leadership legacy

for 60 years, the Airdrie 4-H Beef Club has been promoting agriculture and leadership in local youth.

Dan McKinnon was a charter member of the club when it started in December 1950 and gave a presentation about the club’s history at a reunion event on April 24.

“One of my uncles, Ed McKinnon, started the club and he was the leader for about six or seven years, and then my dad was leader and it went on,” says McKinnon. “We probably had about 35 members that first year; our biggest year, we got up to 56.”

The Calgary 4-H Region, which includes Airdrie and Rocky View, currently has 68 clubs with more than 1,000 members.

The organization dates back to the early 20th century when a youth program was established in Ohio; the four Hs stand for head, heart, hands and health. Although the focus of 4-H is often thought to be agricultural, in fact 4-H clubs, which spread internationally –including to Alberta in 1917 – promote topics as wide-ranging as leadership, public speaking and technology.

Locally, McKinnon says, there have been other 4-H clubs dedicated to beef, pigs, dairy, grain and even sewing. “This club has never been anything but beef,” he says. “We started out with steers and had heifers, as well.” Club members attended their first beef show in 1951.

“Originally, it was all rural clubs, with no town or city people involved. A lot of times we’d have meetings in farmhouses,” McKinnon recalls.

These meetings, he says, helped promote a sense of community, because while the kids met, the parents who had to haul their children to the meetings stayed and visited.

“Another thing the Airdrie Beef Club did was we started public speaking in 4-H; we started it in Western Canada,” says McKinnon.

McKinnon says that if there’s one legacy of 60 years of the Airdrie 4-H Beef Club, it is that it has developed “solid citizens.”

“It has made community leaders,” he says. “A lot of what [4-H does] is learning to communicate, and it stresses parliamentary procedures. We knew how to make motions and amend them.

“I’ve heard of people trying to hire somebody, and if they find [the candidate] was in 4-H, the next question is usually, ‘When can you start?’ 4-H members develop a real work ethic.” life

FoR MoRE INFoRMATIoN about 4-H clubs in Airdrie and area, visit www.4h.ab.ca

4-H clubs in the Airdrie area include:

• Airdrie 4-H Beef (heifer, cow/calf, market beef)

• Airdrie flying Hooves 4-H (english and Western horse, horsemanship)

• Airdrie Helping Hands 4-H Multi (environmental, leadership, visual arts, crafts)

• golden rod 4-H Multi (clothing, food, crafts, computers, technology)

• Midnight express 4-H Horse Club (english, Western and young horse, horsemanship, dressage)

• Balzac 4-H Beef (heifer, cow/calf, market beef) source: www.4h.Ab.cA