ELIZABETHTOWN — More than 6 million young people across the country will celebrate National 4-H Week, an annual celebration of 4-H during the first full week of October. During this week, Bladen County 4-H will showcase the great things that 4-H offers young people and highlight the incredible 4-H youth in the community who work each day to make a positive impact on the community. This year, 4-H will also showcase a refresh of its brand, revealing new photography and creative materials that show the various life skills 4-H grows in young people.

Bladen County will kick off the week on Monday, Oct. 5 with a monthly meeting of the Green Team 4-H club at 6 pm. Then on Tuesday, our Bladen County 4-Hers will meet at the Elizabethtown Nursing Center to deliver hygiene packages filled with shampoos, soaps, toothbrushes, tissues, and more at 4:30 pm. On that evening at 6 p.m. We will attend the Bladen County Commissioner’s meeting to witness the signing of the proclamation declaring October 4-10, 2015 as 4-H Week in Bladen County. Then Wednesday, October 7 kicks off the 4-H clover sale at our local tractor supply store. Clovers will be available for a $1 donation at checkout beginning October 7 through October 18.

“Our programs and activities continue to grow in Bladen County 4-H,” said Stacie Kinlaw, 4-H agent. “We continue to focus our programming efforts toward improving health and nutrition through education and opportunity and increasing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics for Bladen County’s youth as a strategy to prepare them for careers beyond high school.”

Research has proven that participation in 4-H has a significant positive impact on young people. Recent findings from the Tufts University 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development indicate that, when compared to their peers, young people in 4-H are:

— Nearly four times more likely to contribute to their communities,

— Two times more likely to pursue healthy behaviors like, and

— Two times more likely to engage in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs in the out-of-school time.

In Bladen County more than 150 4-H youth, around 1000 other youth, and at least 25 volunteers from the community are involved in 4-H. To find out what is going on in our local 4-H programs, check us out on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/BladenCounty4H or call or email our local 4-H agent at Stacie_kinlaw@ncsu.edu or 910-862-4591.

Also during National 4-H Week, hundreds of thousands of youth from all around the nation will complete a single, innovative experiment on 4-H National Youth Science Day, which will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 7. The 2015 National Science Experiment Motion Commotion empowers youth to explore the physics of motion and distracted driving. Developed by Oregon State University.

Cooperative Extension, this exciting activity combines a speeding car collision and a distracted driving demonstration in a simulated activity that investigates the physical and human factors of motion. To learn more about National Youth Science Day, please visit http://www.4-h.org/nysd/.