By Jennifer Dorsett
Field Editor
Every year during National 4-H Week, millions of 4-H members, alumni and volunteers celebrate the positive impact of 4-H on America’s youth.
The theme for this year’s National 4-H Week, Opportunity4All, was created by National 4-H Council to rally support for the Cooperative Extension 4-H program and to identify solutions to eliminate the opportunity gap that affects 55 million kids across America.
“National 4-H week is an opportunity to celebrate the impact that 4-H has had for more than a century now across our nation,” Callie Henley Cline, Texas 4-H Marketing and Communications specialist, said in an interview with Texas Farm Bureau Radio Network. “4-Hers in counties and communities all across the nation will be doing projects and celebrating really what 4-H has done in their communities.”
She noted the event is a great way to emphasize opportunities through 4-H for all Texans, not just rural populations or those interested in raising animals for show projects.
“When people think of 4-H, they might still think about livestock projects, but that is certainly not all we offer,” Cline said. “While we do have so many kids involved in those projects, we have a lot of youth doing robotics and STEM projects and food and nutrition projects, sewing, natural resources, learning about the land around them, and the water around them and shooting sports. We just have such a wide variety of projects for kids to get involved in.”
Because of the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic, Cline said county organizations across Texas will be holding virtual events and celebrating 4-H online with social media challenges. In addition to county events, Texas 4-H will observe National 4-H Week with statewide social media challenges participants can complete throughout the week to be entered to win a 4-H goodie basket.
“There have definitely been some changes this year, but there’s certainly still a way to get involved and celebrate. We have lots of opportunities to get involved online on social media,” Cline said. “Folks are truly just making the best of it doing virtual events or getting outside and practicing social distancing, wearing masks, getting in smaller groups for their projects.”
In Texas, the week wraps up with One Day 4-H.
The event was created in 2009 for kids to thank the communities, counties and state for the support provided throughout the years through community service projects.
“Some of those projects have had to change this year, whereas before they may have all worked on building a set of stairs for a house or something,” Cline said. “They’ve encouraged kids to bring their own gloves, bring their own tools that they might need that day. So, we’ve had to make a few changes, but we’re really proud of all the agents and 4-Hers for stepping up and doing absolutely the best they can.”
Texas 4-H reaches more than 550,000 diverse youth per year through project involvement and school curriculum. In 2019, more than 27,000 adult and youth volunteers contributed countless hours in various capacities to the 4-H youth in their Texas communities.
To learn more about Texas 4-H, visit https://texas4-h.tamu.edu/.