“True leaders aren't born, they're grown.” Get growing ideas as the Land Grant University/Cooperative Extension System that submits the winning proposal for 2016 4-H National Youth Science Day (NYSD) will receive a $50,000 award.

By empowering the next generation to lead, 4-H took root, and grew… Grew kids who are confident and strong… Who are curious enough to question, and capable enough to find the answer… Who stick to the job, until the job gets done… Who know how to work with others, and how to lead…

This year’s 4-H NYSD will focus on an engineering design challenge to engage youth to find a solution for a real world issue within the topic area of drones.

Download a Request for Proposals (RFP); e-mail your intent to apply to 4HNYSD@4-H.org by Jan. 8, 2016. Full final applications are due Friday, Feb. 5, 2016 by 4 p.m. EST. Email applications to 4HNYSD@4-H.org. Receipt of application will be sent within 24 hours.

For the new year, why not try something new or reawaken latent skills you loved – like ice skating. Go ahead, try it, you know you want to glide along to the music playing – and it's pure fun. Ice skating in Bushnell Park near the Pump House, Hartford. Free. Skate rentals (free) until 7:15, 45 minutes before the rink closes. Open daily through Jan. 24. Walk the park and get some hot cocoa before heading home. Nearby, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, the Mark Twain House & Museum, Harriet Beecher Stowe House, eateries. Hours, information, directions at bit.ly/1moz4tK. Children younger than 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

By the way, The Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford is a true gem that is like a time travel trip to tour. Don't miss the family room/library and conservatory – a glass greenhouse bump out with a fountain that is an oasis in winter.

Tickets cost $19 (less for children and seniors), but the immersion experience in another era and literate family's world is well worth the price. Great gifts in the gift shop near the visitors' entrance too – the shop is open to the public for those who want to just walk around the grounds and look over the fabulous houses of Nook Farm.

“Get the Word Out” Nonprofit Fair is Friday, Jan. 8, 5:30 to 8 p.m., Robert H. Gibson River Garden, 157 Main St., Brattleboro, Vermont. The folks who produce Strolling of the Heifers invite the public to meet representatives of more than two dozen area non-profits and find out what they do, how to obtain services from them, how to participate in their program, and how to volunteer.

In addition, VT Dinners, a startup company that is producing frozen meals using locally-grown ingredients will be offering samples, and the Brattleboro Women's Chorus will provide entertainment. The Stroll's art gallery, Gallery at the Garden, will be open as well, with a re-installation of the exhibit “Windham Grows,” which consists of photographic works by John Nopper and Jeffrey Lewis, depicting past winners of the Windham Regional Business Planning Competition sponsored by Strolling of the Heifers and Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation, along with interviews with the subjects by Elizabeth Stoumen.  Participating nonprofits include American Association of University Women – Brattleboro Branch; SeVEDS/Workforce Development; Brattleboro Historical Society; Windham World Affairs Council; Brattleboro Time Trade; The Gathering Place. The River Garden is located at 157 Main Street in Brattleboro. Admission to the Gallery Walk evening events, free. Normal gallery hours are Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (except during special events).

“To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement. To condense the diffused light of a page of thought into the luminous flash of a single sentence, is worthy to rank as a prize composition just by itself… Anybody can have ideas – the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph.” – Mark Twain

Plants that help clean the air you breathe will be the focus of a presentation by Jeffrey Eleveld on Monday, Jan. 11, 11:30 a.m., at the Simsbury Apple Barn, 60 Old Farms Rd., West Simsbury. Refreshments and socializing at 11:30, Simsbury Garden Club monthly business meeting at noon; presentation will follow. Donation, $5. For more information, visit www.simsburygardenclub.org.

The Agriculture Course: An Intensive Study of the Origins and Future of Biodynamics, Friday, Jan. 15 to Monday, Jan. 18, at The Pfeiffer Center in Chestnut Ridge, N.Y. For information and registration see www.pfeiffercenter.org.

Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show at the Baltimore Convention Center, ongoing through Jan. 8, 2016; visit www.mants.com for details.

Vegetable and Small Fruit Growers Conference, South Windsor, Monday, Jan. 11, 2016. Cost is $40 in advance; $60 at the door. Here's the link to a PDF with listings of exhibitors and the schedule.

Connecticut Audubon Society Center at Glastonbury is calling for entries for the 20th annual “Our Natural World” Amateur Photo Contest and Sale. Entries accepted Tuesday, Jan. 12 through Friday, Jan. 15, 2016, 1 to 5 p.m.; Saturday, Jan. 16, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. All ages welcome to enter. Cash prize for the top winner in each division. Official rules are available at the center located at 1361 Main St., Glastonbury; or download from ctaudubon.org/center-at-glastonbury. The show will then take place Feb. 2 through Feb. 27.