The Rural Voice, 2005-11, Page 184-H Grand Champion
shown with Emily Gibson and
Jim Wilson, Teeswater Concrete
at the Brussels Livestock Show
& Sale October 8, 2005
Alex Simpson shown with his 4-H
market steer and Jim Wilson,
Teeswater Concrete at the
Brussels Livestock Show & Sale
October 8, 2005.
Conrattilations Emily and
Q�ex..J,eesuflaten 'Cancxete is
pawl to sup port 4-J( in
.7funan and puce Counties.
40144)
40ity $4,11
CONCRETE
Teeswater
519-392-6776/1-800-263-2555
Clinton
519-482-3433/1-800-270-2050
Tiverton
519-368-7696
"Serving the area for 25 years"
14 THE RURAL VOICE
Moore says. Most parents are looking
for a good program to put their kids
in, especially in a rural area.
Moore came to 4-H through a
friend herself. The friend had taken a
4-H course and wanted her to come
along to the next one. She did, and
eight years later she has participated
in clubs from sheep to chinchillas, to
cooking, sewing and crafts.
Pfister had an older brother and
sister in 4-H. "I saw how much fun
they had" she remembers, and
couldn't wait to turn 10 so she could
take part. Her first club was a dairy
club, naturally enough since she
comes from a dairy farm.
Pfister tells others that there's so
much to gain from 4-H from both
learning and making so many new
friends. And, like so many others,
she says 4-H has helped her bpost her
self-confidence so she can make all
those speeches involved in being an
ambassador.
While for many 4-H is a youthful
experience that helps them cross the
bridge to adulthood, for others it's a
lifelong devotion.
"I've been involved in 4-H most
of my life," says Barbara Barfoot, a
4-H leader who was awarded 4-H
Ontario's Arbor Award for
volunteerism several years ago.
The 4-H experience began for
Barfoot with homemaking clubs in
the 1950s in her native Heathcote, in
Grey County's Beaver Valley. She
took part in a wool club, gardening
club and learned sewing and baking
in the days when Women's Institutes
sponsored and delivered the
programs, later renamed more
politically -correctly, the lifestyles
programs.
In those days you were too old for
4-H livestock clubs once you reached
21 but those in homemaking clubs
could continue until they were 26.
Barfoot married, became a teacher
and moved to Clavering but
continued to attend 4-14, at one point
serving as both a leader and a
member at the same time.
Health problems, career and a
young family meant she left 4-H for a
few years but 30 years ago got
involved again as a leader and 25
years ago "really took it on", leading
seven lifeskills clubs a year.
Her husband Ken, too, was
involved in 4-H for a long time
leading veterinary, dairy and
snowmobiling clubs.
Naturally enough their daughter
gravitated to 4-H taking lifeskills
clubs but also dairy, crops and
veterinary clubs.
Back when she was involved with
lifeskills clubs, Barfoot remembers
the people she would meet through
county -wide achievement days that
brought members of different
together in a central location for a
day -long session. "You learned to
socialize," she recalls. "The
friendships last so long."
Her daughter proves relationships
through 4-H can be even stronger
than mere friendships. She met her
husband, a fellow Grey County 4 -
Her, while they were on a 4-H
exchange trip to Alberta.
Today they have two sons in 4-H
for a third generation of the family
involved.
While 4-H marks its 90th
anniversary in 2005, the name 4-H
only dates from 1952.
The first club, started back in
1915 in Waterloo County was a
Boys' and Girls' livestock club. It
took its inspiration from the first
rural youth organization in Roland,
Manitoba, called "Boys' and Girls'
Club". By 1919 there were 20 clubs
with 450 members with the numbers
leaping to 127 clubs with 2,369
members by 1923 and 234 clubs with
5,276 members in 1931.
The Federated Women's Institutes
of Ontario (FWIO) also organized the
first Girls' Sewing Club in 1915. In
1935 the name "Homemaking Club"
was adopted and 1,000 girls in
Ontario completed the project "A
simple cotton dress", organized by
FWIO.
In 1946 the Queen's Guineas was
established at the Royal Winter Fair
for the 4-H member showing the top
beef calf.
Gaunt, who won the Queen's
Guineas in 1955, claims winning the
prize requires good fortune as well as
hard work. You need to have the
right calf, the right coaching, and the
right feeding program he says. He
was fortunate to have his father
Andrew who had years of experience
in the beef business as a coach as
well as club leaders who taught him
what they could.
He knew he had a good calf that