4-H members, volunteers and alumni are familiar with the pledge: “I pledge my hands to larger service.” Michigan 4-H is pushing its members to serve their communities before the end of the summer.
National 4-H Council organized the Dare to Serve Challenge in 2019. While the initiative wasn’t taken up on a national level this year, D’Ann Roher, MSU Extension educator, said Michigan 4-H still wanted to participate.
“We took it upon ourselves as a small committee of five to get our volunteers, our 4-H families, and our leaders back and engaged into their communities,” she said.
“I pledge my health to better living” is the final part of the 4-H pledge. The committee wanted to bring that “H” into the fold when it came to this year’s dare.
“One of the things that was important that came up with our committee is how mental health has been such a big part of what’s happened in this last year and a half,” said Roher. “According to Mayo Clinic, when you do service to others, you are actually helping yourself mentally as well, so it decreases the risk of depression. It helps you stay physically and mentally active, and it reduces stress.”
Roher said that 4-Hers can pick whatever service project they want, as long as it’s benefitting their community.
“August is right before school starts, so this is the time that there are fairs taking place and clubs will do community service around the fairgrounds, or they’ll do it in their community as 4-H clubs,” she said. “Then they complete their form and submit it on our website. We are coloring each county green that submits a project through our Google Form, and hopefully every county will be green by the end of this month.”
Right now, about half of Michigan’s 83 counties have completed their challenge before the August 31 deadline. For more information, click here.
