Nodaway County youth to celebrate National 4-H Week: October 3-9

National 4-H Week is a yearly celebration by millions of youth, parents, volunteers and alumni coming together to promote the many positive youth development opportunities offered by 4-H. The theme for this year’s National 4-H Week is “Find Your Spark” and is a campaign created by National 4-H Council to celebrate the resiliency of young people who have brought about significant innovations in agriculture and technology.

4-H provides opportunities for youth to find their spark by providing educational opportunities, caring mentors, and service-learning opportunities. Youth choose their own path and are guided by volunteers with similar passions.

Nodaway County 4-H will observe National 4-H Week this year by highlighting some of the inspirational 4-H youth in our community who are working tirelessly to support each other and their communities.

“In Missouri 4-H, we offer all youth the opportunity to find their spark! By providing educational programming in a wide variety of areas, we allow youth to pick their own path to success and become true leaders of today and tomorrow,” explains Lupita Fabregas, director of Missouri 4-H. “By providing caring adult mentors who have a passion about what they do, we are able to give youth hands-on experiences to help them on their spark.”

In Nodaway County, more than 90 4-H youth and volunteers from the community are involved in 4H. Nodaway County youth participate in numerous types of projects, some of the most popular in the county are arts and crafts, clover kids, photography, sewing, shooting sports, sheep and quilting.  Besides participating in projects, youth also participate in many county activities, such as the Nodaway County Livestock Show and Nodaway County Achievement Days.  It doesn’t stop at the county level, youth are able to participate in regional and state activities such as day camps, the Missouri State Fair, State 4-H Livestock Judging Contests, Missouri State 4-H Fashion Review and Missouri State Shooting Sports Contests which all help to create that spark in our youth.

One of the most anticipated events of National 4-H Week every year is the 4-H STEM Challenge. The theme of this year’s event, which is expected to see hundreds of thousands of youth across the nation taking part throughout October, is Galactic Quest. Developed by Clemson University, Galactic Quest explores the history of humans in space, the technology and resources needed for missions, and the obstacles humans encounter in orbit. Activities explore important STEM topics ranging from physics and engineering to computer science and space agriculture.

Nodaway County 4-H currently has seven chartered 4-H community clubs, with six of them active: Burlington Jct. Lucky Shamrocks 4-H Club, Busy Bee 4-H Club, Jefferson 4-H Club, Mt Tabor 4-H Club, North Nodaway 4-H Club, Northeast Bluejays 4-H Club. The seventh Nodaway County 4-H chartered 4-H Community Club is the Fire Foxes 4-H Club, of Maryville. The Fire Foxes 4-H Club is open for youth enrollment.

Contact Dana Auffert, Nodaway County YPA, at 660.582.8101 or Annette Deering, 4-H youth specialist, at 660.446.3724 for information about the clubs or how to get enrolled.