4-H has a rich history – an important history. For those who have worked in Extension or had an affiliation with 4-H in some other way over the years, the National 4-H History Preservation leadership team needs your assistance and your recollections. For those just getting started in your careers, the more you can learn about history, the better you can understand and perform your 4-H responsibilities.
Unfortunately, much of 4-H’s important national history has either been lost or destroyed, or is buried in archives difficult to access by the general public. For four years now, a group of volunteers – mostly retired state and national 4-H extension professionals or retired from National 4-H Council – have been striving to reverse this situation. The National 4-H History Preservation Program leadership team is retrieving and researching 4-H archival materials and writing about relevant 4-H history. Our leadership team works in close collaboration with the 4-H National Headquarters, NIFA, USDA; National 4-H Council and State and County 4-H programs. And, we have a growing group of volunteers helping us. Our initial group of volunteers numbered seven – now we have over 70. We are inviting you to consider becoming a Volunteer for History in the National 4-H History Preservation Program, as well.
Check out the teams and the volunteers at: http://4-HHistoryPreservation.com/Teams
You may be interested in helping with our new “Voices of 4-H History” program seeking audio and video interviews about 4-H history and 4-H recollections. Or, the “Hands On” 4-H History project, seeking all kinds of activities for documenting, preserving, appreciating and using history at the local and county levels.
Help us document and write more than 100 segments for the General 4-H History section on the history website. Help us document urban 4-H programs, 4-H camping history, early black 4-H clubs, war time 4-H support and victory gardens, Native American 4-H activities, National 4-H Sunday, National 4-H Conference or contemporary 4-H history like 4-H National Youth Science Day, military family programs, after school programs, robotics and more.
Help us seek books, reports, other literature – films, videos, slide sets – to have digitized and placed in the archives on the 4-H history preservation website. Much of this material that is missing nationally, is probably in some state archive in at least one of the 50 states. We seek your help in locating it.
Help us document 4-H artifacts and establish a network supporting the hundreds of 4-H collectors across the country by providing more attention to the http://4-HCollecting.com website operated by our team.
There are many ways you can become one of the growing number of Volunteers for History. We do most of our communicating via e-mail and usually assign projects to various program teams. You may not wish to do research or writing, but maybe to be a reviewer, once drafts are written. Or, to help locate materials or recruit other volunteers within your state. No red ribbons, no white ribbons. Only blue ribbons for being on our blue ribbon 4-H volunteer history team! Contact us at: info@4-HHistoryPreservation.com