Okay, agreed, the accompanying photo is old. However it is of a Marin 4-H Club — and six of Marin’s current 4-H Clubs have recently merged into a countywide organization thanks to a $25,000 grant from San Rafael’s Miranda Lux Foundation.
This nearly 100-year-old photo is of the West Marin (Tomales) 4-H Club that had just cleaned up the abandoned office of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad who’d recently stopped running trains in the area. At a subsequent meeting members were reportedly told that, “the club’s apiary group raised $113.71 on sales of honey from the club’s 31 beehives.” The photographer, Marett Burridge “M.B” Boissevain, was farm advisor for U.C’s Cooperative Extension Service from 1920 to 1950 who advised 4-H Clubs throughout the county. Organized nationwide in the 1920s, 4-H Club’s mission was to provide hands-on learning for five to 18-year-old boys and girls. The four “H”s represent Head, Heart, Hands and Health.
Regarding the organization’s role in Marin, Novato’s Elisabeth Wade is quick to discount that 4-H Clubs deal only with agriculture. “By no means do we relate only to farming,” the volunteer project director says, “Our clubs meet in Novato’s Indian Valley, in San Rafael and, yes, in West Marin.” According to Wade, “They focus not only on, say, lamb birthing, but topics also involve skeet shooting, rocketry and public speaking, depending on their current interests. Currently, in Marin, about 300 youth members and 75 adult volunteers are active in 4-H Clubs. And thanks to the recent Lux Foundation’s grant, there is no cost involved in becoming a 4-H Club member or adult project supervisor.
