Make a difference for our county’s youth Ag Tag $10 Donation Benefits 4-H

Kentucky 4-H is one of the most important and influential youth programs in our state and our county. Across Kentucky over 279,000 youth ages 9 to 19 learn about leadership, citizenship and life skills in “learn-by-doing” experiences such as communications and public speaking, through agriculture projects like livestock judging, science projects with robotics, 4-H camp, Teen Conference, and many other 4-H programs and activities.

Here in Nicholas County, 58 youth belong to 4-H and are active in programs and activities such as Summer and Environmental camp Shooting Sports, Livestock Club, Cooking Club, and Teen Club just to name a few. These 4-H programs provide opportunities to our youth and train the next generation of leaders for Kentucky’s communities.

Many of today’s farmers learned valuable lessons while growing up as members of 4-H. Now there is an easy way farmers can help support the 4-H program that is so valuable to our community, our county and most importantly, our youth.

As you renew your farm license plate at the county clerk’s office, please make the $10 donation, a third of which goes directly to support 4-H programs and activities. I wanted to remind you now about the program since all farm license plates are renewed in March.

The Ag Tag Donation Program is supported by Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture Ryan Quarles. The money raised by the program is evenly split between Kentucky 4-H, Kentucky FFA, and Kentucky Proud, which promotes agricultural products raised, grown or processed in Kentucky by Kentuckians.

Last year Kentucky 4-H received $184,237 from the Ag Tag Donation program. These funds are split between the county where the funds originated and the Kentucky 4-H Foundation for state level programs.

Half of the 4-H share support programs right here in our county, making this a great opportunity for the local 4-H council, clubs and members to increase financial support for their programs. Last year, donations totaled $466.50 in our county.

The other half is used by the Kentucky 4-H Foundation to support state level programs that many of our 4-H members participate in which furthers their positive experiences and opportunities for advanced leadership, citizenship, and life-skills development.

Making your $10 donation is an excellent opportunity for our agricultural community to support the youth of our county and help fund the programs that can make a lasting difference in their lives. Kentucky 4-H gives Kentucky’s young people the chance to participate in constructive, educational and fun activities that teach them the value of hard work, discipline and participation.

Kentucky 4-H youth are doing the right thing by breaking through obstacles while pushing our country, our state and our county forward by making a measurable difference right where they live.

Kentucky 4-H has been given a tremendous opportunity by Commissioner Quarles to raise significant funds to support 4-H. But the scale of this success will be up to all of us in the 4-H family and how we promote and encourage our friends, alumni, and communities to step up and support 4-H through the voluntary donation.

Please remember to make your $10 donation when renewing each of your farm license plates in March. It will make a difference in the lives of our youth.