Justin Crowe, 4-H Director and State Program Leader

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to travel with members of our state 4-H council as they advocate for our state 4-H program and truly tell our story. This past week I had the privilege of being with six of our state 4-H council members as they traveled our 4-H ambassador tour to meet with stakeholder groups and other state-wide leaders in agriculture.

But most recently, I spent the last three days at Cedars of Lebanon state park with our entire state 4-H council for their summer state council meeting. As part of this meeting, the 4-H’ers finished planning for Roundup and conducted a service project where they took donated clothing items and sorted, washed, dried, folded, and donated them to various organizations. This included sorting and folding donated coats for the upcoming collegiate 4-H/FFA Africa trip.

It’s a tradition each Saturday night of our final State 4-H Council meeting that the 4-H members sit in a circle and reflect on the past year and share their thoughts. It always is a pleasure to hear each of the 4-H members tell their 4-H story and the impact 4-H has made on their lives. This year was no different, the young people talked about how in 4-H they always felt like they were a part of the group, in 4-H they always knew they fit in, in 4-H they had made life-long friends. This is the power of what we do. Young people and older people, just want to feel like they are a part of something and belong and they have this opportunity in this amazing organization. 

Now while this was only a handful of voices, to represent our entire program, I know in my heart that each young person gets to experience the power of the 4-H youth and development program gets to know that they belong, that they are welcome, and that they are given the tools needed to be successful in life. 

Thanks for what you do every day to make a difference in the lives of young people. Have a great week.