Community Highlight: 4H- Part 1
Podcast Transcription:
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Maddy: Hey everyone! Welcome to this episode of PFCU’s Money Talk podcast, I’m your host Maddy and with me today, I have Casey who is the Consumer Lending Manager at PFCU. Welcome Casey, thank you for joining me today!
Casey: Thank you for having me!
Maddy: Today Casey is going to share about her experience with her community’s 4-H program and I don’t know much at all about this program so I’m looking forward to learning a little more about it. Can you share with us about how you and your family got started with the program?
Casey: Absolutely so we were asked to join the Dairy Land Sons and Daughters Group by a family friend who had shown animals growing up. It was a great way to meet new people and make some lifelong friends. It’s an extended family that’s brand new to us and my kiddos both had to ask permission of the farm owners to borrow the cattle that they wanted to show for the upcoming fairs.
Maddy: Aw I love that. Okay, so I’m just curious, you said that they had to borrow cattle to show at fairs. Do you guys have your own animals now or do you plan on getting any in the future?
Casey: We don’t have cows however we just recently had purchased a few pigs so we do have pigs at our house for my oldest to show at the fair this year.
Maddy: Oh nice! What have you seen your kids get out of this program? What kinds of experiences have they gotten to take part in?
Casey: So working with the animals gave them a whole new experience. I’ve watched them grow so much, becoming more confident in all that they do. It teaches them what hard work is, responsibility, to care for animals and others. Getting to learn all about the dairy industry as well has how different farms work. My girls have been mainly involved in the Dairy Club but at the fair they were able to learn all about the animals and more. As a group they worked together on community service projects, whether it was pop can drives, bake sales to donate money to families in need or decorating lunch bags for the IM Kids Program. Being able to watch all the kids show their animals on show day is quite the experience and so much fun. You can tell they can take all the pride that they have in their animals and showing them off to the judge to the best of their abilities. They need to know about their animals from the body parts to the dates of the birth to what the animals actually eat so they learn so much along the way. It really is an amazing time.
Maddy: It sounds like they’re not only learning about responsibility and hard work but they’re also making lifelong friends and building great relationships and taking part in community service projects so it really just sounds like an awesome program, like a well-rounded program.
Casey: It really, it really truly is. We have, each year we’ve had a kick-off banquet and my oldest has actually been able to, was selected as president of the club for the last few years and with that came the responsibilities of speaking at the benefit, or the kick-off banquet, and having that talking points of the master, like the master of ceremony so to speak. So she was able to even work on her public speaking skills as well.
Maddy: Definitely, what a great experience to have. Now how have you been able to be involved in the program as a parent?
Casey: That has been so much fun for me, especially I think, just being able to volunteer to help out with the kids. Whether it was supervising barn duty at fair or helping out serving food in the service club food booth or helping wash the animals, or supervising washing the animals. So each and every part of it is such as fun time. Prepping for fair was a large part of my volunteer time. Getting the prep work for the barn with the signs and creating those things and getting some craft time in there so that’s been really fun. But also watching the kids talk to the community as they walk through the barns to tell them about their animals or offering for them to pet one of their calves are memories that will just last a lifetime.
Maddy: And that’s all I have with Casey today. I hope you all enjoyed this glimpse into the 4-H program as much as I did and maybe it even sparked your interest to get involved. Thank you Casey for taking the time to talk with me today and sharing all of this great information.
Casey: You’re very welcome! Thank you!
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