The days of thinking of the 4-H movement as being a club for rural kids is gone and, in fact, the newest club on P.E.I. - The Lucky Clovers - has been formed in downtown Charlottetown.
Christine MacKinnon, provincial president of the organization, said that "we are in a bit of a decline and look for members in new places so we have a new club started right in downtown Charlottetown called The Lucky Clovers that meets in the Murphy Community Centre."
In an interview Saturday, she said "4-H is like every other youth organization on P.E.I., the numbers are declining especially in rural areas because families are faced with decisions about how they spend their time and their money and, to be honest, children these days have an abundance of opportunities. 4-H used to be a way to get travel and awards, but we have competition with school organization and children now have a lot of wonderful opportunities."
MacKinnon was attending the organization's annual general meeting in Cornwall.
During the meeting, prizes were given to top members, clubs and leaders.
There are more than 600 4-H members along with more than 300 adult leaders on the Island in clubs spanning the entire province, she said.
"It is the number one youth organization on the Island."
She said that many people think of 4-H as an agriculture club and indeed it does work to raise awareness of farming, "but we are looking for new members in a whole lot of new places . . . and actually most of our members don't live on farms."
She said people don't have to be a farmer to be in 4-H "and many of our projects are way beyond agriculture with projects in computers, woodworking, outdoor adventure, cooking and many others."
Because young people have so many choices these days "we have to stay relevant for our young people and we have a really exciting local food project that we are getting started that looks at local food, how it's grown, how it's produced, how it's cooked and served so we try to keep it interesting and fresh for our young people."
The 4-H movement has been going strong on Prince Edward Island for 90 years and is approaching its centenary in Canada. Since it began, MacKinnon said, more than two million people have been members nationally.
She is interested to see the numbers for Prince Edward Island.
She explained "the name 4-H comes from our pledge - we pledge our head to clear our thinking, our heart to greater loyalty, our hands to larger service and our health to better living for our club, community and country."
