This year we’ll be celebrating National 4-H Week on October 1-7, 2017. Across the country, 4-H members and volunteers will celebrate their achievements and promote 4-H work to families, friends and community leaders. Many will participate in the 10th 4-H National Youth Science Day – "Incredible Wearables." The 2017 class of 16 laureates will be inducted into the National 4-H Hall of Fame.

The first documented mention of a 4-H week was in 1926. Minnesota Governor Theodore Christianson proclaimed "Club Week" in April 18-24 to promote the work of the Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs as reported in

the April-May, 1926 issue of National Boys’ and Girls’ Club News.

It wasn’t until 1942, in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entry in WWII, that National 4-H Mobilization Week was first established on April 5-11 to promote club participation and the work of 4-H members to support the country and troops. President Roosevelt encouraged 4-H members nationwide, "Let your head, heart, hands, and health truly be dedicated to your country, which needs them now as never before."

Also established in 1942 was "National 4-H Achievement Week" on Nov. 7-14, when 4-H clubs would celebrate the accomplishments of the year’s club work and recruit and plan for the new 4-H club year.

With the end of WWII, the week was renamed in 1945 to "National 4-H Club Week." In 1962, it was changed to the first full week in March as "National 4-H Week." After some study and analyses by the federal 4-H staff, National 4-H Week became a fall event, moving to September 26 to October 3, 1964. For a few years thereafter it was held the week in which October 1 occurred. Finally, National 4-H Week was set in 1968 to the first full week of October, as it remains to this day.