Somerset County 4H Fair

Last week I attended all three days of the Somerset County 4H Fair and it still wasn’t enough time to do everything I wanted.

While I petted ducklings, snakes, rabbits, sheep, goats, llamas, and cows, I missed out on holding a newly hatched chick. I watched model airplanes fly and go karts race, but I missed the rocket launches and the radio control cars. I met a man who carved wood into beautiful pieces of art and a blacksmith, but I didn’t have a chance to have my name written in Chinese calligraphy or watch double Dutch jump rope or make jewelry or decorate a clothespin clip or run a big piece of machinery or make a print.

But I did have the chance to meet hundreds of members of the 4H family; kids with an incredible depth of knowledge about their projects and who are polite and patient when they explain the work they have done. And what work it is! They invite you to peruse their project books – binders where they have recorded each step in words and pictures.

When their projects involve animals they have done it all: cleaned, trained, mucked stalls, everything. Those who work with the farm animals have a better understanding of the food chain than many adults and know the end result of the market lamb auction or where those cute chicks are going to be in eight weeks; they know about birth and death.

The club members who work with mechanical items – trains, planes, vehicles of all types – don’t just pull it out of a box and play with it. These kids know how they work, how to fix them, how to maintain them, and how to build and personalize them; they respect what is behind each item.

When it comes to crafts they are tactful and clear while talking you through a simple project, hoping to spread their enthusiasm and knowledge.

The 4H has a depth of intergenerational family participation that isn’t often found these days. The kids aren’t just dropped off and picked up at club meetings, but their families are enthusiastic, encouraging, helpful, and involved; people who are making more than projects. They are making the strong extraordinary adults of the future.

And they helped me make memories. Next year I am definitely trying the Bubble Tea. And trying a new craft. And holding a newly hatched chick.

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Go to www.c-n.com and look through the three galleries of 4H Fair pictures.