But they stop for Joey Gadd.

Only 9 years old and dressed sharply in his white and green uniform, Joey knows how to attract customers. "Would you like to pet my guinea pig?" he calls out to shoppers outside Gene's Market in Saratoga. As the crowd gathers around his table, he immediately tells them what he really needs: to save 4-H, a youth organization.

Due to budget constraints in Santa Clara County this year, 4-H and five other community programs have been slated for elimination. The move has drawn protests from community members and prompted many like Joey to run petition drives and host fundraisers.

The programs are run in conjunction with the University of California Cooperative Extension service. Those on the chopping block include food and nutrition classes for low-income families and Master Gardener, which trains community members in horticulture and garden maintenance work.

The 4-H and Master Gardener programs are the two most popular UCCE programs in Saratoga and Los Gatos. Joey is just one of more than 90 students, ranging in age from 5 to 18, who participate in 4-H in Saratoga and Los Gatos; countywide, this number jumps to roughly 800 students. Master Gardener has around 250 volunteers involved in the program.

Originally a program designed to teach students about agriculture and farming, 4-H began a century ago as an effort to bridge the gap between university research and public education. In the mid-1800s, the federal government had given money to establish "land grant" universities, such as Berkeley and Cornell, and promote research in agricultural science. Worried that this knowledge was not trickling down from the universities to the public, Congress created the cooperative extension service in 1914, establishing the base for programs like 4-H.

Santa Clara County and the UC system entered into a partnership agreement in 1967, bringing 4-H and other similar programs under one umbrella. Under the arrangement, Santa Clara County would pay only for a fraction of the UCCE program, bearing the costs of office space, administration support and transportation. In recent years, this has run to roughly $433,000 per year. In comparison, the UC system pays around $1.8 million to keep the programs running.

County officials said that UCCE is one of the only nonmandated programs in its division, making it the first target for cuts. Santa Clara County Agricultural Commissioner Greg Van Wassenhove said that he was asked to cut $422,000 of his $9 million budget for the year, almost exactly the amount it costs his department to fund UCCE.

Neither the state nor the UC system will increase the amount of monetary support they provide for the program, said Rachael Gibson, land use policy aide to Santa Clara County Supervisor Don Gage.

UCCE officials said that if the program is pulled out of the county, it might never come back.

"The probability for the university to come back is nonexistent if the county decides to retire the support," said Maria de la Fuente, UCCE county director and farm adviser.

Although Van Wassenhove said that officially UCCE is still on the slate to be cut, supervisors are working on other solutions to save the programs. Although the county currently pays approximately $433,000 to run the program, that amount could be reduced significantly by moving the programs to another building and cutting some administrative costs.

Even with these reductions, the county would face a $120,000 shortfall. Gibson said that the county was willing to find other sources to pay for half of this deficit, but the state adamantly refuses to pay the other $60,000. The state will also not allow the county to save only a few UCCE programs, telling county supervisors that it's all or none.

Until last week, the state advised the county against accepting individual donations, Gibson said. Two individual donors have contacted Supervisor Gage's office about partially or fully funding the program for the next year.

"We've been asking these folks to hold off, because we are trying to solve this ourselves. We very much appreciate their willingness to help, but we hope that we will not have to call on them," said Gibson. She suggested that before sending in donations, community members write their state legislators to ask for increased state support of UCCE.

If the county and the University of California do cut the program, 4-H participants say, they will lose a valuable service to the community.

"This is the Valley of Heart's Delight, this is what Santa Clara County was born from. Who are we if we completely forget where we come from?" asked Deborah Lange, who serves on the Santa Clara County council for 4-H.

Eighth-grader and Monte Sereno resident Jennifer Coe said that 4-H not only teaches students leadership and responsibility, but helps them develop a sense of civic involvement. She cited a Christmas gift drive for low-income families hosted by 4-H as one example of the group's dedication to community service.

"All these kids work really hard, and it's not really fair to take it away from us," she said.

For more information on UCCE, contact Supervisor Don Gage's office at 408.299.5101 or email dgage@garlic.com or rachael.gibson@bos.sccgov.org. Supervisor Gage's office is located at 70 W. Hedding St., San Jose, CA 95110.