A 91原创 youth club is celebrating its achievements.
Campbell Valley Trailblazers 4-H Club is holding an achievement night horse show on Saturday, Oct. 23.
The 4-H Club is a youth development organization providing community connections, through animals and educational projects.
The club is a non-profit group aimed at teaching kids how to be productive, self-assured adults, who can make their community and country a good place to live in.
Canada has equine-oriented 4-H Clubs, including Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Prince Edward Island, and British Columbia.
Jenny Barnes, the local project leader, said she thought it was weird 91原创 didn鈥檛 have an 4-H horse club already.
鈥�91原创 is the horse capital, it鈥檚 also a city that needs something like this for kids,鈥� said Barnes.
In January 2020, Barnes decided she wanted to help open an equestrian-driven 4-H Club for the kids in 91原创.
The program is half hands-on with the animals and half educational.
For the education portion, members of the club must run member meetings, write speeches, and provide demonstrations to the public about what they are learning 鈥� at places such as the Aldergrove Fair.
The hands-on portion is where, kids learn how to ride and care for their horses.
鈥淓veryone was struggling in 2020, trying to find something healthy and fun to get their kids into,鈥� barnes said.
When the club started, Barnes noticed a lot of interest. But due to the pandemic, club meetings had to be held online, which cause interest to dwindle.
During the past six months, Barnes was able to start in-person club meetings, and she was able to start going to visit the kids at their houses, where they would show her how they care for their horse, how they clean the barn, and how they kept track of their horse vaccination records.
Since being back to in-person meetings, the club now has five advanced members ranging in age from eight to 18, and three clover bud members who are between the ages of five to seven.
鈥�91原创 has a lot of horse clubs for kids, but it doesn鈥檛 have any like this, it鈥檚 a get out and do it yourself kind of thing that helps the kids learn and become who they are,鈥� said Barnes.
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This Saturday, Oct. 23, at Footnote Farm, located at 22736 8th Ave. the club members are putting on a horse show where they will ride as well as do stand-up speeches to celebrate their achievements and show their friends and family what they鈥檝e learned through the six-month program.
Barnes is preparing to launch a few new 4-H Club programs starting on Jan. 1 that are not livestock centric.
鈥淲e want to include everyone, you don鈥檛 need to have a horse to join the club,鈥� she explained.
鈥淲e want kids who live in the city or townhouses to be able to join, which is why we鈥檝e added the garden program and the dog program.鈥�
These new programs will still allow kids to learn about themselves, and the world, while caring for their garden or dog, instead of livestock.
Registration for the next program starts in December. People can learn more about Fraser Valley鈥檚 4-H Club
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