Alberta 4-H members, past and present, are encouraged this year to give a penny and their thoughts on past club milestones.
The Century of Cents is a project initiated as part of the 100th anniversary of 4-H in Canada.
4-H Alberta is building a plaque featuring a penny from each 4-H year from 1913 to 2013. Each penny will be accompanied by information on an important event, milestone or achievement from that year.
“The plaque itself will have the penny and a highlight for each year, accompanied with an album that will hopefully have pictures and a write-up of each story or each milestone,” said Alberta 4-H centennial committee member Vanessa Goodman.
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“So essentially the album will be 100 pages and describe the history of 4-H over the past 100 years.”
The plaque will be displayed at the Alberta 4-H Centre in Westerose.
Goodman said it may be difficult to choose only one important event from each 4-H year, but the committee will sort that out once submissions are examined after the May 1 deadline.
Forms for submitting a highlight from a particular year are available at www.4h.ab.ca.
Goodman said most clubs have records of their activities, but she isn’t sure how many highlights will be submitted from activities in the early years.
“The most recent 20 or 30 years I don’t think will be too tough to find milestones for all those, but it’s the 1920s and ’30s and ’40s that we might have a bit of a tough time finding a milestone for each year,” she said.
“I know there’s been lots of history books written and people still have grandparents around that can maybe recall some stories or dig out some old ribbons, photos, newspaper clippings, that type of thing.”
There’s no need to send a penny immediately, she added. The committee will contact applicants if their applications are selected for inclusion.
Goodman said the Century of Cents project will be ready for display in January.
