October means the start of the new 4-H year. Oct. 6 - 12 is National 4-H Week, and members have been promoting area clubs by wearing 4-H T-shirts, hanging banners, and speaking about their clubs at school or at church. In addition to projects, camp and fair, they also talk about the friends they’ve made and the fun they’ve had with their families. For one Barton County family, 4-H has been a tradition for several generations.
As a child, Phyllis Brack was a member of South Bend Jolly Workers, one of the county’s oldest 4-H clubs. She helped to found the county’s newest club, TLC Twisters. As executive director for TLC, the after school program at Trinity Lutheran Church, she encouraged the children and her daughter to enter many of the craft projects they worked on in the Open Class division at the Barton County fair for a couple of years.
“I thought starting a club would be a great way for my youngest daughter to be in 4-H with her friends,” she said. We worked on projects after school, and as we got going, more parents got involved.”
When families become part of 4-H, it makes it more possible for parents to share these moments with their kids. And it also offers a social aspect to parents too, Brack said.
“Parents come to the meetings, and the kids do their thing, but the parents sit together, and afterwards, a different family each time brings a treat, so they sit and eat and talk to one another. I think our club has been real fortunate to have a great group of families that work well together. Each year, TLC Twisters takes a section at that fair and makes it their own, Brack said, decorating it and taking care of it.
“We plan it and do the work all together. It was fun for all the adults, in fact, I think we have more fun than the kids sometimes,” she said.
Brack’s twin daughters, Andrea and Ashley, were 12-year members of South Bend Jolly Workers as their mom, grandfather and great-grandfather were before them.
Andrea Bauer today is the Director of Sales and Member Services at the Great Bend Chamber of Commerce. She and her sister enjoyed life-skills projects like crafts and photography and cooking, buymanship, clothing and sewing.
As a 4-H mom, Brack looked forward to her daughters having those same experiences, and an opportunity to help the kids. She has taught several 4-Hers how to sew.
“I think it’s fun when you take a group that has never sewn and teach them step by step--first we sew on paper and you learn to make straight lines before you get to use material, but then they make something, and regardless of how it looks, they’re just so proud of themselves,” she said. “It’s just fun helping them learn something, I guess.”
Bauer’s childhood is full of fond memories of spending time with her mom.
“We cooked together for weeks leading up to the fair,” she said. “We worked on projects, did 4-H days and she coached me for public speaking opportunities.”
Learning at an early age how to speak in front of groups and how to run a meeting by parliamentary procedures were positive experiences that helped mold her future, she said. The leadership opportunities were great too. She was a counselor at Rock Springs 4-H camp for a couple years.
“Campers look up to the counselors, and it was fun,” she said. Bauer became pen pals with a few of the campers she was in charge of, and even travelled to see one camper’s fair projects when her mom was judging.
Now as a Chamber employee, she continues to be involved with the fair from the business side, and is sure somehow, 4-H will always be a part of her life.
Berny Unruh, Director of Barton County 4-H Youth Development, said families that are interested in becoming part of a local 4-H club can contact the Barton County Extension office at 1800 12th St., Great Bend , 620-793-1910, to receive a registration form and a list of area clubs and meeting times.
Brack suggests families visit a few, and find a club that fits the kids and the family the best.
“It’s important and more fun for everybody if you can find a club that has people in it that you have something in common with,” she said.