‘It’s the reason I volunteer’ Angela Crowe helps prepare children for the future with 4-H
Angela Crowe was a 4-H kid herself and now she’s a 4-H leader, giving back to an organization she believes is there to mentor future generations. “I can do this by sharing real life skills such as communication, marketing, healthy living and finance,” said Crowe, a local financial advisor. “The best feeling is providing them with a feeling of belonging, accomplishment and confidence. I have worked with some pretty amazing kids and that makes me proud. It’s the reason I volunteer.”
The purpose of the 4-H program is to prepare children for their future as adults. 4-H stands for head, heart, hands and health and their mission is to inspire, educate and develop youth into strong community leaders.
“The skills taught at 4-H are skills that are being lost - there are no electronics allowed at 4-H,” said Crowe, leader of the Beaverly 4-H club, that is more than 50 members strong and one of the biggest clubs in the province. “You won’t see them packing cellphones around. They need to be able to shake someone’s hand and look them in the eye, introduce themselves and tell you about their project.”
TChildren run their own monthly general meetings and their own monthly project meetings.
“These children can run meetings better than most adults,” said Crowe, who started volunteering with 4-H seven years ago. “Somebody did it for me and it’s a give back thing, right?”
Crowe is past president and current vice president of the Prince George District 4-H, beef leader and swine leader and the district beef chairperson.
“As club leader, I kinda coordinate all of my leaders,” said Crowe, who believes her many volunteers are the secret to the success of the big club. “I have some really great parents and some really great leaders that share the load.”
As beef and swine leader, Crowe teaches children how to feed the animals in a healthy way. She teaches them about an animal’s digestive system, reproductive system, and the pros and cons of the different breeds of animals.
“A lot of it is teaching with the focus on the tests the children have to write,” said Crowe. For younger children to move up in the 4-H world, they have to write a junior proficiency test to move on to be a senior 4-H member as they enter into secondary school, Crowe explained.
4-H isn’t just for children who live on a farm, there are plenty of urban projects that are suitable for those interested in getting involved. Participants can try their hand at gardening, including container gardening, foods and photography, or do projects on their dog or rabbit, a small engine or their bicycle, while children on the farm may choose do to projects on beef, swine, poultry, sheep, goat, lama and tractor, just to name a few.
Many projects that 4-H participants do are raising animals to go to market. The beef is an example of that.
“The children know from the beginning that this was the purpose of the animal in life and they weren’t going to have any other purpose,” said Crowe. “The end result was always going to be the same, so why not let them grow up with a kid and let them care for the animal and love them?”
The amount of work going into a project might surprise some people. The projects are so detailed that students can get secondary school credits for their efforts.
Children have to report all their care and feeding into a log that is kept throughout the project but that doesn’t seem to daunt participants.
“We’ve had a recent surge of membership,” said Crowe. “I believe it’s because of the consumer push from farm to fork, healthy living, and to buy local, which really supports us and what we’re trying to teach the kids.”
Crowe and her team of like-minded volunteers also organize beef clinics to help guide the children.
“We have a big three-day beef clinic coming up in May and we have a clinician coming from Alberta,” said Crowe. The clinic will include tips on feeding, grooming, and showing the animal.