Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 20, 1995                   TAG: 9504200077
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

4-H HELPS KEEP KIDS IN SCHOOL, DEAN SAYS

But like other things that the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service does, 4-H has suffered from state budget cuts in the past few years, Swiger told the Roanoke Kiwanis Club on Wednesday.

Swiger's college oversees the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service. Extension is better known as the agency that provides county farm agents, but its agents also oversee 4-H activities.

The Extension Service has lost one-fourth of its state funding since 1989 and is down from 400 to 250 agents. During the same period, the faculty in the College of Agriculture declined from 370 to 250 people, Swiger said.

About 120,000 Virginia children were involved in 4-H in some way during the 1993-94 school year, Swiger said. If 4-H helped keep just 100 of them in school, it helped save society millions, he said.

4-H is not just for farm kids. Forty-six percent of 4-H members come from cities or suburbs with populations of over 50,000, according to Virginia Tech; 41 percent from towns under 10,000; 8 percent from towns and cities of between 10,000 and 50,000 people; and only 5 percent from farms.

The lessons 4-H teaches children - in goal-setting, planning, competitive projects, performing, interacting with others, and leadership - help prevent such youthful afflictions as dropping out of school, welfare dependency, teen pregnancy and drug and alcohol abuse, Swiger said.