4-H members across Liberty County are preparing for National 4-H Week, an annual celebration of the club that takes place during the first full week of October.
According to its website, 4-H is an educational program that focuses on leadership, citizenship, public speaking and life skills.
“(National 4-H Week) gives us that one time of year to stop and reflect on our 4-H successes over the past year,” said Liberty County 4-H Agent Kasey Bozeman. “It gives us the opportunity to plan events for the year and to get excited about some of the upcoming activities. It also is a tool to recruit kids and adults to 4-H.”
Along with taking part in the national celebration, Liberty County 4-H members will conduct a mentoring project on Oct. 7. Junior and Senior club members – that is, youth in grades 7-12 – will travel to the School Age Center on Fort Stewart to lead younger children on a scavenger hunt and tell them more about 4-H.
The cornerstone of National 4-H Week is the National Youth Science Day, which will take place next Wednesday, Oct. 8. The National Youth Science Day presents an opportunity for hundreds of thousands of youth across the nation to complete a single, innovative experiment.
This year’s experiment is titled “Rockets to the Rescue,” a project which will “task youth to design and build an aerodynamic food transportation device that can deliver a payload of nutritious food to fictitious disaster victims,” according to a news release.
The project will help youth learn engineering concepts, develop math skills, learn about nutrition and help solve a relevant global issue.
Bozeman said that local 4-H’ers will conduct the experiment in the Liberty County 4-H Cooperative Extension Office, located on the first floor of the historic Liberty County Courthouse.
“4-H is all about hands-on learning, and (the national science project) gives them that opportunity to come to a 4-H activity, do a little bit of learning and tie it back to some of our science standards,” Bozeman said.
The project will kick off at 4 p.m. The public is welcome and encouraged to attend.