Reflections on visiting the Youth Building at the New York State Fair
Jennifer Gerfen ‘26, PRYDE Scholar
Photography: Marilu Lopez Fretts
I don’t think I’ve ever known peace as much as I have in the soft lighting of the 4-H building with a small baby chicken cupped in my palms. The chick was starting to fall asleep, and I cooed over her with other members of the PRYDE team who had come to visit the New York State fair.
The boy who had easily plopped the bird into my hands gave me a toothy smile, adjusting the 4H sash that was draped over his shirt. “Do you have any questions?” he asked.
Did I have any questions? I should - I was trying to engage the youth, to get involved and learn more about the 4-H programs that PRYDE was partnered so closely with.
“Where’d you get all these chicks?” I asked, nodding toward the sleeping yellow fuzz in my hand. I wanted to know about the small hands that had cradled the eggs, the curious faces that had pressed up to the incubators, the older minds who had guided the process.
The boy looked at me like I had three heads. “We got them from their mothers.”
I had to laugh. Learning about 4-H has been a daunting task, and this 8 year old boy was not equipped to answer all of my questions. The huge variety in the content and structure of the programs in 4-H has made it hard to understand what, exactly, 4-H is. Taking the PRYDE class has been able to answer some of my questions. The websites and articles we’ve looked at have given me visions of children learning to can fruit and paint and sew and raise rabbits and make presentations. I’ve also learned that 4-H isn’t just for children in rural areas, that it extends across the country and even abroad!
But visiting the 4-H building at the fair answered my questions more thoroughly than any article ever could. Stepping inside, we were immediately surrounded by what could only be described as the most vibrant kind of life. We passed through colorful exhibits containing handmade dresses, beautiful paintings, plates of cookies carefully wrapped in plastic. There were framed photographs, embroidery, poster boards - and even a live tarantula! Each item had a ribbon pinned to it, declaring it a winner of the Fair.
The rest of the PRYDE scholars and I got a grand tour from a young member of 4-H, who explained each exhibit. We learned about the way 4-H practitioners were beginning to get creative, combining STEM with art to increase child engagement. We made butterfly crafts with the kids, colored in quilt squares to give to youth in the foster care system, and talked to 4-H practitioners about the way their programs were run.
By the end of the day, after screaming on rides and feasting on candied popcorn, I’d had a great time bonding with the other Scholars. I felt like we were beginning to forge an identity for ourselves that extended a little further from the classroom that we occupied every Friday at 2:25.
But more than that, I was beginning to understand a little more about the youth that we’re so closely connected to. At its core, 4-H is an explosion of childhood. It honors the joy of youth while attempting to equip kids with real, tangible tools to succeed. And those tools might be shaped like cupcakes or paintbrushes or sewing needles, but they give kids a purpose, something to be proud of. 4-H offers youth a community to wrap themselves with, like one of the blankets they sewed together with the utmost care. And I’m proud to be part of an organization that supports such positive youth development - all while letting me hold baby chicks!