RICHMOND – The National 4-H Council has created this year’s theme for National 4-H Week, Opportunity-4All, to rally support for Cooperative Extension’s 4-H program and identify solutions to eliminate the opportunity gap that affects 55 million youngsters across America.

With so many children struggling to reach their full potential, 4-H stated, young people partnering with adults can play a key role in creating a more promising and equitable future for youth, families and communities across the country.

“In 4-H, we believe every child should have an equal opportunity to succeed. We believe every child should have the skills they need to make a difference in the world,” 4-H information stated.

Ray County 4-H will observe National 4-H Week by highlighting 4-H youth who support each other and their communities.

“We believe youth perspectives are so important and a solution to eliminating the opportunity gap, because young people come with new ideas and new ways of seeing the world,” Jennifer Sirangelo said.

Sirangelo is president and CEO of the National 4-H Council. By encouraging diverse voices and innovative actions, 4-H stated solutions can be found to address the educational, economic and health issues that have created the opportunity gap.

Youth will celebrate National 4-H Week by attending a church service as a club, wearing green or 4-H clover to celebrate National 4-H Week Spirit Day and passing out bookmarks to students to promote 4-H.

“4-H is the largest positive youth development program in the world, and our goal is to continue offering this program to all the youths in Ray County,” Emily Bergsieker said.

Bergsieker is field specialist for 4-H youth development.

“4-H Week is the perfect time to highlight the opportunities 4-H has to offer all youth, such as leadership development, empowerment of youth, service-learning, civic engagement and STEM education,” Bergsieker said.

In Ray County, more than 150 4-H youth and 70 volunteers are involved in 4-H.

One of the most anticipated events of National 4-H Week every year is the 4-H STEM Challenge, formerly known as National Youth Science Day, 4-H information stated. The theme of this year’s STEM event, which is expected to see hundreds of thousands of youth across the nation taking part throughout October, is Mars Base Camp. Developed by Google and the Virginia Cooperative Extension, Mars Base Camp is a collection of activities that teaches participants ages 8-14 STEM skills, including mechanical engineering, physics, computer science and agriculture.

To learn more about how you can get involved, visit http://www.4-h.org/.