4-H is the Best

I am in many activities. In school, I’m a Monti-Hender Captain, and I’m in Community Service Baking. I do after-school chess along with Drama Class, Math Bowl practice, Photo Club, and Science Olympiad practice. Those are just some activates that I do at school! Away from school, I’m even busier! I am in Girl Scouts, I help my dad with Cub Scouts, and many more things. Since I’m in Photo Club, I have to take many pictures and pick five to enter into the contest. I’m also in Faith Formation which is a school where I go to once a month to learn about my faith. I’m in 4-H, too! Throughout this post I will be explaining the history of 4-H, how you join 4-H, and some of the 4-H projects.

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4-H is a world-wide club. “Since 4‑H began more than 100 years ago, it has become the nation’s largest youth development organization. The 4‑H idea is simple: help young people and their families gain the skills needed to be proactive forces in their communities and develop ideas for a more innovative economy,” said 4‑H.org. Click here to go to the official site to read about the history of 4-H. People got the idea for 4‑H in the late 1800s. “Researchers discovered adults who were farmers did not accept new agricultural developments on college campuses. The researchers found that young people were open to new thinking and would experiment with new ideas. The researchers thought that the young people would share their experiences with the adults. In this way, youth programs would be very good for the young people and the adults. The idea of “hands-on” learning came from the want to connect public school education to country life. Having community clubs to help solve agricultural challenges was the first step toward youth learning about the industries in their community. I hope that you saw that I was saying young people instead of kids or children. 4‑H is not just for middle school and under. High school students can be in the clubs, too.

A.B. Graham started a youth program in Clack County, Ohio, in 1902. That was considered that birth of 4‑H in the United States. Of course, the first club wasn’t called 4‑H. The first club was called “The Tomato Club” which is also known as the “Corn Growing Club”. T.A. Erickson, who lived in Douglas County, Minnesota, started to have local agricultural afterschool clubs and have fairs for them the same year Graham started his club. Jessie Field Shambaugh developed the clover pin with the 4‑H H on each leaf in 1910, and by 1912 they were all called 4‑H clubs.4073177101

The passage of the Smith-Lever Act in 1914 created the Cooperative Extension System at USDA and nationalized 4‑H. By 1924, 4‑H clubs were officially formed and the 4‑H clover emblem was adopted. The Cooperative System is a partnership of the national Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), more than 100 land-grant universities and more than 3,00 county offices across the nation. Cooperative Extension combines the expertise and resources of federal, state, and local governments and is designed to meet the need for research, knowledge and educational programs.

Today, 4‑H is very different. 4‑H is now in rural, urban, and suburban communities in every state across the nation. 4‑H’ers are tacking the nation’s top issues. Whether it’s global food security, climate change, and sustainable energy to childhood obesity and food safety. 4‑H out-of-school programming, in-school enrichment programs, clubs and camps also offer a wide variety of STEM opportunities – from agricultural and animal sciences to rocketry, robotics, environmental protection and computer science – to improve the nation’s ability to compete in key scientific fields and take on the leading challenges of the 21st century.

It’s very easy to join a 4‑H club. You just need to get registered and join the club near you! Click here to join 4 H!

14684305282   There are so many projects in 4‑H! I can’t name all of them, but there is always something for everyone. I always enter Fine Arts and Lego. These are my two favorites in all of them. In Lego, you just build a structure, either form a kit or you think of it yourself. You don’t have to use Legos. You can use another type of building brick like that. My other favorite project is Fine Arts. This is a project where you enter a fine art. A fine art could be a nice painting, drawing, or maybe even a sculpture! The judges are tough though, so give it your best if you enter this project! Your projects get entered at the fair. You even win ribbons at the local fair, and if your project is good enough, you could go to your state fair (if you are in the USA)! A list of some of the projects from animal science.

Aquatic Science

Beef

Cat

Dairy

Dog

Goat

Horse

Llama and Alpaca

Pet

Pigeon

Poultry

Rabbit

Sheep

Swine

Vet Science

Well, that wraps up this week’s post! See you next week! Bye!

2 thoughts on “4-H is the Best

  1. Allison,
    A great post about 4H clubs but a lot of it is nearly word for word from their website. Maybe if you wrote about your experiences in 4H more and just added a link to their website so the readers could go there to find out more about the history.

    The more personal your blog writing is, the more interesting it is for the reader as they are getting your opinion.

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