Jackson County 4-H held their third annual come-and-go Welcome to 4-H event at the JC services building, and it was an hour of young ones and their parents learning about what 4-H can offer.
Seven clubs and numerous projects were on display: food and nutrition, rifle, showing livestock, leadership, clothing and textiles, community service, archery, photography, and livestock judging.
Family and community health extension agent Courtney Mercer said her hope of the event is people walk away with a better understanding of what 4-H can provide.
“We added a passport to the event, which we hope incentivizes everyone to go to every single table and talk to every single person,” she said. “When they give us back the form filled out, we put them in a raffle, where we will pay for four people’s registrations, which is $25 each.”
Mercer said they hold the open house because it can be intimidating to show up at a club. Some members realize they need a smaller club, or others will gravitate to the larger clubs because their friends are already members. At the open house members begin to decide what sort of club to join and what projects they’d like to be a part of.
“FFA is basically in high school, so we try to build their foundation here with 4-H,” Mercer said. “We’re hopefully growing good livestock judgers and then we give them to FFA.”
The event brought in 20 new members overall, plus more interest in the adult booster club.
