The True Value of 4-H
I was 7 years old the first time I sat at the sewing machine, and my mother gave me my first sewing lesson.
My mother gave birth to 8 children and I was the 7th. Both my parents were 4-H leaders for many years. They believed in the 4 H’s…Head, Heart, Hands and Health. They also believed that 4-H training taught life skills, hands-on project knowledge, personal leadership, and perhaps most importantly self esteem. They felt there would be no better place to raise children with these values than on a farm.
My great grandparents homesteaded on the hill above Columbia River and east of Troutdale. The small farm located just a mile west of the homestead was our family farm located on Wand Road, our family name. There was plenty of room to raise children, animals and have a super-sized garden. Some of my fondest memories are running through a freshly plowed field in bare feet.
I had watched my sisters cut out patterns and sew aprons, blouses, skirts, prom dresses and wool coats and then entered their projects in the Multnomah County Fair and many many times they won Champion and then even Grand Champion and then were privileged to exhibit in the Oregon State Fair in Salem.
I couldn’t’ wait until I was 9 years old and could enter my work at the fair. There is no better feeling than walking into the 4-H building and seeing your project on display with a blue ribbon.
Fair time was very important to my family. My brothers would enter electrical motors that my father had taught them to build. They also had animals to show, from chickens to rabbits to cows. My sisters and I would show our canning, freezing, sewing, and knitting projects. My mother insisted that we all participate in the Demonstration Contests so as I grew into a teenager, I eagerly entered the Style Revue contest modeling the clothes that I had sewn.
Little did I know then how much this training would help me as I grew into adulthood. It prepared me to manage a restaurant with 40 employees; it enabled me to believe in my own voice and ask for a business dance license for the Pastime tavern in front of Sultan’s City Council. It also gave me communication skills and organization skills to form the nonprofit Grow Washington in 2010 with the mission of helping entrepreneurs begin their new journeys as business owners.
