Area youth to celebrate National 4-H Week this week

In honor of National 4-H week, the Grygla Go-Getters 4-H club will be holding a kick-off meeting on Wednesday evening, October 4th, at the Grygla Civic Building at 6:30pm. Anyone in grades K-12 who are interested in joining 4-H are encouraged to attend the meeting and get more information. Flyers were sent home with the Grygla students.

The Grygla Go-Getters are a part of the Roseau County 4-H.

For the 75th consecutive year, millions of youth, parents, volunteers and alumni across the country will be celebrating National 4-H Week during the first full week of October. Roseau County 4-H will leverage National 4-H Week this year by showcasing the incredible experiences that 4-H offers young people, and will highlight the remarkable 4-H youth in our community who work each day to make a positive impact on those around them. 

The 4-H youth development program provides “learn by doing” experiences to encourage youth to experiment, innovate and think independently. 4-H programs are offered through school-based, after-school and camp settings and within community clubs, where groups meet regularly to work on projects, perform community service and develop leadership skills. Through this unique process, youth obtain essential life skills such as problem solving, decision making, coping and communicating. 

“4-H provides positive non-school learning opportunities that are critical for the development of young people,” said Dorothy McCargo Freeman, Minnesota 4-H Youth Development Program Leader. “As a result, 4-H youth are able to contribute and make a difference in positive ways in their homes, schools and communities throughout Minnesota.”

Today’s 4-H projects include the traditional and still popular agriculture and animal science projects. But 4-H youth also work on cutting-edge technology projects, such as aquatic robotics, digital photography, community service and environmental projects, such as maintaining local hiking trails and testing water in area streams for contaminants. One of the most anticipated events of National 4-H Week every year is 4-H National Youth Science Day, which sees hundreds of thousands of youth across the nation taking part in the world’s largest youth-led science challenge. The exciting theme for this year’s challenge is Incredible Wearables. Youth will use the engineering design process to build a prototype wearable technology that will gather data to help solve a real-world problem.

4-H alumni around the country are always the first to acknowledge the significant positive impact 4-H had on them as young people; the opportunities and experiences that 4-H provides youth empowers them to become true leaders. In fact, research has shown that young people in 4-H are almost four times as likely to contribute to their communities, and are twice as likely to engage in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs in their free time.  In Roseau County more than 300 4-H youth and 75 volunteers from the community are involved in 4 H, including kids and parents from Grygla.

About 4-H: 4-H, the nation’s largest youth development and empowerment organization, cultivates confident kids who tackle the issues that matter most in their communities right now. In the United States, 4-H programs empower six million young people through the 110 land-grant universities and Cooperative Extension in more than 3,000 local offices serving every county and parish in the country. Outside the United States, independent, country-led 4-H organizations empower one million young people in more than 50 countries. National 4-H Council is the private sector, non-profit partner of the Cooperative Extension System and 4-H National Headquarters located at the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) within the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

About Extension 4-H: Minnesota 4-H is a youth development program available throughout Minnesota for youth grades k-1 year after high school. 4-H’s learn-by-doing model guides youth in designing and participating in their own programs and activities, which results in hands-on learning. Through this unique process, youth obtain essential life skills such as problem solving, decision making, coping and communicating that prepare them to succeed in their school, college, community and careers. Research shows that youth who participate in 4-H have better grades and are more emotionally engaged with school, are more than twice as likely to be civically active and contribute to their communities, and are 47% less likely to have risky or problem behaviors.