By Jennifer Whitlock
Field Editor
Each year, millions of youth, parents, volunteers and alumni celebrate National 4-H Week to showcase the contributions youth make to their communities through engaging in 4-H.
This year’s theme, Find Your Spark, highlights how 4-H offers opportunities for youth to find their passion through hands-on learning experiences.
“We are a youth development program at our core. Through these opportunities presented to our youth in 4-H, they are developing into good people. We want them to learn through their projects, learn to care about people around them, care about their community and give back to the folks around them,” Callie Cline, Texas 4-H Marketing and Communications specialist, said. “We have 43 different projects for our youth in Texas to choose from. That’s everything ranging from showing livestock, to photography, to public speaking, to sewing. We believe we have opportunity for all youth in Texas and something that any youth will be able to find their spark in and kind of ignite that interest.”
Youth like Texas 4-H President Kollier Miller, a senior at Panhandle High School, have found their spark and excelled through their involvement in 4-H.
As the son of agricultural science teachers, Miller has had many opportunities to be around agriculture and show livestock. But 4-H provides him other outlets and experiences such as public speaking, he noted.
“I show lambs, goats and pigs, but I love public speaking,” Miller said. “Some people might not like to speak out that much, but to me, it just gives me an opportunity to do something I’m good at. I can talk to people I don’t know and share something I’m really passionate about and help them learn more about agriculture.”
4-H provides opportunities beyond high school, too. He said once 4-H alumni head to college and the real world, contacts and experiences youth gained in 4-H can turn into careers and great futures.
“Starting out small with something like our food challenges and culinary options can turn into something as big as being a head chef at a restaurant someday,” he said.
Throughout the week, Texas 4-H is engaging in National 4-H Week by promoting the 4-H pledge with Head, Heart, Hands and Health days. Each day is dedicated to starting an online conversation about what those words signify and how students can apply those ideas in everyday life, as well as how 4-H promotes learning, healthy living, community service and more.
Cline noted the weeklong celebration will culminate on Friday with One Day 4-H, a statewide day of community service. Members, parents and volunteers come together at the local level to help their communities through service projects.
The event was created in 2009 as a way for 4-H youth to thank their communities, counties and state for the support they provide.
And this year, Texas 4-H will also be starting a campaign called 4-H4More, which encourages every 4-H member to recruit four new members.
“We’re hoping to create 4-H opportunities for more kids by inviting four more kids into the program,” Cline said. “We want to celebrate our youth who are doing incredible things all across the state. We have the best youth in Texas in our 4-H program, and we want to celebrate everything that they’re doing this week.”
Click here for more information on Texas 4-H, or visit their Facebook page here for more information on National 4-H Week.