Local
One of the biggest components of the Butler County Fair is the 4-H program, which draws about 1,400 youngsters. But contrary to popular belief, they’re not all there with farm animals, although that is a big part of it.
According to Erin Simpson Sloan, a 4-H program coordinator at the Ohio State University’s Butler County Extension Office, there are 70 4-H clubs in Butler County, organized primarily by township, each with its own interest and focus.
“The purpose of the 4-H program is to let young people gain different kinds of knowledge and develop skills that will help them in the future,” she said.
“We have clubs that are very old and some very new because when a club gets very large, a group of them may branch off to form a club of their own with their own special interest,” she said. “It’s good to have a variety.”
Sloan said there are more than 200 project booklets that youngsters can choose from, some are downloadable for free and others obtained for a minimal cost, usually $5, from the OSU office. And only some of them are focused on animals and agriculture.
Living in a subdivision on the West Side of Hamilton, Michael Nye is a member of the Mystical Makers club and has done a wide variety of non-animal, non-agriculture projects. This will be the third year he’s done a robotics project, which keep getting more advanced. He’s also doing a grilling project, which required him to pack up a meal and cook for his family at a remote site (a lesson in organization as much as cooking) and a fitness project. Twice, he’s qualified for state, first in candle-making and then in archery (non-shooting).
Michael, a student at St. Peter in Chains who will soon be 14, is not only following in the footsteps of his sister Bethany, who got him to join as a non-competing “Clover Bud” at age 7, but also his mother, Jennifer, who was a 10-year 4-H member when she was growing up in Findlay. She, too, lived in the city limits and specialized in sewing projects, but also was involved with dog obedience and public speaking, which led to her taking a major in fashion design at the University of Cincinnati. And it was her 4-H friends that introduced her to Tom Nye, who would become her husband.
“It’s not about all cows, corn and cooking,” Jennifer Nye said. “4-H really picks up where schools leave off, giving kids an opportunity to learn life skills, which are not bad things to learn. I knew a girl in college who couldn’t sew a button on her shirt and was going to throw it out because of that.”
Although the Randall brothers, Alex, Chris and Steve, are first-generation 4-H members, it is still a central part of their social life.
This is the sixth year for each of them, having heard about 4-H through a church friend. Living in a Liberty Twp. subdivision, none of their projects have ever been directly related to agriculture, although insects, lawn care and animals have been occasional topics.
The first year, Steve did a pet rabbit project, but that, they said, is distinctly different from a farm rabbit project.
“We all know what happens to farm rabbits,” he said.
This year, Chris and Steve are each doing a model rocketry project. Chris also is doing a lawn care and a guitar project. Steve built a cornhole set for a “Nailin’ It Together” woodworking project. Alex is doing a small engine project with a weed whacker and a plant pathology project, but both are more horticulture than agriculture. In a previous year, he did a vegetable garden project that qualified him for the State Fair, and that’s about as close to agriculture as it’s gotten for the Randalls.
The three brothers are home-schooled, and even though their 4-H efforts aren’t incorporated into their curriculum, their father Dan said it’s a nice complement.
“With home schooling, you can join groups of other home schoolers to get kids together,” he said, “but that turned out to be too much for us. But 4-H was a chance to help them socialize and get together with their friends.”
Youngsters can earn scholarships through 4-H programs, and are often given opportunities for travel. Alex once earned a trip to Washington, D.C., where he learned about the federal government and met with now House Speaker John Boehner, R.-West Chester Twp. Michael Nye earned a trip to Marietta College, where he attended a space camp and learned about all manners of flight and got to take a ride in a hot air balloon.
All three Randalls have been counselors at 4-H summer camps, where they led activities such as building an egg roller coaster and building full-size boats out of cardboard — a chance to work on their engineering skills — and led discussions on bullying, especially cyberbullying. 4-H members also can get more involved in the Butler County Fair by serving on the Junior Fair Advisory Board. They develop mentoring skills by working with younger members.
“It was a chance to work on our leadership skills,” Alex said, “and that looks great on a resume.”
The are part of the Fairfield Busy Bunch, a 4-H club that has about 30 members, counting the Clover Buds, that focuses mainly on non-animal projects.
Their adviser, Mary Richter, has seven children and all of them are 4-H members or alumni.
“They learn things that I want them to learn at home but wouldn’t take lessons from me,” she said. “They learn and develop skills we could never do at home.”
This year, she has four children entering three projects each, including sewing, photography and electricity as well as nutrition and cooking.
Activities apart from preparing for the Butler County Fair include community service. The Fairfield Busy Bunch collected pop can tabs as part of a $10,000 4-H donation to the Ronald McDonald House, led a drive of soap and hygiene products for St. Raphael, have participated in number of road cleanup projects with other clubs, and held car washes to provide scholarships for 4-H camps.
Their club meets at the Janet Clemmons Center in Hamilton, and so after every meeting they clean up the playground there.
“When they joined, I never expected that they would be so active,” said dad Dan Randall. “It’s a really become a year-round thing.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.
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