Woodridge Gets Its Own 4-H Club

For the first time, members of the Woodridge Voyagers 4-H club will present their projects at this week’s DuPage County fair.

4-H, if you’re not familiar, is a youth development organization that emphasizes leadership, citizenship and learning by doing. 

(According to Facebook, most of you were familiar with 4-H with a 12-1 vote. However, it's probably fair to say that 4-H is less well-known in DuPage County than in other parts of the Midwest.) 

4-H community clubs meet throughout the year as students research and complete projects in more than 150 categories, from aerospace to child development to music and animals. You can show off a garment you sewed, a study on water quality or a pie you baked. 

These projects are presented and judged at the county fair. Some projects are selected to go to the state fair.

Woodridge's 4-H club 

Six million kids ages 5 to 18 participate in 4-H nationally, both in completing projects and in 4-H's leadership, in-school and other programs.

Just 300 of those students represent DuPage County's 22 4-H community clubs. Before 2010, there was no club in Woodridge.  

That’s when Brian Murphy, his wife, Angel, and their two children spotted the 4-H displays at the 2010 DuPage County Fair. Angel is a 4-H alumna who participated as a student in Ohio.

“We hadn’t seen 4-H in Illinois,” Brian Murphy said. “We saw the opportunity to participate.”

When the family heard there was no club in Woodridge, they decided to start their own.

There are only seven kids from four different families in the Woodridge Voyagers. All of them are between the ages of 5 and 9 and all of them attend

“We started off with the idea that we would start small and see how it went,” Murphy said. “It’s new to all of us.”

The students and their parents meet at the the third Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m. 

So far, Murphy said, 4-H has been a hit with the families.

"I like the hands-on activities and science experiments," said 8-year-old Cady Murphy. 

Cloverbuds (4-H's younger counterpart)

The younger kids, ages 5 to 7, are in Cloverbuds, which is to 4-H as Daisies is to Brownies or Cub Scouts is to Boy Scouts.

There are only four Cloverbud groups in DuPage County -- Woodridge is one of them. 

These students work on curriculum drafted by 4-H. Among other things, the Woodridge Voyagers studied rocket science, the American flag, time management, weather and air movement.

The Cloverbuds present their club project, instead of individual projects, at the county fair. The Woodridge Voyagers decided to present this year on rocket science. 

"I think it's interesting," said 5-year-old Cole Murphy. "I like the games and the crafts."

Why 4-H 

Murphy said what sets 4-H apart are the life skills the students learn and the support they receive.

“The kids are actually learning useful skills,” he said. “There’s sewing, cooking, woodworking…traditional skills they’re not learning anymore.”

4-H also focuses on achieving goals and public speaking and encourages older students to mentor the younger ones.

“It’s a well-rounded program that mixes ages,” Murphy said. “They’re able to be with older kids they can meet up with and see what other people are interested in. It builds confidence, as well as personal interest and group interest.”

The DuPage County Fair begins Wednesday and continues through Sunday. All of the non-livestock 4-H projects are housed in the 4-H building on the fairgrounds. Anyone visiting the fair can check out the projects through Sunday. 

Judges will finish looking at the more than 1,000 projects Wednesday. DuPage County 4-H Coordinator Christine Birns said the most popular topics were visual arts and photography, with hundreds of entries each. 

4-H in an urban county 

DuPage keeps up with other counties in terms of 4-H, Birns said, though the projects submitted to the county fair might have a different ratio of livestock to non-livestock than more rural counties. 

"We have one dairy cow, several goats, sheep and swine," Birns said. "The majority of livestock are poultry and rabbit...It's becoming more and more difficult as DuPage becomes more and more populated." 

To reach more students, 4-H has started more short-term special interest groups for students focusing on a specific topic, from running to dance to video. 

Through all its programming, 4-H reached 11,000 youth in DuPage last year and 18,000 youth in 2009. 

The Woodridge Voyagers club is looking for new members from ages 5 to 18. Anyone interested can attend the club’s meeting on September 21 at 7 p.m. at the

Anyone interested in attending a meeting or learning more about Voyagers 4-H can also email voyagers4h@yahoo.com.