Examining Illinois 4-H member youth fair participation

Traditionally the 4-H Youth Development Program provides a mastery component for 4-H Members through a 4-H Fair where they can display their projects through evaluation and competition. The 4-H Fair is a deep-rooted tradition that consumes many resources including 4-H Staff time and energy (Arnold, Meinhold, Skubinna, & Ashton, 2007). The purpose of this study is to identify 4-H Member’s motivation as well as factors that hinder their participation in the 4-H Fair. This study was promoted to Illinois 4-H Members ages 12-18, although there are a few members that are outliers being younger than 12 and older than 18. Due to limited time and resources available to collect information for this survey, this study is lacking to encompass information from all Illinois 4-H Members that range from ages 8-18. The results of the study will assist 4-H Staff to make program improvements to increase involvement in the 4-H Fair