's public speaking competition. Our winners and first runners-up were junior; Jessi Mast and Alexa Adams, intermediate; Taylor Robertson and Trish Hiley; and senior; Kristin Warren and Lorely Will.

Thanks to the nine judges who donated their time and talents to our club; Ben Poltorak, Nathan Eshpeter, Alison Gabert, Val McGillivary, Robert Manolson, Marian Perrin, Eiry Spence, Lois Watson, Grant Williams.

We would like to thank the kind folks who take care of Looma Hall, as that's where we hold our monthly meetings.

This year the club's major fundraiser will again be our silent auction, dinner and dance March 17 at Looma Hall. We will be selling tickets Feb 24 at the Sherwood Park Wal Mart. With last year's funds, we went on a trail ride to Fort Assiniboine and hosted a clinic on horse courage and building a relationship with your horse, free of charge! The trail ride was an entire weekend, about an hour northwest of Edmonton in beautiful, hilly country.

Stay tuned; there is more to come for the rest of the year. For example, we'er preparing for Focus on 4H at Northlands. Last year we did a square dance on horseback as our musical ride. Our club had loads of fun preparing and acting out the lip-sync song which was We go Together from the movie Grease. Everyone enjoyed participating in and watching the performance.

If you would like to check out our club please call our general leader, Loretta at (780) 464-0447.

To find out more about the Alberta 4H program, please visit the 4H Web Site at www.4h.ab.ca