By Angela Brown

Eagle Hills Multiple 4-H Club shows resilience in staying together amidst pandemic

Feb 5, 2021 | 3:26 PM

NORTH BATTLEFORD, Sask. – There has been continued strong interest in the Battlefords area 4-H club despite the ongoing pandemic.

Eagle Hills Multiple 4-H Club currently has 32 members, mainly from North Battleford, Battleford, Meota and south of Battleford.

Many youth joined or renewed their memberships last September, and a few more signed up since then.

“We do our registration in early fall,” general leader Erin Cooper said. “At that point, not a lot of activities were being offered, or in a very limited scope… We were lucky; we are still lucky. We are still able to do some stuff… and offer a program. Not in its entirety, but we were still able to offer that program. So that was good for us.”

The club was still providing light horse clinics up to about mid-November when the province’s COVID-19 restrictions were increased further.

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“When those major rules came into place, where it was eight people or less [maximum], like sports, that is kind of when we shut down a little bit,” Cooper said, of the province’s current public health measures for indoor sports activities in effect.

Scott L’Heureux, a light horse group leader, said there were a few light horse clinics offered in the fall to instruct the youth on developing good riding skills, and safe horse handling. Currently all the light horse activities are postponed. While it’s necessary to stay within the COVID-19 requirements, it is a little bit frustrating for the youth, he said.

“I have a lot of kids that would want to participate,” L’Heureux said. “They are not happy about it, that’s for sure.”

There are 21 youth in the light horse group, which he said is a popular program.

L’Heureux is looking forward to conditions improving so the kids can get back in the saddle again.

“I’d like to try and get them outside, when it warms up,” he added.

The club normally offers a range of activities for youth. In addition to light horse training, they can take on canine or robotics projects, outdoor living pursuits, flower arranging, young leadership training, archery, or public speaking.

Cooper said the Eagle Hills Multiple 4-H Club programs are mainly running virtually now, due to the restrictions on face-to-face get togethers.

The club did manage to get together as a group for Halloween, to rent the movie theatre in North Battleford, while following COVID-19 precautions and social distancing, as directed by theatre management.

“It was awesome,” Cooper said. “Our club was able to go, be safe and do something different.”

“We were starting off 4-H with a really good year. We had done a couple of get togethers,” she said. “We were trying our best to try and stay together as a club.”

The various groups won’t be able to work on projects in-person for the time being, as the province’s current tight restrictions are set to continue to Feb. 19. The club is hopeful if COVID-19 numbers improve enough, potentially the province might ease some of the restrictions after that time, so the club can do more activities again in the near future.

The club decided to take a break from its activities in January, so everyone could stay home and stay safe.

“We are such a big club. We had quite a few members who were in schools that are having issues. So we said ‘Let’s just take the month of January off,’” Cooper said.

The club is looking at having an online event later in Feb. for the public speaking group.

Then, on March 20, 4-H Saskatchewan will hold its annual general meeting in a virtual format. District Delegates for the North West region will meet in North Battleford to take part in the event via video conferencing.

Rebuilding momentum

Cooper said the club members are looking forward to the weather starting to improve in the spring, so the club can go outdoors again, where there is greater air flow, and it will be easier to hold activities to meet COVID-19 restrictions.

“We’re just hoping in the spring we can maybe get some good [activities] going again – to rebuild up our momentum we had going,” Cooper said.

For the time being, activities are being held online instead.

“Our projects are still in place. They can still meet virtually,” Cooper said.

She added the club appreciates the community’s encouragement, during a challenging time for youth activities across the province.

“Thank you to the community for their continued support for 4-H,” Cooper said. “It’s been a different year, but we are happy for the support.”

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW