×

Celebrating National 4-H Week

At Cornell Cooperative Extension of Franklin County, we’re marking National 4-H Week, an annual celebration of 4-H observed during the first full week of October.

CCE celebrates the week by acknowledging the positive impacts that membership in 4-H has had on our club members, as well as the positive impacts those dedicated young people have had on their communities. We also want to thank our many adult volunteers. Without their unwavering dedication, Franklin County 4-H programs simply would not be successful.

The 2015-16 year was a busy one for our 4-H clubs. Their knowledge, effort and talent could be seen in their club projects, which were on display at the Franklin County Fair. Some extraordinarily talented children also had projects representing their clubs on display at the New York State Fair, where four of them – Charlie Breault, Adyson Miller, Aleah Simonson and Mya Simonson – were awarded blue ribbons for photography while Kylie Skelton received blue ribbons for two welding projects and Kathryn Reardon received a blue ribbon for a wood-burning fine art project and a red ribbon for a pencil drawing.

Blue ribbons are awarded to 4-H-ers who exhibit outstanding work. They must show mastery of a skill, increased knowledge, and pride in workmanship and quality based on their age level. Red ribbons are awarded to those whose projects are slightly less exceptional than those receiving blue ribbons.

The origin of 4-H Week

In order to facilitate discussion and interaction between 4-H members and leaders across the nation, the United States Department of Agriculture in 1925 approved the establishment of a National Camp in Washington, D.C. The camp provided a convenient time and place for a meeting of all state leaders to come together and jointly plan for a 4-H program with universal goals and objectives, as well as an opportunity to reward outstanding junior leaders in club work, to apprise club members about government workings and vice versa.

According to the April-May 1926 issue of National Boys and Girls Club News, Gov. Theodore “Tightwad Ted” Christianson of Minnesota was the first to establish a “Club Week” to promote the work of the Boys and Girls Clubs in his state. It is generally believed that this was the first official “Club Week.”

The first annual week-long National 4-H Camp was held June 16-23, 1927, on the grounds of the Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. Two-hundred-seventy-five 4-H club members and leaders representing 41 states attended. The only criteria established by national organizers for the selection of delegates was that each delegate must be at least 15 years old and have a minimum of three years of club experience. Delegates were given the opportunity to tour places of interest in and around the capital. The program became the prototype for subsequent national 4-H events held in Washington.

At the 1927 event, the group adopted the 4-H motto, “To make the best better.” But the most significant resolution made during their meetings was a motion to the Land Grant College Association to “permit this national Camp to become an annual event for an indefinite period.” The resolution provided a foundation for transforming the organization from a loosely-knit network of individual Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs into a credible national institution. And the opportunity to share personal experiences helped leaders build common ground, regardless of what region of the country they served. For many of the delegates, attending national 4-H Camp proved to be a formative, life-changing experience.

In the years that followed, a dress code intended to differentiate 4-H members from other youth present in the nation’s capital and to instill pride among delegates and camp officials seeking to showcase the best and brightest student leaders in the program was implemented. Girls wore green and white uniforms, and boys dressed in white suits with green chevrons.

Discussion addressing 4-H training led to the determination that attending county club camps, attending out-of-county and -state events, participating in trips, participating in recreational activities and participating in field days were the most successful ways for educating 4-H youth across the country. Dr. Paul J. Kruse, a professor in the Department of Rural Education at the College of Agriculture at Cornell University, stated that “the 4-H club movement ranks exceedingly high in the fundamentals of education as judged by experienced pedagogues and that it has in it the elements which bring out the best that is in the membership.” Such discussions served as a groundwork for the future of 4-H club work nationwide.

Visits to sites such as the National Agricultural Research Farm in Beltsville, Maryland, George Washington’s Mount Vernon plantations and the Smithsonian became highlights for delegates attending camp. And as the National 4-H Camp approached its second decade, program themes, which provided a focus for speeches and discussions, became an important aspect of the camps. The 1937 camp, for instance, embraced the theme “Our Rural Heritage,” and Undersecretary of Agriculture M.L. Wilson, in his opening address, highlighted the richness of our natural resources, how they had been wasted, and suggested ways of saving and improving this inheritance. During the week, discussions relating to conservation were examined.

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the nation was focused on the war effort. It was decided to postpone holding the National 4-H Camp in Washington. Instead, plans for a 4-H Mobilization Week emerged in Ohio and were met with favorable response by state leaders throughout the country as a means of focusing the attention of 4-H members on what they might do to contribute to the national defense effort. The Federal Extension Service initiated National 4-H Mobilization Week, and it was observed annually in 1942, 1943 and 1944. In 1945 and in every subsequent year, it has been observed as National 4-H Week.

National 4-H Camp resumed in 1946 but was relocated to American University. National 4-H events would be held at various sites throughout the capital until the National 4-H Center was completed in 1959 in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $4.75/week.

Subscribe Today