Couples across West Virginia and the United States can remember the moment they met and fell in love at a West Virginia 4-H summer camp or during a 4-H club meeting.

WVU Extension Service has launched 4-H Love Stories, an offshoot of the WVU Alumni Association’s WVU Love Stories project, in which university alumni are being asked to tell how they met on the WVU campus. The West Virginia 4-H program has brought together hundreds of couples who share their interest and enthusiasm for the youth development program and each other.

The first featured couple, Ben and Jo Statler, met at Camp Muffly in Monongalia County. He asked her to go steady and gave her his birthstone ring during camp. The couple, who have been successful in their business endeavors, made the single largest donation in WVU’s history in 2007 to support a mobile breast cancer clinic, Bonnie’s Bus, as well as to support programs in the WVU College of Engineering and Mineral Resources.

Other featured couples include Brent Clark and Becca Fint-Clark, who met through the 4-H program and who now both work as WVU Extension Service 4-H agents in Harrison and Monongalia counties, respectively. Brent asked Becca to marry him at WVU Jackson’s Mill, the home of the state 4-H camping program and the first 4-H state camp in the nation.

Jeff and Barbara Copenhaver-Bailey will also be featured. The Morgantown couple met through 4-H and were married at WVU Jackson’s Mill, located near Weston. They now serve as 4-H volunteers and their children are active in the program.

“It makes sense that the 4-H program would bring couples together,” said WVU Extension Service Associate Director Ann Bailey Berry. “These individuals share the same values and interests already through their participation in 4-H, and the program is known for its ability to help young people bond and build long-term relationships, whether of the romantic kind or the friendship kind.”

You can view the 4-H Love Stories at http://www.ext.wvu.edu/ and you can share your stories by visiting WVU Extension Service’s Facebook page, or e-mailing ExtensionCommunications@mail.wvu.edu.

-WVU-ES-

abb/11/22/10

CONTACT: Ann Bailey Berry, WVU Extension Service
304.293.5691; ann.berry@mail.wvu.edu