Head, Heart, Hands, and Health: Why 4-H Still Matters

In this episode of Grit and Grace in the Heartland, Mary and Leah talk about 4-H, what it is, where it came from, and why it still matters more than ever. From livestock projects and county fairs to creativity, leadership, and service, Leah shares how 4-H shapes kids for life, not just for competition. This conversation is about growing people, building community, and giving kids the tools they need to succeed long after the ribbons are put away. What We Cover What the 4-H pledge really means How 4-H goes far beyond agriculture Life lessons learned through projects, service, and responsibility Why 4-H prepares kids for the real world The importance of supporting youth programs like 4-H and FFA Connect With Us Find Grit and Grace in the Heartland – Women in Agriculture on Facebook Visit gritandgraceintheheartland.com     00:00 Mary and I'm Leah and welcome to Grit and Grace in the Heartland. Good morning, Leah. How are you? Good morning, Mary. Doing well. Happy day. Yeah. Can you believe it's January 15th? Halfway through the month that has felt already kind of like a whole month or more.  Yeah. I mean, Valentine's Day is less than a month away. Spring is less than two months away. 00:28 I know, and my Thanksgiving cactus is blooming again. Both of them  are, which makes me happy. Yeah, are they the hot pink ones? I have hot pink and a red one, both, and they're side by side, and they're  just putting on all kinds of blooms again. So I'm happy about that, adding some color to my window. Yeah, not to go too far down the house plant rabbit hole here, but  there's a Thanksgiving 00:55 cactus, there's a Christmas cactus, and I think there's an Easter cactus, and they're all the same plant. Yes, they just has to do with the shape of their leaves, I believe. Yeah, yeah. They're really pretty. My mom  really wanted a Christmas cactus for a long time, and a few years back, my sister got her a baby one,  just a little tiny one. And my mom has been like nurturing that thing forever. And she was so excited because this past Christmas, it had blooms all over it. 01:24 Yeah, and they will live, they will outlive you if you take care of them correctly. They can live multi-generations. Yeah, they're kind of like spider plants.  And pothos, oh my god, pothos. My husband loves pothos because all you have to do is water them. They don't need any bright direct sunlight. They just need water really and they will live forever. 01:48 And for the longest time in the old house, he would take cuttings off the plant. And I'm like, I don't want any more pothos. It is taking over our house. Yeah,  I know someone that does that with her her  spider plants and then she'll get her babies going and then just line the porch and put it on social media. I got more babies. Come get them from me because I can't keep them all. Yeah, I've had terrible luck with spider plants and I've had terrible luck with English ivies because English ivies need  diffuse light. 02:18 from a south-facing window.  And I didn't have that in the old house, number one.  And number two, I got one when we moved here thinking that we had more than enough light, because this place has more windows than any place ever needed. And I still couldn't keep it alive. So I'm not great at house plants. I'm great at herbs. Herbs are fine.  all righty. So we're going to talk about 4-H today, because Leah,  you were involved in 4-H as a kid, is that right? 02:46 I have been involved in 4-H, I say, even before I was born and I am involved still today. I've  never stopped and it is  one of my favorite things to talk about.  Good, because I have all kinds of questions. I was not involved in 4-H. 4-H was what my parents taught me at home with gardening and  pets and I had a rabbit for a while. And that was it because 4-H wasn't offered where I lived. I don't know why, but it wasn't. 03:16 So to start with, do you know how long 4-H has been around? Like when did they It has been around a long time. As far as the exact starting year, I would have to look it up and we can drop some great resources after we post this  podcast to help direct the show notes, yes.  Yes ma'am, because I am so passionate about it.  And while 4-H is headquartered in our nation's capital, 03:45 4-H and how it is run really is up to the states  and within the states it filters out to the county level and then the local level.  And while there is a lot of unity  in certain  aspects of 4-H,  how the individual uh clubs em and counties and states do a lot of their 4-H programming is very unique depending on where you live. 04:13 And I love that aspect about it as well. So 4-H is for everyone. That is what I tell everyone. um It is said that 4-H does touch the lives of  one in three youth in the United States.  Between the ages of now, we say age six, because that's when we have our Clover Kids programming that starts. All the way to age 18 and then beyond,  is collegiate 04:43 programming, and of course we rely on  volunteers as leaders and judges and so on. So it is deep and wide in its reach.  And research tells us that 4-H involvement  makes long-term permanent impacts, positive impacts on those who have been involved in it.  And I know that because I did my graduate research thesis  on 05:11 the premise that 4-H  did have long-term impacts.  And um I did find that  to be true.  And it was truly fascinating  what my research um revealed. 4-H  is about so much more than agriculture. And while this podcast and while what I do in my advocacy has a lot to do with agriculture,  the message that 05:39 is really important to me is to make sure that people know that 4-H is for everyone. And those are actually some of my favorite stories is how 4-H was able to be introduced to urban communities  or those who maybe lived in a rural community but are not involved in agriculture.  They found a project that was something that appealed to them  that wasn't  necessarily agriculture related but was just something they loved.  And 06:10 still made the same amazing impact on that child's life. Okay, awesome. I'm so glad you know about this because I have been dying for, since I started the other podcast over two years ago to talk to somebody who was steeped in 4-H and it sounds like you were. So, this is going to sound like an interview. I'm trying really hard not to do that to you. What do the H's stand for? What are the 4-H's? The 4-H pledge. 06:39 is surrounded by  four components that are the four H's. I pledge my head to clear thinking. I pledge my heart to greater loyalty. I pledge my hands  to larger service. And I pledge my health to better living for my club, my community, my country, and my world. So it's head, heart, hands, and health. Okay, cool. oh 07:08 It reminds me very much of Girl Scouts. I was in Girl Scouts.  Could I recite the Girl Scout pledge to you right now? No, I could not. I would need like a uh primer because I don't remember. But same idea. It was very much about taking care of yourself so you can take care of your community. And Girl Scouts and 4-H have a lot in common  in that Girl Scouts is for young girls and 4-H is for everyone, but it didn't 07:37 I don't know that it always was. Was it always for boys and girls? It was as far  back as before my parents' generation,  though my mother was in Girl Scouts like you were, um Brownie Girls, actually, I think is what hers was called, um not in 4-H. And my father and his siblings were. I'd have to do some research about the equal. 08:04 integration of boys and girls in 4-H. But here where I grew up where 4-H was and still is a very, very strong program, it's always been  both, I would say. Okay.  Well, one of the things that I found out when I was looking at information about 4-H in preparation for this conversation  was that there are more girls in 4-H than there are boys right now.  I believe that. um 08:36 It's just so fun. And there's so much opportunity, so many projects to be involved in. I was doing a quick search and  again, there is  some difference in what projects are offered in a different county in a different state. But the last  I looked at,  I think locally in our particular county, there's over 160 project areas to choose from. And yes, there is a heavy focus on those related to agriculture. 09:03 But there's just so much that isn't. It has nothing to do with agriculture. There is truly something for everyone. And that is what makes it so great. Looks like the original clover pin, where sorry, where the H, that's okay. Each of the H's officially was adopted in 1910. 1912, groups began to assimilate, begin being called 4H clubs. 09:31 and Congress passed the Smith-Lever Act in 1914 to officially designate them  as work of various boys and girls clubs involved in agriculture, effectively nationalizing it as a national 4-H organization.  So there in 1914 said it was for boys and girls.  Now whether or not that was universally accepted or encouraged, you know, in every local or state, 10:01 a place, I'm not sure, but at least on a national level, as early as that time, which was before women were given the right to vote,  it was said to be for both. So that's gratifying that those  early  amazing adults who were thinking beyond themselves and thinking about what was good for boys and girls were thinking about including, being very inclusive and who was invited to participate.  So was for all kids. um 10:31 Good, good. And I would bet that it was more boys than girls enrolled then because girls weren't encouraged to get out and do things like they are now. But I'm glad that the opportunity was there for them even then. And the more things, yeah, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Because the main concern, the seed that was planted was a grave concern in 1902. 10:59 When Community in Ohio said, I'm concerned about the urban-rural divide, can we do something to help provide for more education to help everyone stay connected to our food systems and understanding how food is produced in our country? So here we are. Over 100 years later, we're having the same conversations. You would think we would smarten the heck up, but no. No. 11:27 Okay, I was going to say in my head when I think of 4-H, I think of the kids who raised the calf to a steer,  take it to the county fair, and then they have to sell it.  anybody who's ever watched a video about this knows how hard that is on the kids because they raised that calf with all their hearts and all their love and all their care.  And they do everything they can to make sure that that critter is the best critter it can be. 11:56 and then they have to let it go.  every time, I can't watch them anymore. just cry when they have to let it go. 12:04 It is a complex  set of feelings that is difficult to describe unless you've lived it.  And  one of the things I do as a parent who has walked in those boots as a child and now the parent  and as a club leader, volunteer, and who cares about all of the youth who are in that position, be it selling a steer or a goat or a pig. 12:34 or a sheep  is  having 12:40 an opportunity to share with the public who doesn't understand that the complexity, the emotion  is  not  about  a relationship the way you might assume you feel about your family pet.  Because most of us choose  as parents to have very open frank. 13:06 early conversations with our children about what it means for an animal to be a terminal animal that's meant for food and byproduct use,  that  the emotion is there because this animal is the  living  evidence  of  work done that so many of their peers can understand  and  the blood, sweat, and tears 13:35 poured into something, the commitment and their exhaustion, frankly, by the end of a county fair, the measure of that devotion. It is a lot. And it's also gratitude because historically, in our county, for instance, because of the support of our community businesses, 14:03 and the fact that we are able to have a true livestock sale.  That sale is funding the dreams and the hopes  of our children's  futures,  including  paying for college,  starting a business. um It  just means so much to them. And  a young lady that is very dear to our family is in her first semester of PA school. 14:32 And if it weren't for 4-H,  she wouldn't be able to be doing this without such a hefty  student loan burden right now. Her participation in that  and selling those animals  for 10 years and weeping through it sometimes, not always, because sometimes  you feel peace letting them go when they've been in real pain, has 14:59 It financed her dreams and her dreams are coming true.  And the 4-H part helps give her the work ethic to press through PA school, which is no joke. 15:11 Yeah, I feel like 4-H is the thing  that teaches kids responsibility and hope and how to set goals and how to achieve them  and so many more things, but those are the things that really stick out to me.  Loyalty, teamwork, devotion,  service beyond self. Our kids in our club pick up trash. They ring the bells  for the Salvation Army. 15:41 They participate in efforts to gather food for our food pantry and take it there. They participate in fundraising efforts to give back into our backpack programs in our county and our different schools in our whole county to help feed kids on weekends whose families may run short on weekends. so, it's 4-H. 16:09 is always about learning and service.  And every child in 4-H is expected to give back. Our county fairs wouldn't run without volunteers. So every child who is winning purple ribbons is also expected to be cleaning and painting and raking and mowing and organizing and helping judges and putting ribbons on. And that's what our kids do. um And it's so gratifying. 16:38 We also require at our county fair when they have an entry of a project to be at a loaf of bread or an entomology, which are dead bugs.  The boys really get into the dead bugs, by the way. uh Entered into entomology,  which is a science project, or leather work, or a cat,  or  sewing,  or uh painting, or  just anything. They have to participate in an interview. 17:06 And not every county does that. And it is a heavy, heavy lift because we have to find judges who have the time to help interview all these kids. These kids are phenomenal. By the time they are teenagers, they know how to have conversations with adults. They get jobs. They are successful,  not just in 4-H, but the other things they do because they started learning these skills at age six years old. 17:32 about how to start and finish something and do your best and take criticism, take critiques, learn from them  because you don't win purple ribbons every year  and become resilient, coping.  The other cool thing is many of our 4-H  hired staff, which come through in Nebraska, they are hired through the university.  They go into the school systems. So kids who aren't even in regular 4-H will 18:02 meet 4-H program people. And that's how in our school, our kids learn how to bake bread. She goes each year  to all of the third graders  in our whole county  and spends a day with them and they learn how to bake bread and then they take their loaf of bread home. And for many of them, it might be the very first time they've been in a kitchen actually doing something. And if you can just imagine the pride. 18:31 taking home a true loaf of bread at the end of the day. Well, considering that I still haven't managed to make a good loaf of yeast bread in my entire life, yeah, I can absolutely imagine the pride that happens with that.  And it's not even just the baking skills. She wraps the science into it.  She at times has done homemade ice cream where you do it by playing kick the can, which is so much fun.  She did this with us in 4-H camp. 19:00 years and years ago are making butter same way with the art of movement and then of course with the ice cream with the salt and the ice lowering the freezing point. But the kids, they're learning without realizing they're learning. That's another thing I love about 4-H. You're learning in all of the different ways because we all know kids don't learn the same way and learning without even realizing that you're learning. 19:26 and you're learning something. And it might be about how to lose and lose with grace. And it might be how to win and win with poise  and integrity.  It might be how to stand up and put your shoulders back in the face of defeat. I could just go on and on. I could tell you my own personal stories of heartache ah when I didn't want to. 19:55 I didn't want to go on because I was embarrassed or, you know, something happened. had an animal die on me at the fair. It died. All those months of work to have a beef animal develop a rapid onset of an ulcer, which is a terrible, terrible thing that happens to beef cattle on occasion and you really can't do anything about it. That's why I'm so passionate about it because here I am 40 years later. 20:24 and I can remember like yesterday. So  it really is a tremendous program and I'm not saying that just because I'm in it and I'm a rancher and I care about the  agriculture components. It makes an impact no matter whose life it touches.  Yes. So I have  a question.  With Girl Scouts, I would go to Sherri Beatty's house to go see my troop of girls. 20:53 we would do a thing, it would last about an hour, and then we would go home.  How is 4-H  structured for the kids? it, do they do it in school? Is it  an extracurricular thing? Is it an hour long? How does it work? Yep, sure. Again, it depends on your state and your county and your 4-H club. Here and where we live, you are required to join a club. 21:20 So you do not participate independently. And I understand that because it is for good reasons that you are in a club to learn some of those things we just talked about.  So our particular club, which is volunteer-led,  so we get back into this whole conversation about being short on volunteers in this country,  why we're so grateful for them. We meet once a month. So we gather once a month. um We skip a couple of months, especially around fair time because it's such a busy time of year. 21:50 We have a business meeting. We have elected officers. The kids at age eight start learning the basics of parliamentary procedure. That's fabulous. Isn't that something? How to make a motion, how to have discussion, how to take a vote, how to take minutes, how to keep a financial report because we do fundraise then and we are responsible for keeping track of our funds and then deciding as a club  how to spend them. 22:20 And of course, there's a lot of parental oversight because  if you asked an eight-year-old,  they want to donate their money to everything, you know.  And they don't necessarily have  completely clear understanding of the cost of doing business and some of those things. So the older kids are expected to shepherd the younger kids  and the adults are there for general oversight. So we meet once a month.  When there is time, we integrate some kind of a service project  or some kind of a topic and then some kind of fund. 22:50 because these kids are, we call 4-H friends, friends forever. And  I am friends forever with my 4-H friends of my youth.  One of them happens to be the nurse practitioner who helps take care of me as an adult now. em So we  make a lot of jokes about,  she learned how to take care of beef cattle, so of course she's good at taking care of  human women too. um So  we have our meetings once a month and then we ramp up some of that. 23:19 again, during times of year where we're providing extra service during the holidays.  And then certainly dress rehearsals  as we lead into county fair because we like to give the kids time with adults to practice before  they interview with judges, for instance, or before they bring their animals to the fair because especially for the young ones,  if they're bringing their chickens or their bunny rabbits or their horse or their bigger animals, it's very 23:49 nerve-racking because not only are you a nervous kid who's nervous for yourself and  being in front of a crowd and answering questions, here you have an animal that can be unpredictable. m And so it always helps to get the jitters out if you can have a practice or two. Oh, of course.  Absolutely. Practice makes better. I don't think it makes perfect. I think it makes better. m And if you want true entertainment, you sit where you can hear what an eight 24:18 or a nine or a 10 year old will tell a judge because they don't know how to tell a lie. uh 24:26 One of the best, so I'm a volunteer comment writer for a judge. Typically your judges are people who don't know the kids  so that there's no bias. Totally makes sense.  But your comment writers and your volunteers are all your locals. So two years ago, it's the end of the day, the judging window closes at 4 p.m. and you're supposed to come according to like, you know, the last letter of your alphabet so we can kind of spread kids out throughout the day. 24:53 It's five minutes to closing time. We think we're done for the day. We had some no-show kids, you know, sometimes you just don't get the paint to dry on a piece of art and you just don't get it entered. Well,  this young man who I know comes racing in the door and he has a t-shirt on a hanger  and he's headed our way and I know he's headed to our table. We had  one of the kind of miscellaneous art categories. 25:18 and he comes flying to the table and sits down in front of the judge and he doesn't shake the judge's hand.  And I know this young man and typically he would have done that. And I'm thinking  something's up.  And he hands me the hanger with this tie dyed blue t-shirt and he says, I don't think you want to touch it.  And I realized his hands are blue. oh 25:48 And I said,  okay. And so the judge,  who I also know,  starts interviewing him.  And he said, it's been quite a day, of course. I didn't think I was going to make it on time and I'm already in trouble with my mom. And he she says, why is that? He goes,  because I took her pressure cooker to use it to tie-dye my shirt.  Oh no. 26:15 And he had done a remarkably great job with his tie-dye work, which was still lead. And he goes, but she says, I'll learn my lesson about procrastination because you don't want to look too closely. There's a hole in the armpit of this t-shirt. Oh no. He said, if you're going to tie-dye, I'm not taking you to the store to buy something new. You got to find something. And he said, I guess I picked an old shirt that had a hole in it. Bonnie, oh my goodness. 26:44 But he was magnificent. So I think she gave him a blue ribbon because he nailed his performance in the interview  and the t-shirt was just the byproduct. I've seen that kid wear the t-shirt out and about.  But that's just a small example of why 4-H is fantastic. Where else do you find a nine-year-old? A nine-year-old doing something like that. Yeah, I mean, why not?  And I 27:13 I'm going to say it. I feel like 4-H fosters creativity on all levels for kids and then through the rest of their lives.  Mm-hmm. 100%. And here he is, nine years old, having a candid, honest, terrific interview with an adult woman. He knew every bit about how to properly tie-dye a shirt. He did read the directions. Mm-hmm. Just happened to wait a couple days too long. 27:42 He was proud of his work, his time management. Well, you can say he got it done on time. He took full responsibility  for it and he got it done. And he's out there wearing the t-shirt and he's proud of it. um Sure, he frustrated his mom and he probably owes her a new pressure cooker. But  he's nine years old. Again, in this world of so much challenge for our American children, would you rather have had him 28:12 sitting in front of the TV, I don't think so. This is the creativity. This is what we want for our kids. So, 4-H provides that. And it doesn't cost a darn thing to belong to 4-H at all. Yeah, and lest we forget, children are the future of the world. So, the more that we can give them room to learn and love and feel, the better off we're all going to be.  Yep. Now it's my turn to cough. 28:44 100%. It's that time of year. Everybody is coughing. Even people on the news, the local news, they're coughing. And sneezing, yes. so we have about 160 4-H members in our county, which represents a good chunk of those eligible in our county. And our county fair is big. We have kids that go on then to compete in our state fair. 29:11 in our national 4-H Congress. 4-H, though, across the board has struggled because of the sharp elbows of other distractions that have come along, namely sports.  And I love sports, Mary. I've always loved sports. I'm not particularly good at them. I'm super excited that the Olympics are in February. I've always loved the Winter Olympics. um But I have to question, especially as I 29:40 I listen and I hear how expensive, for instance, club traveling sports are. And in a culture  that seems to worship sports, and that's a strong word, I know, but it sure feels that way when it dominates every news  story and every thread.  There are children who do not like sports. There are children who are not good at sports. There are children who are great at sports.  And 30:10 And it's my very firm opinion that if you don't have your children in something besides sports, you are selling them short because sports will end, maybe not for some. And sports do teach a lot of things to kids, but there is  so much more. 30:34 Yeah.  And sports can end your career before you even start your career in sports.  And I don't feel like that's always the case with 4-H. I mean, yes, you could probably get a broken leg from a calf, but  it's unusual.  And 4-H has so many other things that aren't necessarily  massively physical, like quilt making or  tie-dyeing t-shirts, like you just said.  So. 31:05 I've been blessed  in my life, in my travels, to interact with a lot of  notable people, with a lot of influence  when it comes to making hiring decisions  and selections and appointments.  And I can tell you firsthand  if a young person or any person has 4-H, 31:35 or FFA, or Eagle Scout, or things like that on their resume, they do rise to the surface. Because people know, they know what goes with that.  Fabulous. Are your daughters in 4-H or have they been? They have been. Both of them have been  since they were Clover kids. 32:02 Our eldest will finish out her 4-H career this year. We do call it a career because it is truly that, when you're all in as she has been, which means not only as a participant, but as a volunteer. And the conversation she and I had recently was, what am I going to do when I don't have it? Because it consumes so much time for her when you've been a contributor and giving back. And I said, I have no doubt in my mind. 32:31 that one day soon you will find yourself ready to give back  as a volunteer, a judge or something.  It becomes part of who you are. And that's why I am so passionate about it.  My husband was a 4-H-er as well.  He showed hogs.  And it's not perfect. It's an organization that has its struggles. Funding is a major struggle.  Right now, both 4-H and FFA are m 33:01 You know, they're  easy ones  to be gone after. I know, I believe it's Oregon right now, the legislature has to cut money from the state budget and FFA is on the chopping block. I know there's efforts underway to try to fight that. Here, the university is responsible for much of the 4-H budget and they're consolidating positions and trying to cut spending. And there may come a time when more of that expense is passed on. 33:31 locally. As I said right now, it's $6 to belong to 4-H. That's it. And that's been one of the merits for it in saying that it's for everyone. And when I tell you, know 4-H club leaders who drive around and pick up kids who don't have transportation, I mean it. One of them is my neighbor who does that. And he teaches archery and shooting sports to young people. That 33:58 we have to advocate for these programs, just like other ones that have struggled because those of us who've been there know the full value. And it's easy when you're done with it and you've closed  that chapter in your life to say, that's not my fight, it's not my battle. But now more than ever, those of us who are aware have to fight and advocate  and say, because the squeaky wheels get the grease and programs like 4-H and FFA 34:27 They've never been a squeaky wheel. They've just turned out their results  and kept marching along.  we have to speak up for them and tell our stories and share them, which is partly why I do what I do, because it does  matter.  Absolutely, it does. Okay. We're going to keep this one a little shorter today because I have another thing I'm scheduled to do at 1030, and I will definitely need to go grab a glass of water and  maybe visit the bathroom before 1030. Leah? oh 34:57 Thank you for talking with me about  this particular topic because I feel like it's important.  And I'm sorry if it felt like I was interviewing you. was trying not to, but I'm so curious about it because I was never part of it. People can find us  at Grit and Grace in the Heartland Women in Agriculture on Facebook.  And you can go to the website gritandgracentheheartland.com. um 35:22 Love, love, love talking with you, Leah. And you have lived like a billion lifetimes in one, I swear.  I have been blessed to have a lot of experiences  and parents who were not gentle parents who  made  me try things, especially public speaking when I did not want to. That was one of my very first 4-H experiences was being in the public speaking contest. And look at me now. 35:52 And so  the message for parents and grandparents and loving neighbors and family members is kids often will say no to something, but they don't know until they try it.  And I tell you, you get them in 4-H, you get them hooked. So if we can share resources and help direct you to the resources in your state, we will do that using our social media um channels that we can to help connect you because... 36:16 I believe that strongly in this program that I will do what I can to help you get connected where you need to be. Yep. I will try to put all the things in the show notes so people can just, you know, click the link to the 4-H website and then  they can find places to sign up. Fantastic.  All right. Well, we will talk to you in the next one. And in the meantime, have some grit and grace.