Home Grown: Celebrating 4H week
We know that agriculture is important in Yuma, well, there are also programs that encourage students to be interested in it!
For this week’s Home Grown, we celebrate 4H, a youth development organization for kids around the country that teaches students learning by doing!
The first full week of October is national 4H week when members around the U.S. come together and celebrate its beginning.
4H began in 1902 in Ohio meaning, the program is well over 100 years old!
What makes 4H different, is that it is able to change to meet the needs of whatever community it’s in.
If you are in an urban area, 4H may look different than it does here in Yuma.
For example, if you were in 4H in New York, students learn skills like painting or photography as opposed to students in Yuma that show livestock that needs open fields.
Most often a family influenced organization, many students are inspired to carry on a tradition of being in the program either started by siblings, parents etcetera.
There are also 4H ambassadors that go into the classroom to teach younger kids about agriculture and where their food comes from.
Amy Parrott , a 4H youth development agent with the University of Arizona, says the program also teaches students to have pride in their hometown.
” I love that kids will wear a shirt that says Yuma. I really like that they take a lot of pride in where they are from. I want all of them to get to leave, go to school, go to a trade school, join the military. As long as they really do have pride in where they came from, I think that’s really important and that’s one of my favorite things, ” she said.
The 4H clubs meet once a month and projects such as raising animals meet every weekend.
Students don’t necessarily have to raise an animal to be involved in 4H.
There are more than 35 projects within 4H guaranteed to fit any student’s interest.
For more information on your local 4H chapter, you can visit their Facebook page for further contact and enrollment information.
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