It's In The Genes | The Basic Strength of Canada | Happy 90th Alberta 4-H | Creating of the 4-H Certificate | Congratulations Alberta 4-H on 90 years of helping Alberta youth become better citizens | "Those were the Good Old Days" | The Penny Push of 1980 | A 4-H Showman is Born |

My 4-H Story | The Old Computer | My Years in 4-H | A Story of Young Farm People Clubs | Sharing 33 Years with 4-H | Vermilion Beef celebrates 90th | Edson Multi Club at Focus on 4-H |

How the 4-H Program Started

By Marguerite Stark, Head, 4-H Branch (posted 2007.02.28) The 4-H program was officially launched through the organization of a boys and girls Pig Club in connection with school Fairs. The support of the Bank of Commerce allowed each of the 48 participants to borrow $30.00 to purchase 2 registered sows. Breeds chosen were either Duroc Jersey or Bershire. The bank charged 8% interest on its loans - and returned 6% back to the members in cash prizes at the fair.
An insurance program was also put in place at 1.00 per hog to cover loss by death. Members were to sell one of their hogs on or about December 31, to liquidate the bank note, but the bank was so pleased with the program that they decided to carry notes on so members could retain both sows. First class males were secured with the intention to raise litters of pigs the following spring . . . and that is how it all started.

Life Lessons Learned in 4-H

By Vanessa Goodman, Communication/Marketing 4-H Specialist, 4-H Branch (posted 2007.02.28) As a nine-year old, aspiring to do anything my older sister Jess did, I joined 4-H the day after my 9th birthday . . . just like my sister Jess. As a nine-year old I didn't realize the things that I would be in for by joining up with 4-H. At that age, you are never really gauging the outcomes of your actions (hence why so many of us crimped our hair and wore denim stirrup pants). But I did come away having gleaned some valuable lessons. Sometimes following isn't always a bad thing. What started as a ploy to duplicate my sister's life soon became a means to discovering my own. 4-H has led to my career, presented the situation for meeting my husband, and provided me with numerous travel, exchange and award-winning experiences - all of which I would have missed had I not shadowed my way into 4-H. Accountability is SO important. Through my time as an Ambassador, my years in the program and my term as Premier Award winner, I found out pretty quickly that if you tell someone something, you had best follow through on it. No one wants to become known as "that person" to Club leaders and others who you have disappointed.
Believing in something is award enough. I was in awe of my Club leaders who were willing to talk, support and adapt to meet Club member's needs . . . for free. Believing in the program and the potential of the members was enough for them to justify all of the hours that they dedicated to 4-H. The quality of person who you surround yourself with directly affects who it is that you will become. It stared with my sister, carried over to my leaders and fellow members and has been a conscious decision every since - to be great and accomplish much, you must surround yourself with greatness and like-minded people.

It's In the Genes

I'm sure there are many families that have continued their participation in 4-H from generation to  generation being that it is such a great organization for young people to participate in. We are an example of one of those families.

In the late 1930's, my husband Douglas was an avid Beef Club member showing his calves in Edmonton for the Morinville Club. He captured many awards during his years spent as a member and even traveled to the Royal Fair in Ontario to show cattle. He was killed in a horse accident in 1993, but lived to see his three children become active participants in a beef club near Spruce Grove. 

My greatest legacy of Douglas's 4-H activities is a silver medallion from the Royal Bank, which he won for Showmanship.  I had the medallion set as a necklace, and now wear it all the time.  No matter where I am people question  me about it and its rare beauty"on one side it has the Royal Bank insignia; the other, a delicate engraving of a boy showing his calf, a young woman feeding chickens and a boy hoeing a garden.  I believe it is very rare and have never seen another one like it.  I wear it proudly!

When our children were busy halter-breaking their calves, a very humorous situation arose. My husband had just come home from having had surgery on his broken leg and therefore, was not able to assist with this particular task. One of the calves was well broke; the other one so stubborn that he would not lead. However, the calves were inseparable and so I had the boys lock up the calf that lead well in a small barn close to where we were struggling with the other. We did everything to convince the other calf to lead, but from the cussing and the bellowing of the resistant calf in the barn, it was obvious that it was not taking. This calf was not happy about being away from his 'buddy'.

There was a small window that the calf could see out of and see his compadre being worked on. Suddenly we heard a big crash and saw Ross's calf (the resistant one) jump through the window and become securely stuck"two legs out, two legs in"as the window was not nearly big enough to allow the girth of the calf through!  We pushed; we pulled, not even budging him an inch.  I finally had to get Doug, who gimped over on his crutches, and then almost collapsed in laughter at the view he saw. But he was, of course unable to help, so with a neighbour's assistance and a jack, we were able to get the calf out of his tight situation. I took a picture of Ross leaning on his stuck-in-the-window calf, and had it published in our local paper under the title of "The Trials and Tribulations of a 4-H  Member"!

I now watch my granddaughter showing her cow and heifer pair, winning her cow-calf class, being first in public peaking her very first year of 4-H. In a few weeks, she will be showing her cow-calf, beef steer at the same time that her little brother will be showing his first steer!  I am so proud.

What better organization to teach children responsibility, public speaking  and all the other good attributes these kids need to learn to be a valuable  adult in the future, than that of 4-H?

Yes, 4-H is sure in our family genes, and we couldn't have been better blessed.

The Basic Strength of Canada

Since my coming into this Clover Lawn area of Alberta in 1975, I have been on the periphery of 4-H activities. My forte is Public Speaking. Over the years, I have helped various students prepare for this event and have been asked to join the judging team of three area groups.

The annual Public Speaking and Presentations competitions show, in my opinion, the merits of the 4-H program. Members accept the discipline involved. They feel the full weight of the silence demand but never break it. They take their turns obediently and all seem proud to take part.

The less-able speakers receive respect for their courageous effort; the conscientious show evidence of lengthy preparation. The gifted are challenged to new heights of expression, delivery, substance and development. There is no human tale of failure in the Public Speaking requirement for 4-H members.

Through the grapevine, I have heard about the raising of calves by 4-H members. I have read the member"s written accounts about the calf"s months of growth. The young need parental interaction and, due to this relationship, family ties are strengthened.

Light Horse participants rely on adult aid. As they perform, admiring parental eyes follow their little movements, their oneness with their horse.

At the grass root level of the Canadian population, the 4-H club is a valuable asset. Members are sculpted according to the moral code, enriched by animal experience, challenged by the demands of procedure and open to future, martial joys. Can one count the content couples who owe their marital meeting to a 4-H experience and, as the years roll by, lead the way along the 4-H path for their ready-to-succeed children?

Happy 90th Alberta 4-HH

The picture was taken at the Calgary Regional spring meeting in April to promote the 90th anniversary within our region. It was the Calgary Region's way of saying "Happy 90th Alberta 4-H". We have had a great response to the challenge we put out to our clubs and districts to donate to 90 for 90 fundraiser. Many clubs and most of our districts have donated funds.

Creating of the 4-H Certificate

It was the year 1972 and I was the president of the Lac Ste Anne 4-H Council.

During the annual county awards night, I was honoured to give out the achievement awards to the 4-H county members; however, out of the total club's membership, there were a small number of members who were receiving the recognition, and out of the member awards, some were multi-winners. This seemed quite unfair to the overall membership and it got me to thinking that there should be something done that recognizes all members. In fact, I had witnessed members go all of the way through 4-H without having received any sort of recognition. When they finished eight to ten years of 4-H they would have no record of ever having been a 4-H member.

After giving thought to the many ways to make it fair for everyone, I contacted my MLA Peter Trynchy to get the government"s help and input. Mr Trynchy contacted the Honourable Horace Schmidt, who was the Minister of Culture and Youth at the time, and a meeting between Mr. Trynchy and Mr. Schmidt was immediately set up by the Minister at his office.

Mr. Trynchy, Hon. Horace Schmidt, Honourable Bob Dowling and myself met to discuss the following request that I made: that the 4-H Branch develop a certificate to recognize the years of membership for all members. This request was made with the Minister"s approval with the comment of it being long overdue.  

Thus, the certificate was made and developed by the 4-H Branch in 1973 and it has been used every year since. I feel that the certificate was something necessary to have happened to ensure that each member had something to not only be proud of, but to also represent their 4-H achievements. Recognition is an important means of encouragement that helps young people to succeed throughout their 4-H years and beyond. We must realize that every child has a heart, and that we should be fair with everyone.

My wife Audrey and I raised seven children (20 grandkids) who all enjoyed and gained valuable skills while in 4-H. We are still involved with 4-H as an award sponsor (35 years of County Sec award). To give is something that we must learn at a young age, and I believe that what we do while on earth will outlast life itself.

Congratulations Alberta 4-H on 90 years of helping Alberta youth become better citizens

I first became involved in 4-H when our eldest of three children joined the local club in 1976. I was then connected to the Preston Beef Club for 22 years"seven as a parent and 15 as a leader.

With the personal belief that you should help the 4-H movement beyond a club level, I was involved in the Northeast Region as a representative and as President. It was a fun time in the Northeast Region when we planned and hosted the Provincial Leader's Conference in 1984. The Conference's them, "4-H 4-All" was very appropriate for our region.

Becoming a Regional Representative to Provincial Council led me to the position of President by 1992. Some of the outstanding events when I was President were the 75th anniversary party in Calgary, which was a resounding success due to the hard work of the planning committee. Another major event was the introduction of membership fees. I am proud to say that what could have been a very contentious issue went smoothly thanks to how it was presented by the Provincial Council and 4-H Branch and the way that it was received across Alberta.

Being President of Provincial Council tied into an automatic position on the 4-H Foundation of Alberta. The main events of my time there was the construction of a new house and office for the manager at Battle Lake Provincial Camp and closer alignment of Provincial Council, the Foundation and the 4-H Branch to work towards the betterment of 4-H.

I was honoured to work with the 4-H program for over 20 years and I was very well rewarded through the experience had on trips, conferences and relationships. I was also granted the humbling experience of being nominated and selected by my peers to be inducted into the 4-H Hall of Fame in 1996.

I am proud of the 4-H movement and growth that has happened over the years that I've been involved and, hopefully 4-H and I will still be thriving at the 100th anniversary.

"Those were the Good Old Days"

At club level when the show was over these little guys would come over to me and say, "Mr. Cox thank-you for showing us this and that, thank-you for helping me in the ring with my calf." It made one feel good inside and you silently said inside to yourself, thank you God for letting someone benefit from my being here.

The greatest feeling was at Provincial level where I volunteered for 23 years, two members came to me while cleaning up the show ring and said "thank-you Ken and good-bye." I have received a Christmas card every year since from them. One is married now and the other is working at Lakeland College, and it is things like this that make it all worthwhile.

The Penny Push of 1980

Pennies. They constantly clang in your pocket, fall out of the side of your wallet and are virtually useless now that one cent candies no longer exist. But did you know that in 1980, it was a penny that helped to create the present day Alberta 4-H Centre?

As a result of a challenge made by 4-H leaders from Montana, the Copper Clover Campaign was initiated as a fundraiser for what, at the time, was nothing more than a niggling dream in the back of 4-Hers' minds. At the Leader's Conference of 1980, this dream started to seem a bit more like a reality. On the Saturday of the Conference, November 26, all of the leaders amalgamated their respective penny stashes that had been collected in their areas in the three months prior. As a means of commemorating there being that many pennies in one place at one time, the pennies were poured from ice creams pails into a collective bin and when the dust had cleared, it was counted that there had been more than 1.5 million pennies (or $15,600.00) donated to the Copper campaign.

Between the months of August and November, the 4-H supporters of this province reached into their wallets, scoured their couches and rushed to their banks in order to contribute as many pennies as they could. Not only did this mean that the 4-H organization was one step closer to creating its home-away-from-home at Battle Lake, but it also meant that Alberta had met and then beat the challenge amount that had been set for the fundraiser. As a result, the 4-H organization in Alberta raised almost $6000 more than 4-H in Montana!

It is because of these types of events, of everyone joining together to achieve a common goal, that Alberta 4-H has been able to last the past 90th anniversary. Congratulations for being part of all of that.

A 4-H Showman is Born

A good 4-H show judge will inspire greatness. The first time in the show ring can be very intimidating and junior 4-H members need guidance and encouragement.  If the show organizers have planned well, they will have a judge that can make a showman within seconds.

My son came into his first show ring with the belief that the harder it looked, the better he would do. He was wrestling with his market lamb trying to get him standing properly, he had shavings all over his legs and his face was strained. The judge told the junior group that she would not award the showmanship ribbons until the end of the show and gave them a few pointers to work on for the remainder of the day, "Smile and look like you are having fun, try to stay clean and don't stand between the judge and your animal."

From that point on, all of the junior showman tried their best to do all three, maybe not all at the same time.  You could almost see them going through their new checklist in their heads: stay clean, stand out of the way and then . . . smile. They looked much better after three additional classes in the show ring and we parents had great fun in the stands watching this amazing transformation.

My 4-H Story

I was a country kid in a city kid's body. Ever since I was old enough to walk, I loved horses.  I even made my skipping rope into a halter, just in case I could ever find a horse to "follow me home" somewhere.

When I turned 13, I was finally able to purchase my first beloved horse.  My mom's coworker, who just happened to also be the leader of a new horse 4-H club, agreed to board him. And so it began. As the clubs in the area evolved to suit the members, I found myself in a different club, with my list of friends expanding. This was a great time in my life.

One 4-H horse club friend also happened to be in the 4-H Beef club and that opened a whole new window. This was the 70s and the Beef Show and Sale in Lethbridge was a really big deal.  Club members came from all over, or so it seemed. The boys stayed in side rooms in the pavilion and the girls took over the 4-H building next door for a huge sleepover! It was great fun!  I can't remember who ever won any of the big awards, but the friendships we made still exist today.

Our teenage lives revolved around horses and 4-H. Although it seemed the worst at times, the public speaking was the best part of the whole program. I was shy. I could tell you what people were wearing on their feet, but I probably could not tell you what they looked like. The turning point was the year I did a speech on "What the World Needs Now is Love," based on a popular song at the time. However, my speech reflected my life and the truly inspirational words of my best friend " "You'll know when you're in love because you'll get the same feeling as you get when you look at your horse". I won at the club, district and came close at the regional level, but more importantly, I started to be able to speak to people.

After my 4-H membership, I stayed in touch with the 4-H family through judging Public Speaking and various horse club achievement days. When the time came, my own children became members of 4-H " in both horse and beef clubs " and my husband and I stepped up our involvement in their fun by becoming project and assistant leaders. A few years ago, the opportunity arose to become part of the 4-H staff and just like MacDonald's " "I'm lovin' it".

I've always loved 4-H and truly believe it is the best program for youth development " in the country, in the city, in the world.

That Old Computer

This afternoon, Dustin Dinwoodie and Jeff Nelson (4-H Alumni members) were in my office getting the computer equipment they needed to set up for the U of A Judging competition on the weekend.  I gave them the old computer rather than the updated one as it was easier for me, and for what they needed it for, it was easier than the new program would be.

After they left I got to thinking where that old computer has been " in horse stalls at Lakeland College in Vermilion, down at Olds in the Cow Palace, out at TransAlta Farm and Ranch, Northlands, Lewis Farms show barn, a number of district events, and it still works (despite the ton of bust)! Granted, because of its age that computer program isn't the easiest to run at times, but it does store some old memories for me.

How many members have participated in judging over the years? I'm sure thousands in the Northwest region alone. How much success have they had because of the skills they have learned? Lots, and in ways far beyond the winning a ribbon. The members, once they get involved, want to travel to competitions and try their luck and knowledge with the next set of classes. Long after the judging events I learn from leaders and parents how much judging has helped build a member's confidence, not to mention judging being a means of getting members to make decisions and speak well.

Christy Hoy was working in the Barrhead Agriculture office this winter. At noon one day we were talking about how much she enjoyed judging. She spoke about the fun of regional judging and about going to Denver judging horses and to the World Quarter Horse judging with the Alberta team including Jamie Schnurer. Now Dustin and Jeff are organizing a judging event and Jamie and Christy are "Official judges" for other judging.

It's amazing how times change, and yet, how very much they stay the same.

My Years in 4-H

When our girls turned 11 and 12 they started 4-H in Black Diamond, which was 20 miles from our home and so I stayed at the meeting and project workshops and became involved with helping as I thought it was a very good program for children. 

The girls went to Black Diamond for two years and then one of the Black Diamond leaders, who was also from Millarville, decided that we should start a club at Millarville. This is when I became a leader. I still say that I learned as much, or more than the members, and I still treasure the experiences I had.

The projects are the reason to get children involved, and the intermingling and fellowship, activities and trips are all so much fun. I still encounter members who I had had in 4-H and am so glad to have met them years before. I love to hear the stories of what they thought of 4-H and what they are currently doing with their lives. The best answer is to hear that the former member"s children have gone or are going to 4-H, and that some are even leaders now. Wow.

I learned many things while a leader such as public speaking as I always figured I should not expect the members to do something if I did not. Working with young people is something that requires patience and persistence a lot of times, but the results are well worth it.

While with 4-H I went on several award trips and boy, do you meet some neat people"fun, fun, fun. I was also on District, Regional and Provincial council and loved it, and look at just how far these councils have come! I remember when Cleaver came into being, and look at the miles that 4-H has gotten out of him. I remember when the age limit was 12, which later went down to 11 and then to nine. I remember projects being added and tried and even councils have changed as now they have more input into the next Council and I think it is all for the good.

Ninety years of 4-H in Alberta"very impressive.

In the 40 years that I have been involved with the 4-H program"as a parent, leader and grandparent"there have been many changes.

Changes are necessary to keep up the interest of young people. We think that it is going a bit too fast, but we are not from the new school of thought. I remember when some projects were introduced, some took off like wildfire while others were very slow and others did not fly at all. Young people are very influenced by other people and to find an individual is not easy these days. I feel 4-H helps meet some of the needs for a lot of youngsters. Learn to do by doing is very important and you learn more by your mistakes than you successes.

All kinds of activities and projects help to round out these young people"s lives, which makes for good citizens. The projects are the reason to have a club, but not the most important part of the program. The learning to work as a team and a larger group are very important life skills. Making mistakes and being able to correct them (or to learn from them) makes your mistakes worthwhile.

I feel that 4-H has, and will continue to contribute to so many young people"s lives over a period of time"shall we say forever?

To 4-H I say keep up the good work. That goes for club leaders, office staff, councils, foundation members and sponsors. Without you, the program would not be a success.

A Story of Young Farm People Clubs

By Adam Hauch (posted 10.26.2007)

In the spring of 1935 in the Barrhead area, Mr. Edgar Wood, who was the district agriculturist for the Provincial government and stationed in Westlock, came to our area, Freedom, and other communities surrounding Barrhead in order to organize some swine clubs. The name “4-H” did not exist at that time.

Club members had to be at least 12 years old. So, in May of 1935 I was 11 years and 11 months old—I remember putting those figures into my application.

I have correspondence from 1941 addressed to me as secretary of the Neerlandia Swine Club and the Department of Agriculture. Neerlandia is a farming community 15 miles north of Barrhead. The swine club program was instituted by the Federal Government and carried out by the Provincial district agriculturists.

The swine club program consisted of a plan where the members got three little wiener pigs, one being a purebred Yorkshire gilt “sow-to-be.” The others were called feeder pigs. The plan was that the members were to raise the two feeder pigs to market weight, then sell them and pay for all three of them, which we did.

I recall (hey, that was seventy years ago) when we got the three little pigs. There was a man by the name of Art Wilson, a teacher at the Vermilion School of Agriculture, who during the summer holidays would assist the D.A. by delivering the three wieners to the members.

Now, his mode of transportation (no $50,000 pick-up truck in those days) was a Model A Ford car. It was a two-door called a coach accommodating five passengers with one front passenger seat that was folded forward so three people were able to get into the backseat.

This backseat and the front passenger seat were removed so the animals (piglets) had the whole area, except the driver’s seat, to themselves.

Now further to this story, Mr. Wilson would deliver the piglets directly to each member’s home. When he stopped by our place, my parent’s farm, he still had 12 or 15 little piglets in the car. Now I was to choose the one purebred gilt and the two feeders. Well, wouldn’t you know it—there were two little black and white feeders in the bunch. They were so cute. Yes, I did choose the black and white ones; however, this was a no-no because when it came to selling the two as market weight pigs, one graded bacon while the other graded butcher. This was the lowest two grades for hogs at that time. Top grade was select.

As most of the members in Freedom went to the Freedom school, we would discuss our project and compare notes on our three little pigs. So when it came time to sell the two feeders, now market hogs, my schoolmates who had white-only feeders graded as select and bacon. They got top price and it was a lesson I never forgot.

However, previous to our selling the two market hogs, we had what you would now call today, an Achievement Day.  This was later in the summer, perhaps July or August. We all had to bring our three “now growing pigs” to a central location in Barrhead to a stockyard with a lot of small pens for each member’s pigs.

But (ha, ha), that’s where my two black and white feeders got more attention and accolades. People spent more time admiring these two cute black and white feeder pigs than any of the other pens of white-only pigs.

Oh yes, my dad took me eight miles to the fair (or Achievement Day) at Barrhead by wagon and a team of horses. Also, my dad took me to a restaurant for lunch. The bill was $.25.

Further to the quality hog promotion that was happening at the time, called “Bacon for Britain,” better quality pork was in high demand. Thus, the Yorkshire breed was then seemingly the best type available. To enhance the quality of the pork program, the Federal government would place a purebred Yorkshire boar into the community with one of the members. This boar was used not only for the members purebred gilts, but also any farmer could bring his female breeding pigs (sows) to be bred. Anyone bringing a sow to be bred was charged a dollar for the service. They would bring along enough feed (chop) to feed the sow and pick up the impregnated sow in a few days.

Our neighbours, the John Chileen family, kept the boar first. When they left the area in 1938, my parents, who were also centrally located, got the boar where we kept it for a number of years.

Our young people’s club eventually had a forage and grain club and some of my younger siblings were in a dairy club. In the early 1970s, our own three children were 4-H members in beef clubs around Westlock.

In 1966, when our oldest son was about eight, we took all three to a 4-H Speak-Off that their older cousin was in. After that our son said that if he has to give a speech, he won’t join 4-H. Today at 48, he is a specialist physician and travels around the world between his normal work schedule to give seminars to other doctors.

Not to be outdone by their brother who didn’t think that he wanted to give a speech, our daughter is an administrator in the office of a counseling service, and our youngest son is a popular speaker as the pastor of a growing church.

We like to remind them or tease them that they all gained their speaking ability in 4-H, where by the way, they all did very well.

Sharing 33 Years with 4-H

by Nick Chomik (posted 10.25.2007)

In 1949, I was appointed District Agriculturalist (D.A.) to the Ryley office for the county of Beaver. My first job was to help organize and supervise the Ryley Dairy Club, which was the beginning of 33 years of involvement in 4-H.

And what an experience!

I soon found out that 4-H was the perfect vehicle to meet farm families, community leaders and the rural youth who were eager, but had limited opportunity, to be involved in personal projects or community events; and in particular, the opportunity to meet and socialize with like minded people.

The period of 1947 and 1960, during my tenure at Ryley, was an era of no or few TVs, only one car or less per family and the job of farm kids was to do farm chores. SO the mention of starting and having a 4-H club quickly got the attention of the farm families and the surrounding rural community. The result was I started 11 new clubs—four beef, three dairy, three grain and one swine. Two clubs, the Tofield and Viking clubs, were already active. In total, I supervised 13 clubs. The clubs would hold meetings once a month during their project year, most of which I attended, and the club leader and I (D.A.) would visit each member’s farm at least once during the project season. The visit was done to determine how the member was doing with his or her project, meet the farm family and discuss any concerns or problems. This created a substantial workload for me, but it also resulted in the strong relationship I had with the farm families and the entire rural community.

We really tried to make Achievement Days an important event. Such as with the beef clubs, we would march the calves through the main street of the town to the exhibition grounds where the show was held. We would have the whole community involved. At the end of the day, the club would usually have a banquet or a social as a wind-up. Because of the number of clubs and the numerous activities planned by individual clubs, it was felt by club leaders and myself that it would be best for major activity functions to be conducted jointly by clubs. Thus on the advice of the 4-H Department, we formed the 4-H Council of the Beaver County, which was the first of its kind in the province. The Council consisted of at least one leader and one 4-H member from each club. The 4-Hers still had the executive roles, that is to say the President, Vice President and Secretary of the Council, where the members and the leaders acted as advisors and gave support.

The role of the 4-H Council was to sponsor and organize functions such as educational tours, social events that would be held jointly for all clubs. Just to mention a few events that were conducted by the 4-H Council: packing plant tours; visit to the Parliament buildings; tour of Provincial museums and curling bonspiels.

Another important highlight of my 4-H Supervisor was training of “Judging Teams” for the Provincial Judging competitions. For this event, each D.A. could send up to three teams (2 members per team) to judge beef cattle, dairy cattle and grains (three categories of judging and a team could only enter one category). The winning teams were then awarded a trip to National 4-H Club Week in Ottawa and its Royal Winter Fair in Toronto where members would compete for national honours. To say the least, I was very successful with my judging teams at the Provincial competitions. With the help of my club leaders (and my competitive nature) and some very good 4-Hers that were developed through our clubs, we developed eight winning judging teams from the County of Beaver—three winning beef judging teams; three winning dairy judging teams and two winning grain judging teams. We also had a National winner, the beef judging team from the Tofield 4-H Beef Club, Jimmie Brown and Darrel Sutton. As a footnote, on year my judging teams swept the Provincial competitions, that is we won all three categories—beef, dairy, grain. That year I was awarded a trip to go with my teams to Ottawa and Toronto’s Royal Winter Fair.

It would be amiss if I did not pay tribute to some of my most dedicated club leaders, in particular John Moore and Joe Kallal of Tofield; Bob Westmancoat of Ryley; Alberta Hultholm of Holden and Jack Roddick of Viking.

In 1960 I was appointed D.A. at Vegreville for the County of Minburn. By then 4-H Clubs were well-established in the Vegreville area. Nevertheless, I was soon involved working with 4-H—as again, this was an opportunity to meet farm families and leaders in the rural community. During my 20 years as D.A. at Vegreville, I organized five new clubs: two 4-H horse clubs (Vegreville and Innisfree), one beef club at Innisfree, dairy club at Lavoy and a grain club at Vegreville. I also helped to form a 4-H Council for the County of Minburn and we conducted many activities similar to the ones referred to earlier that were done by the Beaver County 4-H Council. During the period of 1960-1980 when I served as D.A. at Vegreville, the 4-H Branch had provided help to D.A.s and 4-H clubs by appointing 4-H Regional Specialists, who were most helpful and reduced my workload in 4-H. Nonetheless, the clubs were still under my supervision, so I attended most of their meetings, did farm visits with Club leaders and organized and supervised Achievement Days and many other aforementioned functions.

Again the club leaders were a very important part of the 4-H club activities and its success. I formed a strong relationship with the clubs through club leaders and through them, the farm families as well as the rural community, thus advancing the principles of 4-H. I would again like to pay tribute to some of my most dedicated leaders: Harold McCarty and Ken Selph of Vegreville; Delbert Fulkerth of Innisfree and Doug Livingstone of Morinville.

In 1987 I was inducted into the 4-H Hall of Fame for which I feel privileged and honoured, and I hope, worthy of this distinction.

Edson Multi 4-H Club Celebrates 90th Anniversary

(posted 11.05.2007)

Let's hear it for Focus on 4-H, July 2007, Mayerthorpe, AB

Vermilion Beef 4-H Club Celebrates 90th Anniversary

(posted 11.05/2007)