Originating back to 1923, the Portland Prairie 4-H Club is the oldest 4-H club in Houston County that has been in an active status. Next year, 2021-2022, is the club's 99th anniversary. Our club will be busy planning a 100 year celebration in the next year! If you are interested in helping please contact the Extension Office. It is great to see that many of our youth members are descendants of our founding members. We currently have about 30 youth members and are growing.
While the 2020-2021 year has brought us many challenges, our club has remained active. We held zoom meetings for a few meetings but our youth wanted to meet outdoors and still remain involved. We had club meetings that included pumpkin carving contests, collected money for the local Care & Share program and Christmas Caroling to Eitzen Residences. We have continued to serve our community by cleaning up the roadside with ditch cleanup! The youth also helped rake the park to get ready for the Eitzen Family Fun Fest. Other activities include, bowling, sledding, demonstrations at meetings, farm tours, hayrides and more.
This year we took an educational trip to Decorah, IA and visited the fish hatchery. The summer was filled with our youth getting ready for the Houston County Fair. Our youth worked together to make our Booth for the fair with personalized barn quilts. We have youth that participate in all areas in the fair from livestock to all areas of non-livestock.
We meet the second Sunday of each month at the Eitzen Community Center at 1:30 p.m.