National 4-H Week is Oct. 1-7. In honor of this week, a Rowan County 4-H’er is sharing their 4-H experience. Happy National 4-H Week! 

By Lucas Weeder
Rowan County 4-H member

My name is Lucas Weeder, and I am a 15-year-old Rowan County 4-H’er. I have been in 4-H for 4 years. I am president of the Rowan County 4-H County Council, and president of the West Rowan 4-H Explorers 4-H Club. My interests are public speaking, leadership, technology, art and 4-H. I am in the 10th grade and I am homeschooled. This year I have participated in 4-H Winter Enrichment, Teen Retreat, North Carolina 4-H Citizenship Focus, NC 4-H Congress, community service projects and many 4-H club- and county-level meetings. 

For National 4-H Week, I want to talk about how 4-H has helped me in life and made me who I am today. When I first joined 4-H, I was very shy and didn’t like speaking in public. In fact, most of the time I would say I was being forced to do literally anything. But thanks to 4-H, now I lead County Council and 4-H Club meetings using parliamentary procedure and I won state silver with my 4-H presentation this year. After presenting my presentation to my local 4-H club, at county level, district level and state level, I am now way more comfortable with public speaking than I used to be. For the longest time, being homeschooled and all, I never really got out of the house much, nor had many true friends. But now that I’m In 4-H, I’ve met such amazing people that will presumably be in my life forever. Along with that, I’ve also learned to not take people in your life for granted. I’ve also learned pages upon pages of leadership skills, things about North Carolina culture and countless other things I can’t even name. 

Thanks to generous scholarships from 4-H PALS (a group of Rowan 4-H supporters) and other amazing groups, I was able to go to all these amazing events, with NC 4-H Congress being the highlight of it all. I met new people, learned new things via the various workshops hosted by the state and district 4-H officers, and have learned patience through any obstacles I have faced. In all, I have had a blast. Into adulthood, these are memories I can look back on to make me smile and cry. The entire event will always replay through my head, forever. I cannot wait to see my best friends at the next 4-H event.

4-H is a fantastic program to get involved in, and I cannot say enough nice things about my 4-H experience. Thank you for reading. 

4-H is the youth development component of Cooperative Extension. Any youths ages 5-18 (as of Jan. 1) are invited to enroll and participate in 4-H. Visit us at 2727-A Old Concord Road in Salisbury or rowan.ces.ncsu.edu. For questions or more information, contact 4-H Agent Laura Allen at 704-216-8970 or laura_allen@ncsu.edu.