4-H leaders remain cornerstone of program

If you are a 4-H’er, or lived in a rural community, you can always remember club leaders.

As I reflect on National 4-H Week, which is Oct. 5 to 11, with a theme of Beyond Ready, I can assure today’s 4-H leaders that what I learned many years ago about the importance of starting meetings on time, following protocol and how the use of Robert’s Rules of Order could ensure civility in a meeting. As a youngster, I was able to understand why that was important then and why it is relevant today.

I’m not sure if that was possible without the leadership of Genevieve and Bernard Campbell in Hoxie, Kansas. In that community, like many others in the High Plains, agriculture is the most, if not the only, economic driver. The Campbells were farmers and ranchers, but they saw how 4-H could impact rural and urban youth alike. Their own children were active in 4-H and encouraging to me, a relative newcomer to the town.

In an era before email and cell phones, it surely meant a lot of phone calls to help keep all those club families in the loop.

The elder Campbells are long gone now, but when I mention to other friends who grew up in the community that they were two of the club’s leaders they always reply, “Yes we remember them.”

In Sheridan County, there were multiple clubs and over time I learned that each of the clubs also had adult leaders that were stalwarts.

Over my many years in journalism it has meant several career moves, but in each town, I lived in 4-H was a reflective of the community’s pride in agriculture and youth development. I continue to marvel at the achievements of 4-H youth, and I hope that each of them takes time to thank those adult leaders who did or are in the process of shaping their lives.

Dave Bergmeier can be reached at 620-227-1822 or [email protected].