More than 6 million young people across the country today will celebrate National 4-H Week, an annual celebration of 4-H during the first full week of October. During this week, Bladen County 4-H will showcase the great things that 4-H offers young people and highlight the incredible 4-H youth in the community who work each day to make a positive impact on the community.
Bladen County kicked off the week on Monday, October 3, with a monthly meeting of the Green Team 4-H club at 5:15 p.m. Then all of our county 4-Her’s were encouraged to attend the Bladen County Commissioners meeting at 6:30 p.m. At this meeting, our Bladen County 4-H President, Emily Barnes, a senior at East Bladen High School lead the American pledge for the crowd assembled. Later in the agenda, the Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners, Russell Priest, presented Emily and the other 4-Her’s present with a Proclamation signed recognizing October 2-8, 2016 as National 4-H Week in Bladen County. Then Wednesday, October 5 kicks of the 4-H clover sale at our local tractor supply store. Clovers will be available for a $1 donation at checkout beginning October 5 through October 16. Additionally, 4-H will be partnering with other NC Cooperative Extension programs and supporters to bring Ag ‘Em Up Field Days to 3rd grade classes across Bladen County on October 5 and 6.
“Our programs and activities continue to grow in Bladen County 4-H,” said Stacie Kinlaw, 4-H agent. “We continue to focus our programming efforts toward improving health and nutrition through education and opportunity and increasing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics for Bladen County’s youth as a strategy to prepare them for careers beyond high school.”
Research has proven that participation in 4-H has a significant positive impact on young people. Recent findings from the Tufts University 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development indicate that, when compared to their peers, young people in 4-H are:
- Nearly four times more likely to contribute to their communities,
- Two times more likely to pursue healthy behaviors like, and
- Two times more likely to engage in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs in the out-of-school time.
In Bladen County more than 150 4-H youth, around 1000 other youth, and at least 50 volunteers from the community are involved in 4H. To find out what is going on in our local 4-H programs, please check us out on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/BladenCounty4H or call or email our local 4-H agent at Stacie_kinlaw@ncsu.edu or 910-862-4591.
Also during National 4-H Week, hundreds of thousands of youth from all around the nation will complete a single, innovative experiment on 4-H National Youth Science Day, which will be held on Wednesday, October 5, 2016. The 2016 National Science Experiment Drone Discovery will teach youth a wide variety of topics related to unmanned flight including flight dynamics, aircraft types, safety and regulations, remote sensing and flight control. Designed by Cornell University Cooperative Extension, the hands-on, three part engineering design challenge will allow youth to experiment with fixed and rotary wing designs, explore the concept of remote sensing and dive into the world of coding for real-world drone applications. To learn more about National Youth Science Day, please visit http://www.4-h.org/nysd/. Our county actually will celebrate with this project on multiple occasions. We first used the program on September 25, 2016 with the Down East 4-H Club that meets at the Tabernacle Believers Holiness Church. Plans are now in place to use the program and activities with the 21st Century Community Learning Center Afterschool Programs at East Arcadia and Bladen Lakes Primary Schools later in October.
Background About 4-H:
4-H, the nation’s largest youth development organization, grows confident young people who are empowered for life today and prepared for career tomorrow. 4-H programs empower nearly six million young people across the U.S. through experiences that develop critical life skills. 4-H is the youth development program of our nation’s Cooperative Extension System and USDA, and serves every county and parish in the U.S. through a network of 110 public universities and more than 3000 local Extension offices. Globally, 4-H collaborates with independent programs to empower one million youth in 50 countries. The research-backed 4-H experience grows young people who are four times more likely to contribute to their communities; two times more likely to make healthier choices; two times more likely to be civically active; and two times more likely to participate in STEM programs.
Learn more about 4-H at www.4-H.org, find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/4-H and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/4H.
About Author
