Mitchell 4-H first youth group named to ‘Clean 13’
Mitchell 4-H first youth group named to ‘Clean 13’
CAMILLA — The University of Georgia Cooperative Extension 4-H program in Mitchell County was recognized as a Clean Water Hero in the Georgia Water Coalition’s 2021 Clean 13 Report. The annual Clean 13 Report highlights exceptional efforts to protect Georgia’s water resources.
Mitchell County 4-H is the only youth-serving organization to receive the honor in the five years since the report was established.
Mitchell County Extension created a 4-H2O Camp in 2008 as a collaboration between UGA’s C.M. Stripling Irrigation Research Park and Mitchell County 4-H. The camp provides an innovative way to educate children and adults about the importance of Georgia’s water resources and water conservation.
Learning about water conservation education is particularly important in southwest Georgia, where the essential resource has a significant impact on the extensive farming community. In recent years, this region has also experienced extended droughts, ongoing political battles with neighboring states over water use, and a devastating hurricane.
Since its founding, hundreds of students from Mitchell County, as well as surrounding counties in south Georgia and Alabama, have attended the annual, three-day 4-H2O Camp, at which students learn from experts including irrigation specialists, solar energy specialists, meteorologists and wildlife biologists. Mitchell County 4-H agent Debra Cox coordinates the camp alongside Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent Brian Hayes.
Cox emphasized that students learn while having fun as they use food, interactive models and other hands-on activities as educational tools, noting that several graduates of the 4-H2O Camp are now working in water conservation and related fields.
“Mitchell County 4-H has hosted the 4-H2O Camp for 14 years, and this is the second award we have received,” Cox said. “In 2019, Mitchell County 4-H and C.M. Stripling Irrigation Research Park received the Georgia Project WET Organization of the Year. 4-H2O Camp is a program that will continue to teach our youth to be good stewards of water in and around southwest Georgia.”
Hayes added, “It is a great honor to be the first youth organization to win the Clean 13 award and to be recognized among some great honorees.”
For more information on 4-H2O Camp, contact Mitchell County Extension.
The University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (working cooperatively with Fort Valley State University, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the counties of Georgia) offers its educational programs, assistance, and materials to all people without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation or protected veteran status and is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action organization.