[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvohAcpMo3A&feature=em-upload_owner[/youtube]
More than 70 youth will participate in county’s National 4-H Week activities
SAN ANTONIO – Each year, thousands of 4-H members from clubs throughout the state participate in One Day 4-H as part of a national 4-H initiative focusing on community service. This year’s One Day 4-H activities will take place Oct. 12.
Community service is an important aspect of the 4-H program. One Day 4-H efforts on Oct. 12 in Bexar County will include a number of activities to beautify the county help its residents. (Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service photo)
“In San Antonio, about 70 4-H club members from throughout Bexar County will participate in one day 4-H civic activities as the culmination of National 4-H Week from Oct. 6 through 12,” said Greg Myles, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agent for 4-H and youth development for Bexar County.
Myles said AgriLife Extension, an agency of the Texas A&M University System, administers and provides oversight for the 4-H clubs in Texas, so 4-H members coordinate their proposed one-day 4-H projects through their county AgriLife Extension office.
“We always get a great response from our Bexar County 4-H clubs to participate in One Day 4-H, and this year is no exception,” he said. “This year, 4-H members have signed up for at least half a dozen community service projects. In addition, many 4-H parents and adult 4-H leaders will be participating.”
Myles said one day 4-H projects in Bexar County this year will include:
— Building a garden area for people with special needs.
— Working with Operation Finally Home.
— Making homemade placemats for Meals on Wheels of San Antonio.
— Delivering drinks and cookies to gate guards at local military installations.
— Making cards to send to military troops.
— Taking companion dogs to youths at a foster care facility.
— Clearing brush to create new bird habitat.
— A community clean-up.
“I guess our biggest project will be the garden build at the San Antonio Clubhouse, which serves people with special needs,” said Josh Hall, 17, of the A-Team 4-H Club and president of the Bexar County 4-H Council. “From 12 to 15 members of the 4-H council and different clubs will be helping build and plant a raised-bed garden with vegetables and flowering plants. The garden will be therapeutic for the people living there.”
Hall, now in his 10th year of 4-H, said the organization emphasizes public service and good citizenship.
“In 4-H we’re taught to appreciate our community and to give back,” he said. “And in San Antonio we owe a lot to the military and those who sacrifice and give so much for us. That’s why another of our major activities during one day 4-H will be to participate with Operation Finally Home. We’ll be helping toward building a handicap-accessible home for a member of the military who has been wounded.”
Hall, who learned about Operation Finally Home from his father, a former 4-H member, said he and his brother Ben, 15, also a longtime 4-H member, will be among those clearing brush and cleaning up the site where the home will be built.
“The military has had a huge influence on the community and has given us a lot, so whatever we can do to help is appropriate,” he said.
According to Myles, other One Day 4-H projects will include the 4-H Dog Club. Club members will bring dogs to abused, abandoned and at-risk youth at a residential foster home, where they will also do obedience demonstrations and teach basic dog care and training to foster children.
“The kids in foster care will have a hands-on opportunity to work with the dogs, and later everyone will get together and enjoy a picnic lunch at the facility,” he said.
Myles said another One Day 4-H project will provide an outdoor educational opportunity as well as community service.
“Another group of 4-H’ers is going to participate in a wildlife project by helping count and identify birds so they can see and understand migration patterns,” he said. “They will also clear brush to create new habitat for the birds.”
Myles added that while Oct. 12 is the official day for One Day 4-H community service, 4-H members are also working throughout the week to provide additional service.
For example, he said, Bexar County 4-H Fishing and Shooting Sports club member Travis Cole will be coordinating with other 4-H members to work at a community garden at the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church on the east side of San Antonio.
Hall said he hopes all 4-H members who participate in these projects will get a greater sense of appreciation for others in the community along with a feeling of accomplishment for themselves.
“We want everyone who participates to know they are making a difference,” he said. “No matter how small the effort may seem, it’s part of a larger effort that’s extremely important.”
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