Celebrate 4-H Week by joining up

By Rachel Mendell

This week we have been cel­e­brat­ing 4H week and I would like to share my rea­sons for cheer­lead­ing the program.

Grow­ing up in Phoenix, I had heard of 4-H, but had never known any­one in 4-H. I was raised Lutheran and was involved in a group called Lutheran Girl Pio­neers which is a lit­tle like Girl Scouts except that you earn charms to hang on a bracelet instead of badges. (LGP did not sell cook­ies, alas.)

Our large fam­ily started 4H the year after we moved to this area from Pataskala. Our small club, Higher Ground, included four to seven fam­i­lies, depend­ing on the year. Soon after start­ing the club we added a Clover­bud group as well.

I was amazed at the amount of edu­ca­tional mate­ri­als my fam­ily and I worked through each sum­mer. The mate­ri­als were well-written, incre­men­tal, and con­tained many oppor­tu­ni­ties for fur­ther study in the topic. Some fam­i­lies I got to know even bought the books from the exten­sion office for their own projects after the 4H sea­son was over.

Even though we lived in the coun­try, we were unsure about tak­ing on the respon­si­bil­ity of farm ani­mals, so among the project we took were Rope, Com­put­ers, Small Engines, Gar­den­ing (both flower and veg­etable), Rock­ets, Cats I and II, Small Ani­mals (ger­bils, ham­sters, aquar­i­ums, para­keets), Archery, Fish­ing, Sewing (for self and for oth­ers), Lawn Care, Remote Con­trolled Vehi­cles, Vet­eri­nary Sci­ence, Car­pen­try and Work­ing With Wood, Cook­ing, Bak­ing and Writing.

Besides work­ing through three to four books per child per sum­mer with four to six of my chil­dren, there were other solid skills we all learned. The meet­ings were orga­nized using Robert’s Rules of Order. Each mem­ber of the group was respon­si­ble for some­thing – run­ning the meet­ing, being the helper, tak­ing notes, count­ing and keep­ing track of the money, writ­ing the reports for the news­pa­per, bring­ing the snack, decid­ing what orga­nized game would be played after the meet­ing was adjourned. I watched my chil­dren make motions, take nom­i­na­tions and vote. I was amazed how fast they learned the pledges that we recited at each meeting.

There were the com­mu­nity ser­vice projects too. Higher Ground took a Meals on Wheels route one day each year and cleaned up a sec­tion of our many county roads for Trash Bash. The older chil­dren worked the food booth at the fair which taught them skills in work­ing with peo­ple, mak­ing change and say­ing “I’m sorry” when a mis­take was made. One year we sold apples. Another year were adopted a bar­rel of flow­ers at the fairground.

The most chal­leng­ing respon­si­bil­i­ties for my fam­ily were the demon­stra­tions and the judg­ing. The demon­stra­tions in our club were set up the meet­ing before. This worked well, because the chil­dren knew they had two weeks to pre­pare. I liked the demon­stra­tions because I learned so much. It also gave us ideas for our next demon­stra­tion. In our 4-H group we used our demon­stra­tions as a sort of pre-judging for our projects.

The county judg­ing was a lit­tle more high-stress. When a 4-Her takes four projects, judg­ing day can be nerve wrack­ing. Mul­ti­ply that by six and that is what we kept track of. In our meet­ings we prac­ticed how to speak to a judge (eye con­tact, respect, shak­ing hands, no hats, smil­ing) and quizzed each other in prepa­ra­tion. At home I made sure every­one had every­thing they needed at least two days before.

Watch­ing the judg­ing at the county fair­grounds was always a learn­ing expe­ri­ence. We were all gath­ered as a group and talk­ing, while at the same time lis­ten­ing for our mem­ber names to be called. An invis­i­ble line was drawn between the quiet judg­ing area and the chaos that was kids, par­ents, advis­ers, small ani­mals and posters. Once the child crossed the line toward the judge they were on their own – sort of like mov­ing out of the house for 15 min­utes. I must admit I felt pride in watch­ing each of my chil­dren shake the judge’s hand and answer his questions.

The judges were always kind, although one judge had the rep­u­ta­tion for ask­ing very hard ques­tions and was feared because of that. One of my sons had that gen­tle­man as a judge and reported back that he “was a really nice guy.”

Once judg­ing was over our fam­ily always had pizza. It was a cel­e­bra­tion for the chil­dren and a huge relief for me.

Now my youngest is in 4-H with the Iberia Junior Farm­ers and we have dipped our big toe into the world of farm ani­mals. I am amazed how com­fort­able she is with car­ry­ing her broiler hens and han­dling her rab­bits. All I remem­ber about chick­ens from my child­hood is being chased by a rooster, and rab­bits were some­thing my dad hunted on the week­ends. Rab­bits and lay­ers are now part of my life and I curse rac­coons and ground­hogs along with the rest of my neighbors.

With the rais­ing of meat comes the show and the auc­tion. My youngest was ner­vous to the point of tears at her first show­ing and the judge had to bend down to hear her answers to his ques­tions, but she did very well. Last year she was still ner­vous, but han­dled her rab­bit like a pro. She has also done very well at auction.

I would like to encour­age all par­ents that have been sit­ting on the fence about 4-H to join. There is still time, and you don’t have to live out in the coun­try. Call your local exten­sion office and they can hook you up with a club. It’s a lot of work, but worth it. I’ve watched my grown-up chil­dren fly through job inter­views and accept the chal­lenges of lead­er­ship in many areas. I know this is because of the skills they prac­ticed in 4-H.

Give you chil­dren an extra edge in life – Join 4-H.

Posted by Rachel Mendell on Mar 7 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.