DANVILLE, Ind. – The Hendricks County, Ind., Extension office is looking to its past as it celebrates this year’s National 4-H Week, Oct. 2-8.

“The week is an awesome opportunity to showcase everything 4-H has to offer,” said Kati Sweet, Purdue University 4-H Youth Development Extension Educator in the county. “There are so many projects and programs throughout the year. It’s not just a one week thing. We celebrate throughout the year. It’s (the program’s) time to shine.”

The week’s theme is Opportunity 4 All. National 4-H Week, created in the 1940s, is designed to highlight 4-H youth, show the public the many ways youth can be involved with 4-H, and recruit youth members and adult volunteers, according to the organization. 4-H is the nation’s largest youth development organization and has nearly 6 million participants nationwide.

“National 4-H Week is close to the time of our annual 4-H enrollment,” Sweet explained. “We’re not just talking about 4-H but we’re starting to enroll kids in our program. We want to show them 4-H is 52 weeks out of the year. It’s not just about the county fair.”

4-H enrollment in the state will begin Oct. 1.

Sweet said in the past, the office staff has visited schools during the week to explain the program and recruit new members. They haven’t done that the last couple of years due to COVID-19. An open house at the county fairgrounds is scheduled for Nov. 13.

During this year’s National 4-H Week, Sweet and extension staff will be making use of old 4-H project books she found while cleaning out her office.

“The books are from every decade since the 1950s,” she explained. “They show projects you could have done in 1950 or a food activity from 1960. They showcase how much 4-H has changed and adapted. They’re an acknowledgment of our history.”

Sweet said they noticed how much food projects have changed. “Some of the ingredients in those (earlier) recipes are different from what we encourage our kids to use today. Portion sizes are also different. We now encourage a lot of creative uses of alternative ingredients, such as trying to find a way to incorporate a fruit or vegetable in their food. In the older books, there’s a lot of Crisco, a lot of oil and butter.

“Today, we might encourage kids to make a dish for someone with dietary needs, maybe with diabetes,” she added. “That was not necessarily talked about as much in years past.”

Her mother also has some older 4-H books which include such projects as teen dating. “It’s very interesting to read some of the things in those books, some of the topics covered years ago,” Sweet said.

The staff plans to use some of the older project books to create TikTok videos, she said. “We recently started a TikTok account (@hendricksco4H) and wondered how we could use it to showcase 4-H. There is a trend of showing food and crafts on social media.”

The office also has Instagram and Facebook accounts. They plan to feature one video per day on their social media platforms highlighting a different project from a different decade, Sweet said. The staff hopes to see an increase in followers as the videos are posted, she said.

TikTok is just a part of what the office has planned for National 4-H Week. “We’re going to have a service day, the Saturday of 4-H week, to perform some sort of community service,” she said. “We’re going to encourage people to wear their favorite 4-H shirt, post it on social media and tag the office.”

The staff will also submit articles to local media outlets about 4-H and the week.

Recruiting for 4-H in the county must take into account the diversity of potential members and their backgrounds, Sweet said. The eastern half of the county is next to Indianapolis and is an urban area. The west side is still pretty rural, she said.

“I’ve had more luck recruiting in urban areas with STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programming,” she explained. “Traditionally, people thought they had to live on a farm to participate in 4-H. But 4-H is more than cows, plows and sows. 4-H has strong agricultural roots but has grown and adapted all these programs to where the needs are.”

In Hendricks County, the most popular livestock projects are swine, and horse and pony, Sweet said. Goats – meat, dairy and pygmy – are growing in popularity. “We’ve got some great goat leaders,” she noted. “They have workshops and are readily available to answer questions. From what I understand, raising goats doesn’t require a lot of space. It’s easier to raise goats if you have a smaller yard.”

The top non-livestock projects are photography, shooting sports, and arts and crafts, which includes fine arts and ceramics.

“We also have some great (photography) project leaders who offer workshops, and help kids whether they’re using a phone, drone or camera to take photos. They’re good at giving tips and pointers. That has helped our numbers a lot.”