Butler County fell from 10,456 members in 2001 to 6,219 in 2010. On the other side of Interstate 75, Warren County jumped during that 10-year span from 2,132 4-H members in 2001 to 3,035 in 2010.
The Butler County Fair is expected to draw 100,000 people through the gates at the fairgrounds in Hamilton, but decreasing 4-H membership concerns organizers because participating youth draws attendance.
Ohio State Extension Educator Steve Brady suggested that funding cutbacks may be one reason why numbers have decreased.
“A lot of the funding depends on state and federal dollars,” Brady said. “When you reduce your work force, that reduces the (membership) numbers too.”
Based on 2010 enrollment, Butler County still ranked high with the second-most members among Ohio’s 88 counties, while Warren County ranked 19th.
Part of Warren County’s increase, Brady said, can be attributed to school enrichment programs like Real Money Real World, which educates students in grades 8-10 on financial management among other things for when they become adults.
“It’s a curriculum where the students will have several days of lessons on banking and things,” Brady said. “Then they go through a simulation where they’re given the identity of a 25-year-old adult and a career and they may or may not be married or have kids.
“There was a point where the school programs weren’t quite as developed as they are now,” he continued. “But we’re in six school districts now, and the numbers have increased because of it.”
Butler County offers more than 70 different clubs that cover all project areas, while there are 58 clubs in Warren County. Membership in the Butler County group includes a $3 activity fee and is available to anyone ages 5-19. In Warren County, the fee is $5 and eligibility is for anyone ages 5-18.
Those clubs reach out to all youth, not just those who live in a rural setting.
“That’s one thing we emphasize,” said Erin Simpson-Sloan, a 4-H youth program assistant with the Butler County Extension Office. “There are a lot of projects such as aerospace, science, electricity, safety and photography that kids can be involved in. It doesn’t have to be just about raising livestock anymore.”
4-H began not far from here in Clark County, according to the Ohio 4-H Youth Development website. In 1902, Albert Belmont Graham, who was superintendent of the Springfield Twp. school district at the time, held a meeting with 30 boys and girls with the intent of helping them learn more about harvesting and planting among other things.
Fourteen years later, that initial meeting led to the official establishment in 1916 of the Ohio 4-H program, which is a non-profit organization.
4-H is also extremely important when it comes to each county’s fair.
“It’s vital,” Brady said of Warren County’s Fair which ended on July 21. “It’s one of the peaks of the 4-H year for kids. I think fairs would still exist without 4-H, but they would certainly be missing a pretty big component.”
Brady and Simpson-Sloan both agree that life skills such as leadership and citizenship are among the core values that 4-H programs teach youth.
“It teaches you all about hard work,” said Franklin resident and Warren County 4-H member Rhea Sublett. “You can also step up to be a leader in one of the clubs, or do what I did and be on the Jr. Fair board or even a counselor.
“It gets you out of your shell and you get to be a role model for younger kids,” the 18-year-old continued. “It’s a really great feeling.
Sublett said she got into 4-H through a friend at age 10.
“I wanted to do it when I was younger because raising animals intrigued me,” Sublett said. “It’s really the best thing I’ve ever done.”
Brady and Simpson-Sloan both have hopes that membership increases in the years to come, but they realize that it is more likely to remain steady.
“Kids have so much to juggle these days,” Simpson-Sloan said. “We’ve stayed pretty steady the last few years, but we always work to get the numbers to increase. 4-H offers a lot of special interest projects where the kids can learn a lot of team building, life skills and leadership.”
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