Chilliwack Senior Council would like to acknowledge and thank the Province of BC for their support.
4-H in Chilliwack
There are currently 10 clubs in the Chilliwack 4-H District, which includes Agassiz, Rosedale, Chilliwack, and Yarrow. A member joining 4-H in Chilliwack has many options in choosing a project to do. Beef, Cloverbud, Cavy, Dairy, Dog, Gardening, Horse, Photography, Rabbit, Sheep, Swine, Junior Leadership, Self- Determined & Senior Management.
The 4-H Program
4-H is a youth development program that has been centered around agriculture for years, but has expanded its' projects to include things such as Photography, Gardening, Crafts etc. 4-H is for youth ages 9-19. Ages 6-8 have a special project called Cloverbuds. Cloverbuds are not eligible to be enrolled in any other project, such as dog, rabbit, dairy, lamb etc. In the Cloverbud project, members learn about all the different project that 4-H has to offer. Members aged 9-13 is a Junior member. Ages 13-19 is a Senior member. 20 and 21 year olds have special projects that they can complete. 4-H is an amazing program that utilizes a project of the members choosing to teach responsibilty, goal setting and achieving, organizational skills, and record keeping. The member can get so much out of the project work in 4-H, but the program offers many more opportunities. In February each club holds speeches. Members in the Cloverbud project are encouraged to do a short speech but is just for the experience, as they do not compete or move on to district. The Cloverbud project is not about competition. For Junior members, their speech must be 3-5 minutes long. A Senior members speech must be 5-7 minutes. In addition to their prepared speech, Senior members must present a 1-2 minute speech on a topic given to them which they have 1 minute to prepare for. All speakers will compete against their age division and the top two will go on to compete at District level. Speeches are an excellent way to build valuable speaking skills. Senior members can go all the way to compete at Provincial level, and Juniors can go all the way to Regional. In March each club holds Demonstrations. In a Demonstration two members team up and show how to make or do something. It can be anything from baking cookies, to making a birdhouse, to learning self-defense. Each demonstration, Junior or Senior, must be 8-10 minutes long. The top two teams from Junior and Senior move on to District. From there Juniors can move on to Regional and Seniors can go all the way to Provincial. In May the district holds judging events. 4-H judging is where each member will place a class of four of something from 1-4 and must give reasons for their placings. There are two evenings during the week, one the members judge Horses and Rabbits, the other Dairy and Hay is judged. The Judging Rally is held on a Saturday and around five classes are judged. Judging builds important thinking skills in properly judging a situation and making a decision. There are no higher levels for Juniors to compete at, but the top Seniors in the district have a chance to go to the South Coastal Judging Weekend. This is a weekend of fun activities and a judging competition with other members from around BC. The top seniors also can compete at a judging competition during the PNE. During the summer there are many fairs around the Fraser Valley that different club can choose to attend. In our district we have two fairs, Chilliwack Fair and the Agassiz Fall Fair.