Morrow County 4-H celebrates its 111th year

By Randa Wagner -

The first full week of March is tra­di­tion­ally Ohio 4-H week, and for Mor­row County, mem­ber­ship is as strong as ever.

“This is the 111th year for 4-H in Mor­row County!” Mor­row County 4-H Coor­di­na­tor Becky Becker told com­mis­sion­ers Feb­ru­ary 27. “We’re for­tu­nate we have 4-H in all four pub­lic schools, and we have the sup­port of the agri­cul­tural community.”

Barker, who is in her 20th year, esti­mates the Mor­row County 4-H orga­ni­za­tion ranks eleventh in Ohio for the num­ber of youths in 4-H. She reported there are 864 youth in tra­di­tional 4-H clubs, and 2,786 youth in the county receive exten­sion edu­ca­tion programming.

“That’s 40%!” she exclaimed. The youth are sup­ported by a league of vol­un­teers, namely 251 adults and 25 youths. Barker said she keeps a data­base of 4-H youth enroll­ment in the county, as far as what exten­sion pro­gram­ming provides.

Barker said the 2013 Ohio 4-H Vol­un­teer Con­fer­ence takes place in Colum­bus Sat­ur­day, March 9, bring­ing youths and adults together for train­ing, edu­ca­tion and fun.

The 4-H pro­gram in Mor­row County is offered through the OSU Exten­sion office in Mt. Gilead, who also pro­vides pro­grams for Agri­cul­ture and Nat­ural Resources, Fam­ily Con­sumer Sci­ence and Food and Nutrition.

“The major­ity of this is (directed by) Dana Brown, Jeff McCutcheon, LeAnne Leon­hard and myself,” said Barker. “This is the team out in the county pro­vid­ing cit­i­zens pro­grams to strengthen their lives.”

Barker explained when the levies pass for the OSU exten­sion or money comes from the gen­eral fund, state and fed­eral dol­lars come back to the county.

“Mor­row County receives $36,561 in fed­eral fund­ing for our nutri­tion edu­ca­tion pro­gram for low income peo­ple,” Com­mis­sioner Tom Harden said of Lee Ann Leonhard’s Fam­ily Nutri­tion Program.

The exten­sion ser­vice also pro­vides edu­ca­tional for youths who go through the CAR-TEEN pro­gram in traf­fic court.

Com­mis­sion­ers Tom Whis­ton and Dick Miller were both mem­bers of 4-H. Miller recalled his mother started and all-girls 4-H club in the Iberia area called “Miss America.”

Then there’s the fair, the high­light of the year for many 4-H mem­bers and clubs.

“The exten­sion office is very active before dur­ing and after the Mor­row County Fair,” Harden said. “We go to the fair and sup­port the live­stock sale, which is a big part of the 4-H program,”

“We have a won­der­ful fair,” Barker said. “There is a rela­tion­ship with the junior fair and senior fair, and many of the kids donate part of their sale price to the junior fair build­ing fund so new build­ings can be built. Coun­ties that have more busi­nesses than our county are amazed at the sup­port we have for the junior fair live­stock sale, because we have indi­vid­u­als and businesses.”

“We’re very proud of the 4-H pro­gram in Mor­row County,” said Com­mis­sioner Tom Harden, “along with all the boys and girls that par­tic­i­pate in the pro­gram. You are the future lead­ers of Mor­row County.”

Posted by Taylor Kaser on Mar 6 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.