MSU Extension 4-H

(The following is a reprint of an article from the July 30, 2012 White Lake Beacon. It is reproduced with the permission of the newspaper’s editor.)

My 4-H Club, Wooly Walkers

Last year, our leader, Sherri Lemmen (my mom) challenged us, as a 4-H club to enter a club project into the exhibit building even though we are a lamb group. Kara Johnsen, last year’s president, suggested a quilt. The kids were all excited, so our leader went to talk to Jill Twiss, the owner of Quilted Memories, our local fabric shop. By fair time, all 14 of the kids made a 14” by 14” square. We put them together and made our first Wooly Walkers Quilt. This quilt brought us together as a club. Also 13 of us learned how to sew by hand and by machine. After completing last year’s challenge, the kids all wanted to do it again. This year, we were begging our leader for another challenge, so our 2012 challenge was to fulfill our 4-H pledge. Our pledge is:

I pledge….
My Head to clearer thinking

My Hands to larger service

My Heart to greater loyalty

My Health to better living for my club, my community, my country, and my world

So we decided to do something for our club, community, country and our world. This year, for the club, we got t-shirts and are going to be doing another quilt. To raise money for our t-shirts and start of the quilt, we did a pop can drive. Thank you to everyone who donated cans. When we started our quilt, we went to D & R Printing to get our pictures transferred to fabric. Then we went to Quilted Memories to pick out fabric and embroidery floss. I can’t wait to see the quilt put together. We needed money to finish the quilt, so we had a car wash.

Our community project was helping the Claybanks Cemetery Committee clean up the township hall and Flower Creek Cemetery. Last year, we had a 100% participation, plus parents in this project. This year, due to a date change, we had 80% participation, plus help from parents, other 4-H club members, the cemetery committee, and other members of the community. I thought the cemetery and hall looked
 spectacular, with everybody working together.

For country, our leader called around to see what our 4-H group could do to come alongside the veterans. After talking to some friends about what the club wanted to do, Lisa Armstrong, from the VFW’s Ladies Auxiliary, called our leader. She offered to let us help in the Independence Day celebration for our local veterans. We all met at the V. F. W. (Veterans of Foreign Wars) hall in Montague and helped prepare lunch for the veterans. We were also asked to hand out flags (3,000 of them to be exact) in the Whitehall/Montague Independence Day Parade. It felt like such and an honor to walk in front of the veterans and to pass out the flags. After the parade, we got to serve the veterans lunch. It was very humbling to serve the people who fought for us.

The last thing in our pledge is our World, but it is special to me. As we were discussing what to do to live out the pledge, I suggested raising money to buy lambs for people in other countries through an organization called Heifer International. Everyone liked this idea, so we had to decide what we were going to do to raise the money. As a club, we decided on a car wash. Half the money would go towards our quilt and half went to Heifer International to buy lambs. This year’s club president, Hannah Berry, called Luker’s Canvas in Montague for the location. They were happy to host our car wash and it was scheduled for June 30th. At the car wash, all the kids had to switch between advertising and washing. Even the adults helped! We raised enough money to finish our quilt and buy a few lambs through Heifers International.

I’m proud to be a Wooly Walker and glad my club is up for these challenges. I’m also very grateful for the community support of our club.