[Beaker]

I must say that this article bothers me greatly, but somehow I can hardly see 4-H ceasing to exist. There are far too many dedicated voluneers and 4-H members out there to allow it to happen. As a member of a horse club and my county horse council, I can tell you that this has been a worry for some time, and an issue that has been brought up frequently. If people knew what was good for them, they wouldn't stop funding. 4-H is the best thing that could happen to a youth. It fosters good work habits as well as an excellent work ethic through county, state, and national horsebowl, horse judging hippology, and visual presentations, not to mention record keeping and not to shows. VPs alone are a project and a half, as any 4-H'er (or 4-H leader) knows. One has to study hard to succeed to go to any state or national competition. To make it to nationals alone required quite a comittment for me and my horsebowl team mates, and coachs.

Not only that, but one of the prime goals of 4-H clubs is community service. I did countless community service projects with my club, from ongoing projects, such as collecting pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald house, to donating supplies to a horse rescue and animal shelter. 4-H builds leadership skills to allow youth to become better leaders.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that to abolish 4H is a huge, huge mistake. Are you into it?

[Willie Green]

No, I've never been personally involved with 4-H.
But I recognize it for the excellent organization that it is, and I support those who do participate.

[tiamat]

I am just WAITING for the day til Caitlin turns 12. Since that is the "magic" age and you can do so much with 4-H then!

We are getting litigated to death though. Llama rules have changed so that you can't show til you are 9 due to "risk"

(And yet I see little kids handling horses and swine! )

If anything takes down 4-h it will be the damn lawyers and the bed-wetters.

Tia

( I Bleed Green!)