Anyone here belong to 4H as a kid?

[skygazer]

I don't know what made me think of this. I belonged to a 4H group and it was great - we were solely focused on horses but there were a lot of other 4H groups in the area that focused on different things.

We learned a ton about keeping horses, put on our own small, local shows and generally had a ball and kept out of trouble.

Is 4H even still around?

[jmowreader]

1. 4H is still around, but I don't know for how long

Seeing as how it's under the auspices of the USDA, Bush will probably cut its funding to pay for the war.

I was in the 4H Dog Training group for three years. Like you said, it was lots of fun. I was also in the Survival group for a year, and one other I don't remember.

The third group I don't remember even going to any of the meetings...mainly because I kinda sorta just got assigned to it so I could be in the Teen Advisory Board. 4H is set up kinda weird: you have all these different groups--survival, dogs, cats, fashion, whatever you liked. The groups are divided into (for the lack of a better word) supergroups, which report to the county extension agent. (The Extension Agent Service is part of the Land Grant Program. Each state has one university designated as its Land Grant College. They are the center for agricultural research in the state. The Extension Agent reports to the College of Agriculture at the university, helping to spread New And Exciting Agronomic Findings throughout the state. Anyway, that's who runs the 4H program.) The problem I had was that both of the groups I was in were in the same supergroup, and that supergroup was already fully represented on the board. So they just picked a group, said I was in it and told me when the meetings were.

[skygazer]

2. I had no idea they had such a complex hierarchy

That's too bad really. It was a lot of fun and very instructive.

[KurtNYC]

3. I went to the rabbit group for 4H

And in the first thing they gave me was how to butcher rabbits.

Once I got over the horror of that notion, I met lots of great farm kids. Kids who learned early about responsibility and teamwork.

[skygazer]

4. Pardon me for laughing

But I can just see the look on your face. :rofl:

[LeftyMom]

5. I was in an arts and crafts group

It was pretty fun.

[dae]

6. 4-H, FFA, small country school (18 in our Senior class),

if you didn't join you were drafted :) I was on a team that won a trip to Chicago, and practically froze my Southern arse off. I see why it got the nickname "The Windy City".

[idgiehkt]

7. my sister was the extension agent for her county for 4H

and she went through HELL doing that. It was all politics, all about people grubbing for grant money for their various projects, nothing but politics and people jockeying for position. I mean, she was miserable the whole time she worked in that job. I wasn't impressed with the state of 4H just from what I learned from her.

[Archae]

8. Right here!

In the town of Herman, just north of where I grew up, Howards Grove, WI.

Electrical stuff.
First year I built an electric motor out of nails, heavy-gauge wire, thin copper wire and a board.

It worked!

[QMPMom]

9. I was in 4H for years. I was in the cooking and sewing groups.

[Nikia]

10. I did 4-H

It was rather big in my county of Ohio. I was in a group that focused on family living type things, but we had our individual projects too. I took a variety of things: cooking, health, writing, naturual resources. I went to 4-H camp a couple years too.
It is still active around there. Around here in Wisconsin, I noticed it at the fair, but it seemed to be less popular.