No headline

I recently had the pleasure of doing interview judging for the local 4H’ers. What an amazing, lovely and well spoken group of young people!

Each 4-H member we (Marianne Love and I) interviewed could explain their project in detail; what they learned, what their hopes were and how much it cost, both in time and money. One young lady had pretty much surrendered the summer to her projects. The area the newer members fell down on was remembering to introduce themselves to us; after all, most of the kids don’t have to be grilled by two old ladies!

They might start out shy but soon that fell away, thanks to Marianne, and her years of teaching experience, they soon opened up to tell us their story. It did not all go well, but each one had thoughts about next year and in the case of the older ones, they told us how 4-H had helped shape them. “I learned patience” was often heard, by young and old. I would add to that they learned to do a project from start to finish, deal with the less happy aspects and accept the requirement of attending meetings and do an in-depth record book that is printed or written so that it is readable by anyone.

Once again I left feeling uplifted, these kids are so much wiser in all ways then I was at that time in my life, and far better prepared for their futures.

DIANE NEWCOMER

Clark Fork