Home Pioneer Celebrates 75 years of Making the Best Better!

 

Home Pioneer 4-H Year-In-Review.

The Home Pioneer 4-H meets the fourth Tuesday of most months in La Plata and Atlanta. We do not meet in December, January, July or August. Officer teams are elected for each location. All of our meetings last than one hour, each month, so families can return home in a reasonable amount of time. On occasion, our club also meets virtually.

Celebrating our Roots:

The Home Pioneer 4-H Club celebrated its 75^th Anniversary of tradition in in 2020. The club was originally founded as “Love Lake 4-H” in 1945 in rural Atlanta, MO. Some of the families and friends of those original members are still active today. We recognize these as “legacy members” of our club. In the last year, the club grew into two locations - allowing members to have the option to meet in Atlanta or La Plata on the same day, when possible. This helped with social distancing and attendance.

Growing our Membership:

Six years ago, the club had 23 members. This year, the club had 81 members enrolled including 22 Clover Kids, ages 5-7. Home Pioneer had 53 members finish the year by attending at least half the club meetings and participating in the Macon County Fair. Our membership goal for the new year is to continue to have more than 80 members while maintaining the two meeting locations.

Making the Best Better:

All of our members are required to present a demonstration. In the last year, several members presented their demonstrations on videos shared to our Facebook Page. On one of our meeting nights, we provided “grab bag demonstrations,” with more than 20 members completing demonstrations in one evening.  Our goal for this year is to encourage members to complete their demonstration by video instead of at meetings, so they can be shared online.

The Macon County Fair, Achievement Day, club meetings and demonstrations all allow members to gain soft skills like communicating with others and building confidence. Each member is also enrolled in various projects and required to participate in at least six hours of instruction on that project through the year.  During the pandemic, those instruction hours began to include virtual instruction that was made available online with the approval of project leaders. All of this instruction helps build hard skills like learning to cook, sew and raise livestock.

Putting kids in Charge:

Our Atlanta officers for 2020-2021 were: President Bella Baker, Vice President Sylvie Christensen, Secretary Kamberly Schneider, Treasurer Tinley Schneider, Reporter Jett Harrington, Historian Gage Harrington, Song Leader Macey Bealmer, game Leader Paisley Weldon, Parliamentarian Carter Christensen, Chaplain Tucker Fitzsimmons, Sentinel Paul Butner, Health & Safety Tanner Fitzsimmons, Annual Trip Committee Bella Baker & Jon Reuterdahl.

Our La Plata officers for 2020-2021 were: President Kohyn Wood, Vice President Kendrick Hulett, Secretary Wyatt Smithson, Treasurer Tinley Schneider, Reporter Jon Reuterdahl, Historian Brody Baker, Song Leader Kail Wood, Parliamentarian Jay Reuterdahl, Sentinel Landyn Hulett, Annual Trip Committee Bella Baker & Jon Reuterdahl.

Recognizing our Volunteers:

Bacon, Sewing, Horsemanship, Rabbits, Beef and Foods all continue to be strong projects for our club. Our club took 65 slabs of bacon to compete at the county fair this year.

This year’s project leaders included:  Clover Kids, Canning, Breads, Foods, Scrapbooking (Erica Baker), Beef (Cathy Baker), Swine & Sheep (Greg VanDike), Vet Science & Horses (Deidre Weldon), Beekeeping, Horticulture & Floriculture (Jeremy Schneider), Cake Decorating (Candace Moore), Country Cured Bacon & Hams (Sonny Noland), Meat & Dairy Goats (Christina Pennington), Arts & Crafts, Guinea Pigs (Lisa Bender), Poultry & Rabbits (Travis Britton), Quilting, Clothing, Shopping In Style (Lois Noland), Welding & Woodworking (Jessy Reuterdahl), Shooting Sports (Lyann Ritter), Amphibians & Global Education (Karen Butner), Computer Programming (Deidre Weldon), Dog (Cindy Cross), Photography (Aaron Baker), Entomology (Luara Walls).

Aaron Baker and Deidre Weldon serve as Club Leaders, 4-H Council Representatives and Fair Board members representing our club. Bella Baker and Paisley Weldon were youth serving on the 4-H Council.

Learning by Doing:

One goal for the year was to continue to increase our project meeting activities.

In what was perhaps a first in our club, Kaela Britton participated in the Missouri State Fair’s Sale of Champions with her Reserve Grand Champion Meat Rabbits. When the dust settled on the auction and donations, her 3 rabbits sold for more than $5,000, which is likely a record for that species at the state fair. Kaela continued her success at shows throughout Missouri and the United States in the last year and we are very proud of her accomplishments.

A highlight of the year was a trip to Kansas City’s 801 Chophouse for our Beef, Sheep and Pork members to experience fine dining featuring premium cuts of meat. The members attending were also taught table manners. It was an experience our members and families will remember for a lifetime.

Our largest project is Bacon, with 34 members participating. Sonny Noland serves as the leader. Our “bacon dads” spent two nights during fair week, slicing bacons at Koch’s General Store for member families and buyers. Bacon projects are eligible to sell at the county fair.

Another highlight this year was the Arts & Crafts meeting to create items from “macrame.”

Paislea Weldon and Ashlynn Russell both participated in the Missouri State Fair with their horses, placing second and third in the costume classes, amongst other competitions. These two members competed throughout the Midwest in several horse shows and rodeos.

 

Christina Mosley hosted project meetings at her home, teaching members artificial insemination and other animal husbandry practices. Cathy Baker provided meetings on feeding, calving and other best practices as well.

 

Erica Baker hosted several meetings in her home including scrapbooking, breads and foods. Erica’s breads members also traveled to Koch’s General Store to interview bakers and taste-test products.

 

Travis Britton hosted rabbit, Guinea Pig and poultry meetings at his home. One highlight was students learning how to tattoo rabbits. Another guest speaker from St. Joseph, Tamala Simmons, spoke at a poultry meeting this year about her experiences showing poultry at the national level. She also brought show stock for members to purchase.

 

Luara Walls led entomology meeting in April, with several members catching and cataloging bugs for display in frames, at the county fair.

 

Candace Moore hosted two cake decorating meetings at Koch’s General Store, as a new project leader.

 

Jessy Reuterdahl led meetings for welding and woodworking. These projects have seen a huge increase in participation under her leadership as a new project leader.

 

Jeremy Schneider hosted meetings at the City Park, discussing gardening, horticulture, bees and Monarch Butterflies. The park is maintained by the club includes milk weeds to attract Monarchs every year.

 

Lois Noland and Kallie Baker hosted sewing, quilting and shopping in style meetings at Noland’s Catering, in preparation for the fair with seven members participating.

 

Ashlynn Russell and Riley Moore participated in the National Junior Red Angus Association Show in Tennessee this summer.

 

Paisley Weldon had a lot of success with her dog project this year, winning top point at Randolph County’s fair.

 

Libby Wyman won Reserve Champion “Shopping in Style” at the Macon Fair and plans to participate in the State Fashion Review.

 

We are grateful to Cindy Cross, Angela Helton and Amy Shaefer for organizing project meetings for our dogs and livestock members as well, at the county-level.

 

Our Clover Kids participated in our annual Clover Kid Camp on June 19 with 12 Clover Kids participating. Members Tinley and Taylin Schneider, Bella Baker and Barrett Pinkston volunteered alongside Erica Baker to organize the annual event. The day also included a tour of the local fire station and lumber yard. A special thanks to Anna Blackford for hosting a county-wide day camp as well, during setup for the county fair.

 

Raising funds for the Cause:

 

In 2020, we grossed just more than $9,000 from our annual wreath sale, selling 268 of the 18” round wreaths, 80 cross wreaths and 36 of the 36” round wreaths. This is an annual tradition for our club and the revenue is used to help offset the cost of dues paid by the club and also for our annual trip. A special thanks to our treasurer, Tinley Schneider, for tracking all of the income and expenses. Dues for the state and county total $40, with our club paying half of that for all members.

 

Participating in the County Fair:

We had 53 of our members participated in the Macon County Fair. The club exhibited 252 projects this year, down from 275 in 2019. The club also exhibited 56 projects in various competitions that received champion, reserve champion and/or state fair honors. One highlight of the fair was a shrimp boil hosted by club parents in the campgrounds during fair week.

Also at the County Fair, Macey and Emerson Bealmer and Jon and Jay Reuterdahl all participated in the Show-Me-Wares Contest to learn more about entrepreneurship.

 

The club participated in the 4-H Council silent auction fundraiser, with a basket of fishing supplies selling for $110.

 

Home Pioneer had 28 kids participating in the County Fair’s livestock auction. It was a successful sale and the gross receipts were likely the largest in our county fair’s history, totaling $82,740. The total receipt amount included the add-on option, which continues to grow in popularity. This year, 71 add-ons were placed on projects averaging just above $86. The add-on total for 2021 was $6,131. Add-ons are added to any child’s project after the sale, an arrangement made between buyers and sale clerks and are not announced at the sale.

Average premium prices, by species, were as follows (not including add-ons):

·       4 sheep, ranging from $417 to $1,252, for an average premium of $762.

·       28 hogs, ranging from $355 to $1,367, for an average premium of $748.

·       15 hams, ranging from $555 to $1,755, for an average premium of $838.

·       14 steers, ranging from $295 to $1,466, for an average premium of $863.

·       15 bacons, ranging from $475 to $2,275, for an average premium of $892.

·       2 pens of rabbits, ranging from $680 to $1,730, for an average premium of $1,205.

Our members look forward to participating in even more events at the county fair in the new year.

 

Recognizing Accomplishments:

 

Our annual awards program in the county was virtual this year, due to the pandemic.

 

Lois and Sonny Noland were named “Friend of Macon County 4-H.” Their nomination from our club was presented as follows, “Lois is a Sewing Leader for Home Pioneer 4-H. She has helped recruit and mentor other leaders to work alongside her as her sewing project continues to grow in numbers. Sonny is the countywide leader for Hams and Bacon. Those projects have also seen exponential growth in Macon County with Sonny’s help. Both Sonny and Lois are longtime judges for projects at the Macon County Fair. Sonny and Lois are both genuinely interested in the success of the 4-H program in the county and they work hard to make sure the program remains strong. As Macon County 4-H parents and now grandparents, Sonny and Lois are longtime friends of 4-H and we are proud to honor them this year as the 2019-2020 recipient of the Macon County ‘Friend of 4-H’ Award Winner.”

 

Home Pioneer’s Deidre Weldon was named Macon County 4-H Outstanding Leader. Her nomination read as follows: “Our nominee for Outstanding Leader is a mom in our club and she is also co-leader for our club. She is a project leader, not just for our club, but for the entire county. Shei s the type of volunteer that shows up first and leaves last. She is a member of the County 4-H Council. She’s also known or leading activities at the county fair on her own, too. Our nominee hosted 16 project meetings this year, some online, someone a classroom setting and some outside. She works hard and makes sure that all of her members have the knowledge and equipment they need. Our nominee now works for University Extension and is a huge help to the office and all of our county’s members. We are very proud to have Deidre Weldon and her family in our club and we hope she can be recognized as our 2020-2021 Macon County Outstanding Leader of the Year.”

 

Home Pioneer received its annual “Service to Communities” Recognition Award.

 

Brody Baker was named Outstanding 4-H Boy, Age 8-10. Bella Baker received Outstanding 4-H Girl, Age 11-13.

 

Home Pioneer received top honors for Club Secretary’s Book and Treasurer’s Book.

 

Brody Baker, Jay and Jon Reuterdahl were recognized for top table settings.

 

Makaila Teter, Aislynn Baker and Ashlyn Russell received a patch for their letter jackets, as members of the 2019 Freshman Class in 4-H. Teryn Fitzsimmons received a tassel as a graduating senior enrolled in the program.

 

Cathy Baker was recognized as a 35 year volunteer for 4-H, for the 2019-2020 year.

 

Bella Baker, Brody Baker, Jon Reuterdahl, Macey Bealmer, Taylin Schneider, Tinley Schneider and Kamy West were all recognized as members of the 2019-2020 Macon County 4-H Ambassadors.

 

Brianne Bulen and Brynlee Baker were recognized for completing their Clover Kids Award Form.

 

Celebrating Achievement Day:

Macon County Achievement Day was held on June 5, 2021 at the Macon United Methodist Church. Home Pioneer members participated in the event in full force:

Jon Reuterdahl, Barrett Pinkston, Baylie Binder and Tinley Schneider won first place in their age divisions for Personal Development. Clover Kids participating included Brynlee Baker, Riley Moore and Dawson Gulso.

 Winning skill-a-thon team members included Paisley Weldon, Tarin Schneider and Tinley Schneider.

Tinley Schneider also won her age division for Judging.

Jay Reuterdahl won his age division in demonstrations.

Winning speeches included Paisley Weldon (Extemporaneous), Brody Baker (Technology-Assisted) and Bella Baker (Prepared).

Home Pioneer members did not participate in table setting or collection competitions this year.

Participating in Other Activities:

Bella Baker, Brody Baker, Jay Reuterdahl and Jon Reuterdahl traveled to KMZU in Carrollton to provide interviews for National 4-H Week.

 

Brody Baker, Baylie Binder, Tucker Fitzsimmons, Bryson Gulso, Cason Snow and Paisley Weldon participated in the 4-H Day Camp at Moberly.

 

Josh Watson won “Best of Show” with his welding project at the Macon County Fair. Bryson Gulso  won Reserve Grand Champion Bull at the State Fair 4-H Shorthorn show and his heifer calf won reserve in her division. Libby and Brooks Wyman showed hogs at the state fair as well.

 

To promote 4-H and citizenship, Bella Baker, Brody Baker, Jay Reuterdahl and Jon Reuterdahl visited the Macon County Commission to receive a signed resolution, honoring National 4-H Week. Bella Baker, Brody Baker and Dalton Allen attended a city council meeting in Atlanta to receive a similar resolution, too.

 

During National 4-H Week, our members wore 4-H shirts to school and posted the pictures on social media. We had 20 members’ photos shared to our club’s Facebook page. We also helped host a petting zoo with Macon County 4-H on October 10, including a pony, rabbit, guinea pigs and dog from our club.

 

We did not have an annual trip this year for our club, after two years of gathering at the Shelby County Christian Assembly Camp. We hope to return to our annual trip tradition next year.

Serving the Community:

 

Our community service activities providing annual maintenance of the landscaping at our local toddler park in Atlanta. Every year, we work to provide maintenance including the donation of labor and mulch for our local park.

We also had members participating in a community-wide Day of Service in Atlanta on May 25^th, hosted by members of Crossroads Christian Church.

When the local United Methodist Church needed help cleaning out boxes of books, our members helped lend a helping hand.

Our club hosts a dessert and ice cream stand at the Homecoming every year, but it was cancelled this year due to weather. Our annual BINGO at a local nursing home was also cancelled, due to the pandemic.

Hoping more will Join in the Fun:

Home Pioneer will kick off its 76^th year with a drive-through meeting on Tuesday, September 28, 2021 at 6:30 P.M. at the home of April and Charles Watson in Atlanta.

To learn more, visit Atlanta Home Pioneer 4-H Club on Facebook.

 

Home Pioneer 4-H: A look back on the 2018-2019 Year in 4-H!

The Home Pioneer 4-H Club had one of their biggest years in its rich history in 2019. The club was founded 74 years ago in rural Atlanta and many of the original families are still involved today.

Four years ago, the club had 23 members. This year, the club had 63 members sign-up, with 59 finishing the year by attending at least half the club meetings and presenting a demonstration speech. The club had 16 Clover Kids, ages 5-7. Our goal for the 2019-2020 year is to sign up more than 70 members to participate.

The club will kick off its new year with a nacho bar event at the home of Jeremy and Mindy Schneider on Tuesday, September 24 at 6:30 P.M. Our club only meets the fourth Tuesday of every month at 6:30 P.M. We do not meet in December, July or August.

The county fair, Achievement Day, club meetings and demonstrations all allow members to gain soft skills like communicating with others and building confidence. Each member is also enrolled in various projects starting on November 1 and required to participate in at least six hours of instruction on that project through the year. This helps build hard skills like learning to cook, sew and raise livestock.

At Achievement Day, we had 22 members participate, up from 5 last year. Bella Baker and Jon Reuterdahl received top honors for their general demonstrations. Jon also won a top judging award for welding. Clara Fitzsimmons topped her age group for her working demonstration. Bella Baker also won her division for public speaking. Ashlyn Russell won top horse and extemporaneous speeches. Our club also hosted a beach-themed hospitality suite for members and families participating at the event.

More than 45 of our members participated in the county fair, with more than 275 entries including at least 74 champion or grand champion ribbons. Ella Carpenter helped christen the new cat show as one of the first participants in this new event. Our club also hosted its annual club carry-in at the campgrounds at the fair on Thursday night.

This year, our club hosted a Clover Kid camp with 15 members participating. Members decorated cookies at Koch’s General Store, made crafts for the fair and topped their own pizzas for lunch.

Our officers for 2018-2019 were: Aislynn Baker: President, Kohyn Wood: Vice President, Kamberly West: Secretary, Bella Baker: Treasurer, Blair Carpenter: Reporter, Sylvie Christensen: Song Leader, Gracee Butner: Parliamentarian, Kooper Wood: Chaplain, Will, Levi and Audree Butner: Sentinels, Lee Mathis: Health and Safety, Annual Trip Committee: Wood, Butner, Hulett, Club Leader: Deidre Weldon, Co-Leader: Aaron Baker, 4-H Council and Fair Board Representatives: Sarah Mathis and Deidre Weldon.

Our annual trip this year was an overnight campout at Shelby County Christian Assembly. At the event, members received awards from the club leaders, learned line dances from McKenna Nelson, enjoyed a catered dinner, hosted a “Dive-In Movie” at the pool and awarded the “Friend of Home Pioneer 4-H Award” to Angela Helton. The event was attended by more than 70 members and their family and guests.

This year, our club organized bowling on Sunday, March 3. We had many families participate in this winter recreation event for the entire county. We also participated in Show Me Quality Assurance training at the county level on March 19.

We raised all the funds for the trip from our annual wreath sales by selling 393 wreaths this year.

Our goal for the year was to continue to increase communication and activities within each project group. Parents receive notifications of project meetings in Facebook Messenger groups that relate to their child’s project. This year, our groups met for several project meetings that included activities like preparing food, touring a farmer’s market, decorating cakes, learning about livestock, scrapbooking, making arts and crafts, woodworking, curing meats, sewing, shooting sports, visiting tractor dealerships and learn more about poultry, rabbits and horsemanship.

Our community service activities included leading BINGO at La Plata Nursing Home, providing annual maintenance of the landscaping at our local toddler park in Atlanta, picking up trash at the Flywheel Reunion, preparing and serving desserts at the Atlanta Homecoming and providing security at the Expo Center at the County Fair. Our club provided sponsorships for Macon County Shooting Sports and the County Fair. We also installed new gravel around the food shack at the park in Atlanta and organized a pool-themed auction item for the county 4-H council at the county fair.

Several members participated in the NEMO Fair and the State Fair. This year, Home Pioneer member Kaela Britton won best of show in the rabbit show at the state fair. Ashlynn Russell won first place in Horsemanship. Lee Mathis, Bella Baker and Jon Reuterdahl also presented their demonstrations at the state fair. Taylin Schneider and Brody Baker attended 4-H Camp in June.

Each year, we host an international meal with a guest speaker. This year’s speaker was Beth Busick, covering the topic of Jamaica. Lee Mathis and Bella Baker served this year as members of the Macon County 4-H Ambassador group and helped serve meals at Agape Café as well as assisting at county fair livestock shows and Achievement Day as well as monthly meetings. Bella also created a video to advise members on how to give a demonstration; Lee demonstrated how to present “collections” at Achievement Day in a similar video.

This year, we implemented new project record forms that were Facebook videos. This helped our members share their 4-H story in a way that others could learn more about what we are doing as an organization. This was a huge success and our videos were shared by Missouri 4-H on social media as well. Brynlee Baker’s video was reached more than 5,755 people online.

Our strongest programs this year included Horsemanship, Scrapbooking, Rabbits, Bacon and Sewing.

To learn more, visit Atlanta Home Pioneer 4-H Club on Facebook.