The Everything 4-H Club in Tarrant County showed great interest in fishing and incorporated this into a new project for youth to get outside, learn new skills, and have fun. Steve Gay, a retired teacher, is a new volunteer that desired to share his passion for fishing with inner-city youth. He and Jordan Peldyak, extension agent for 4-H Youth Development with the Cooperative Extension Program at Prairie View A&M University, worked together to expand the interest into a new program.
Arlington and Fort Worth (Family Action Center) Independent School Districts and 4-H volunteers combined resources to help provide fishing poles, tackle, and bait. The students had a great time learning new skills from the Take the Bait 4-H curriculum facilitated by volunteers and parents through beginner lessons on patience, knot tying, casting, baiting the line, and fish identification from the Take the Bait 4-H Curriculum. Each student worked in a classroom setting for multiple sessions practicing before the field trip.
School districts provided buses to transport students to Greenbrier Park in South Fort Worth, Texas, for a full day of fishing in May. The students caught three fish, which made the trip a great success! The students want to begin a year-long fishing program, so the plan is to build on the project’s early accomplishments this fall.
For more information on this article contact:
Jordan Peldyak
4-H Youth Development Extension Agent
Tarrant County
jordan.peldyak@ag.tamu.edu
(817) 884-1940