Local officials celebrate 4-H Week
Senator George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, tried his hand at making apple cider when he stopped to give the 4-H office a proclamation declaring Oct. 4-10 as 4-H week.
State Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, is pictured at the 4-H office to give the staff a proclamation declaring October 4-10 as 4-H Week.
County Legislative Officials Fred Johnson and Tom Nelson declared October 4-11 4-H Week in Chautauqua County at the last legislative meeting.
Senator George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, tried his hand at making apple cider when he stopped to give the 4-H office a proclamation declaring Oct. 4-10 as 4-H week.
State Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, is pictured at the 4-H office to give the staff a proclamation declaring October 4-10 as 4-H Week.
County Legislative Officials Fred Johnson and Tom Nelson declared October 4-11 4-H Week in Chautauqua County at the last legislative meeting.
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Local government officials recently helped Chautauqua County 4-H celebrate National 4-H Week from Oct. 4-10.
The Chautauqua County Legislature, with the help of representatives Fred Johnson and Tom Nelson, passed a resolution to commemorate 4-H week and 4-H.
Johnson has a unique connection to 4-H that goes back to the 1800s. His grandfather was an orphaned immigrant teen who worked as a farmhand and ended up becoming a citizen and going to Cornell University. Somehow, it was learned that he didn't have a high school degree. Johnson's grandfather ended up in Westfield with a job and high school classes thanks to John Spencer.
Spencer was a Westfield resident who played a big part in the Cooperative Extension system in New York, of which 4-H is just one part. Spencer, fondly known as "Uncle John" by the thousands of students he reached across New York more than 100 years ago, was instrumental in the young naturalists movement of the late 1890s. Johnson believes Spencer was instrumental in helping his grandfather buy the farm that is now Johnson Estate Winery and had such an influence on his family's life that Spencer is his middle name.
State Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, issued a similar proclamation to "encourage all citizens to recognize and celebrate the positive impact of the 4-H programs." Borello stopped at the Cornell Cooperative Extension office to grind apples and make cider with the 4-H staff.
4-H Spark educator Sarah Hatfield will be making cider this month with October day camp programs and in classrooms to show children how cider is made.
National 4-H week is the first week that children aged 5-19 can join 4-H. Through 4-H clubs and projects, children can learn sewing, carpentry, leathercraft, ceramics and more. Some raise rabbits, dogs, hogs and other animals and learn every day skills.