According to the BC 4-H Club website, the Boys and Girls Club came into being in 1914. In the first year, over 200 young people between the ages of 10 and 18 were involved in competitions sponsored by the Department of Agriculture. The first clubs focused on potatoes, but later expanded to poultry in order to attract more young people and widen the influence of progressive farming practices on the BC farming community (see footnote below for source). When a local chapter of the Boys and Girls Club was formed in Salmon Arm is not known, but the Club was first mentioned in the Salmon Arm Observer in 1917.
The Boys and Girls Club was renamed 4-H in 1952. The name stood for the 4-Hs were: Head, Heart, Hands, and Health. The Four objectives of the 4-H are:
- To train the heads and hands of the boys and girls.
- To give them broad and big hearts.
- To improve their health by giving them an interest in outdoor life.
- To encourage, on the part of all Canadians, a strong and more intelligent interest in agriculture.
The objectives are accomplished by competing and exhibiting at Fall Fairs.
The motto of the club is “Learn to do by doing.”
Oddly, the first mention of the 4-H Club in the Salmon Arm Observer was in 1951 as members of Armstrong, Kamloops, Salmon Arm and Lumby 4-H Clubs joined together to attend
the PNE in Vancouver.
Over the years there were multiple branches within the Club including Beef, Dairy, Horse, Goat, Honey Bee, and Clothing Clubs. A 4-H District Council served the area from Sicamous, Mara, Grindrod, Deep Creek, Salmon Arm and Sorrento.
Footnote: History of BC 4-H Club https://www.4hbc.ca/contact/history