URBANA, Ill. — Illinois 4-H families came together over winter break to create imaginative, story-filled scenes for the Illinois 4-H Family Winter Break Building Bricks Challenge, the final event in this year’s Building Brick Challenge Series. The special challenge invited families to work together on builds inspired by the theme “Winter Wonderland.”
The first-place entry was created by the Naff Family — Skylar Naff (10), Aaliyah Naff (11), and Trista Naff (adult) — members of the Pleasant Spacemakers 4-H Club in Fulton County. Their build celebrates winter fun for everyone, featuring activities like shopping, building snowmen, and skiing the slopes. Hidden throughout the scene are four four-leaf clovers, each representing one of the four H’s of 4-H: Head, Heart, Hands, and Health, inviting viewers to search and discover the meaning behind the details.
Second place was awarded to the Taylor-Hart Family, Chiara Taylor-Hart (10) and Amanda Taylor-Hart (adult) of the Northshore Explorers 4-H Club in Lake County. Their winter scene features a snow-capped mountain with a frozen waterfall flowing into an icy lake, alongside a cozy cabin decorated for the season and surrounded by magical creatures.
The third-place build came from the Schreiner Family — Raylon Schreiner (10) and Layla Schreiner (7) — members of the Hollanders 4-H Club and The Whiz Kids Cloverbuds Club in Logan County. Titled “The Cozy Café Inn,” their build depicts a welcoming winter retreat where visitors can dine, stay in cabins, explore snowy trails, spot animals, cross a frozen river, and warm up with hot cocoa while making new friends.
“All of the family builds really lived up to the ‘Winter Wonderland’ theme,” said Amy Henschen, 4-H senior program lead. “The details and storytelling transported us to these imagined places and reminded us of the joys of the season.”
The Family Winter Break Challenge was open to families with at least one enrolled Illinois 4-H member and was designed to encourage collaboration, creativity, and shared learning experiences.
“We hope all the families that participated had fun building together over winter break,” Henschen said. “Our new Creating with Building Bricks project offers kids the opportunity to build and create on their own, but there is a lot of skill-building and learning that happens when youth work with others, which is why we wanted to offer this special group building challenge.”
This challenge concludes the 2025 Building Brick Challenge Series, which was developed to promote the Creating with Building Bricks project. The project helps youth build creativity, problem-solving, and design skills using plastic building bricks such as LEGO and MEGABLOKS. Winners of the family challenge receive a buildable trophy.
About Illinois 4-H:
Illinois 4-H is the flagship youth development program of University of Illinois Extension, administered through the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. Through hands-on learning and life-changing experiences, Illinois 4-H prepares youth to be Beyond Ready — ready for college, career, military service, entrepreneurship, and more. Young people build confidence, leadership, and resilience as they explore interests from agriculture to computer science. Independent research and national surveys confirm the powerful outcomes of 4-H: participants are 40% more likely to pursue a college degree, twice as likely to obtain technical training, and two times more likely to serve in the military. With a legacy of cultivating leaders, Illinois 4-H continues to grow the next generation who are equipped to thrive in life and work today and beyond.
University of Illinois Extension develops educational programs, extends knowledge, and builds partnerships to support people, communities, and their environments as part of the state's land-grant institution. Extension serves as the leading public outreach effort for University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences in all 102 Illinois counties through a network of 27 multi-county units and over 700 staff statewide. Extension’s mission is responsive to eight strategic priorities — community, economy, environment, food and agriculture, health, partnerships, technology and discovery, and workforce excellence — that are served through six program areas — 4-H youth development, agriculture and agribusiness, community and economic development, family and consumer science, integrated health disparities, and natural resources, environment, and energy.