4-H is a community of youth, like yourself, who are learning leadership, citizenship and life skills through exciting 4-H programs. You can bet that no matter if you are interested in pigs or rockets there’s something for you in 4-H. Even when you find the calling to blaze your own path, self-determined projects and taking the lead in your club and camps will bring out talents you didn’t know you had! You will make incredible friends that stick by you for years and years. I’m 23 and still hold 4-H friends I made when I was 9 close to my heart!

What do you do in 4-H? Well, scan through the posts on this WV 4-H Blog! Not only will you play games, sing songs, and learn new hobbies with your local club, you’ll have the chance to go to camp and scream your little heart out cheering for your team or “tribe” around campfire after watching or performing funny stunts you’ve created. Perhaps you’ll sign up for fishing class and go to the river or basketball and learn how to do a lay-up from a high school junior leader. Maybe you’ll travel to the State Fair and win a blue ribbon for your prize sheep with snowy white wool. Maybe you’ll join the state tech team and create webpages and learn how to make a Robot at a state 4-H camp or ride horses at potomic highlands horse camp. Maybe you’ll miss camp so much during the winter that you absolutely must go to Teen Leader Weekend or Dance Weekend at Jackson’s Mill. Maybe when you get older you’ll go to a National 4-H Conference in Washington D.C. or be an exchange camper to Texas. Maybe you’ll represent the United State’s 4-H program in Russia with other delegates from WV or travel to Denmark, Mexico, or Germany as an International 4-H Youth Exchange. The possibilities of 4-H are enormous, and they are all here, waiting for you.

Joining WV 4-H is free. It doesn’t require uniforms, animals, or living on a farm. It’s in the cities and rural areas. Are you between the ages of 9 and 21? If you are, you’re eligible to join 4-H. Are you aged 7 or 8? If you are, you’re eligible to join Cloverbuds.

Watch a video clip about 4-H:

Here’s what you need to do to join 4-H:

Ask your parent or guardian for permission to join.
Find out about 4-H clubs in your community. Call your county’s West Virginia University Extension Office. The office can get you the paperwork you need to join the club that you want to join.

Ideas for echos/comments: What questions do you have about WV 4-H? If you’re already a member, how would you encourage a friend, cousin, etc to join 4-H? What (or who) got you to join 4-H?