4-H no longer just ‘cows and plows’
Published 2:40 pm Monday, July 7, 2008
It’s summertime, summertime, sum… sum.…summertime — and 4-H rules.
The familiar cloverleaf is seen everywhere on T-shirts, where boys and girls participate in the nation’s largest youth development organization, serving 6 million young people world-wide.
Today, the national organization is seeking kids interested in science, engineering and technology.
Long ago it shed its stereotypical image of a “cows and plows” organization.
Today, it’s as much an urban-based endeavor as it is rural-based.
But no where else than the County Fair shine more brightly.
As July arrives, 4-Hers in Mower County are preparing the livestock and non-livestock projects they will exhibit at County Fairs throughout the nation.
Each year, Mower County hires a summer assistant to help make sure the 4-H experience is a positive one for all the children and teenagers.
Brenda Reiter is that person this summer in Mower County.
A resident of rural Elgin, Reiter is the daughter of Craig and Cathy Reiter. She has four siblings.
Presently, she is a sophomore at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Her major is animal science with a pre-vet emphasis.
Her parents raise 60 grade Holstein dairy cows.
Reiter belongs to the Viola Victors 4-H club. She exhibited beef and poultry at the state fair and also exhibited dairy and swine.
The 4-H experience changed Reiter for the better.
“Definitely, it changed me,” she said. “It gave me a lot of people skills that I didn’t have.”
“It started me public speaking when I was only in the second-grade and that has really affected my life,” she said.
“It has taught me how to network with people and given me some of the best friends I have today,” she said.
According to Reiter, her mother is a Key leader in her home 4-H club and served as a food superintendent for many years.
Her personal 4-H experiences have included non-livestock projects, including foods and gardening.
As the Mower County 4-H summer assistant, she will be immediately immersed in all that 4-H is in the county. At the June 25 4-H cookout fundraiser, she served food, directed traffic through the Plager Building, mingled with 4-Hers and was introduced to countless new faces.
Showing aplomb beyond her years, Reiter was “secretly” working on personal goals she has set for her 11-week stint in Mower County.
“Number one, I want to make the most out of this opportunity and really learn how 4-H is run from the administrative side,” she explained.
“My second goal is to do something special here and improve upon something that Mower County has,” she added.
Those areas include the Fashion Revue and the other is arts.
“I really want to leave my mark, because I know this job is going to help me and I want to help Mower County 4-H as well,” she concluded.
Projects, projects and more projects
With the arrival of summer the work of the Mower County Extension Service staff turns upward a notch.
Why? The Mower County Fair is coming Aug. 5-10.
Melissa Koch is Mower County’s 4-H programming coordinator. It’s her job to make sure everything runs smoothly, particularly the head, heart, hands and health of 4-H.
Koch was in action at the June 25 4-H cookout fundraiser.
“This is the first one we have ever had in Mower County,” Koch said. “It’s to help pay for more costs. Everything is going up.”
According to Koch, who was herself a former Mower County 4-H summer assistant, there are new needs such as the 4-H after school program which is growing in participation.
There’s also the adventure programs, which Mower County 4-H offers through the Austin Public Schools Community Education program.
“All those programs are starting to grow and build and there are costs associated with them,” Koch said.
This summer, another new program; the 4-H Summer Junior Gardener program was introduced June 26.
“We have lots of new projects and kids interested in 4-H,” she said.
One of those new projects is the llama livestock project. Al Mandt, rural Rose Creek, is one of the adult leaders and the superintendent coordinating the llama project which debuts at the 2008 Mower County Fair.
This summer, there are 62 Cloverbuds — pre-4-H children — participating in 16 clubs. The Cloverbuds are part of the regular 4-H clubs although too young to participate in competition.
There are about 470 4-Hers enrolled in 16 clubs.
The always-popular 4-H Day Camp will be held at Adams City Park in July, plus Koch will help coordinate a new 4-H Teen Camp at Blooming Prairie in cooperation with Freeborn and Steele counties’ 4-Hers on July 14.
Koch is encouraged by the interest shown in the new projects being introduced this summer. There’s always the risk, 4-Hers will not participate.
Not so in Mower County.
“We have 10 4-Hers interested in showing llamas for the first time this summer at the Fair,” she said.
Meanwhile, goat projects continue to grow in popularity after debuting only 3 years ago.
The “giant” of 4-H livestock projects remains swine. More 4-Hers show swine than any other livestock project.
Koch has reason to be encouraged this will be another successful summer for Mower County 4-Hers.
“Everything is growing. Our beef projects are growing, our horse projects are growing. Those are very good signs for 4-H,” she said.
Pot o’ 4-H gold at end of Fair
Behind the scenes work has begun in perhaps, the most important area of them all — next to the competition — and that is the 4-H Market Livestock Ribbon Auction.
Scheduled Saturday, Aug. 9, in Crane Pavilion on the Mower County Fairgrounds in southwest Austin, this is the single largest fundraiser for 4-H programming in Mower County.
Money raised from the Ribbon Auction supports all areas of 4-H: Livestock and non-livestock.
A year ago, the Ribbon Auction raised $43,500 for 4-H. It was a new record, surpassing 2006’s old record of $41,175.
Over 300 buyers from every community in Mower County and some towns in neighboring counties have a sit-down breakfast with 4-Hers to hear what the program means to them and then march over to Crane Pavilion and listen to the exhortations of volunteer auctioneers on a Saturday morning in August.
The results: The bottom line includes 4-Hers smiles and a financially solid program.
Another example how 4-H works for the benefit of all.
The first impression of 4-H summer assistant made on her first day of work June 2 was positive.
“They were all super-friendly,” she said. “On my first day, I met some of the volunteers and I was really impressed with how many people in the community and Mower County support 4-H. I thought that was really neat.”
Neat, indeed and it’s only July.
Wait until she sees the 2008 Mower County Fair in August.