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Our Illinois 4-H Story

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Remember what matters at this year's fair

As we look toward a summer filled with 4-H shows, we encourage you to remember this: It's never about winning; it's about being part of something more than yourself. It's never about being perfect; it's about being your personal best. It's never about beating someone else; it's about beating...
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5 lessons every 4-H member knows

Lessons come wrapped in all types of boxes. Here are five lessons every 4-H member knows. #5: You aren't going to win every time, and that's okay. How you lose is just as important as how you win. There's no way you're going to get through life #1 all the time. Real champions...
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Adventures Await in faraway places

What makes an Illinois teenager decide to travel to a new country and live for weeks with a family she's never met? For Lana Fitzgerald, it's adventure of the unknown. Lana was part of the 4-H intercultural exchange program and lived with a host family in South Korea for four weeks last summer....
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Raise your hand for 4-H

4-H, the largest youth development program in the nation, is calling on all alumni to raise their hands to help bring 4-H to 10 million youth by 2025. Currently 4-H empowers nearly six million young people in every county across America, including 26,500 4-H'ers in Illinois. For more than 100...
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Feeding your neighbor takes on new meaning

Some 4-H teens have taken the "hands to larger service" challenge of the 4-H pledge to heart and focused their 4-H energy feeding their neighbors. Clare VanSpeybroeck was recently honored by Illinois 4-H as a state community service award winner for her efforts fighting local hunger. Together, with...
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We're listening

We're listening now more than ever. Jump over to 4-H.illinois.edu and look at the new Illinois 4-H website. Yeah, we did that! Illinois 4-H is a thriving, growing, vital program reaching nearly 200,000 Illinois youth a year. In the past five years...
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Volunteers are key to 4-H shooting sports program

You wouldn't think it would work. The shooting sports program is one of the fastest growing projects in Illinois 4-H. The program offers four disciplines of focus: archery, rifle, shotgun, and wildlife/hunting. For some teens, shooting sports is the one reason they joined and stayed in 4-H during...
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You never really leave

If you attended University of Illinois, this campus will always hold special memories for you. As a young graduate, I would stop by campus on my way through from where my first job took me to where I was born. After marriage and babies, I would still stop, toddlers in tow, to show them the quad,...
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Blog Authors
tina veal

Tina Veal

4-H Alumni & Constituent Engagement Manager