According to the organization’s website, 4-H is the nation’s largest youth development organization, with six million young members throughout the United States and a presence reaching from urban neighborhoods to suburban schoolyards to rural farming communities.
The four Hs of 4-H are Head, Heart, Hands, and Health. These four Hs represent four primary values members work on through fun and engaging programs: Head is for managing and thinking, Heart is for relating and caring, Hands is for giving and working, and Health is for being and living.
Members of the Capitan 4-H Club, Justin Boss, Kate Ward, Josh Young, Ryleigh Lamb, Jada Long, Maggie Rich, Zach Rich, and Connor Caywood spoke about their involvement with the club. They expressed several reasons for being enrolled in 4-H, including the ability to make new friends, show animals, attend judgings, camps and conferences, community service, to learn life skills, and for personal growth and development.
With 4-H, the students participate in fairs, Home Ec School, Senior Leadership Retreat, Youth Get Away, District and State competitions and parades.
The group is commissioned by National 4-H to complete community service projects and take pride in doing “the right thing.” They said “it is good to give back to the community.”
The members of the Capitan 4-H Club have exemplified the four Hs in their continued support of HEAL and The Nest domestic violence shelter. For the past two years, the group has assembled Easter baskets and delivered them for the children at the shelter. Jada Long was selected as a 2015 HEAL Hero with Heart for her work spearheading the annual Easter project. In addition, members have also participated in the Knitting for the Nest initiative by helping to knit scarves to be either donated to shelter residents or sold with proceeds being donated directly to The Nest. The group has voted to do a service project this Fall for the shelter as well.
Members said they have chose to support The Nest because “it is a part of our community” and “they have kids there who may need things we have and they do not.”