Texas 4-H day of thanks turns into unexpected community efforts across state
Help for an estimated 305,000 people
Contact(s): Dr. Chris Boleman, 979-845-1211, cboleman@ag.tamu.edu
Dr. Toby Lepley, 979-845-1212, t-lepley@tamu.edu
COLLEGE STATION – Sometimes the simple act of giving thanks gets blown all out of proportion.
Just ask Chris Boleman and Toby Lepley, two fellows who had an idea last spring that Texas 4-H should “give something back” in gratitude to the communities that have supported the state’s largest youth program for more than 100 years.
“What we’d hoped was that we’d get a good many 4-H kids involved in devoting a Saturday in October to some kind of service project in their hometowns,” said Boleman, who is the state leader for Texas 4-H. “That did happen in a program we called ‘One Day 4-H’, but what we also got was this outpouring of support from all kinds of people and organizations that wanted to help too, and their generosity just floored us.”
“We’re Texans, and we all like to think of ourselves as big-hearted,” he said, “but it’s gratifying to get that confirmed in so many ways in so many communities.”
In all, some 9,500 children and adults devoted 88,800 hours in volunteer efforts that directly reached an estimated 305,400 people, according to Lepley, a 4-H specialist who has been compiling figures from results reported over the last month from 256 service efforts throughout the state.
Lepley noted that 4-H groups partnered with 378 other organizations – ranging from local food pantries to national charities to achieve these results:
· $120,361 raised for other organizations.
· $68,458 worth of in-kind donations.
· 17,635 pounds of food collected.
· 54.15 miles of road or beaches cleaned.
· 5.2 million pounds of trash collected or recycled.
· 3,656 care packets made or delivered to military and seniors.
“These outcomes were far beyond what we expected for trying something for the first time,” Lepley said. “But there seems to be such a wellspring of untapped community enthusiasm for these efforts that we see this event evolving into a day of youth service that could involve many other youth organizations besides 4-H.”
“What these kids did was bring our whole community together in the greatest clean-up effort I’ve seen (in a dozen years),” said Madison County Judge Art Henson.
The county’s 4-H clubs partnered with six other community organizations to clean up the square around the courthouse in downtown Madisonville in time for the city’s annual Texas Mushroom Festival in October. Some 200 people turned out to pick up trash, chop weeds, wash windows, scrape paint, plant flowers and otherwise “restore the spirit of pride” in the county, said Billy Zanolini, the county’s agent for 4-H and youth development.
In Parker County in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, the nine 4-H clubs decided to do something about juvenile diabetes after seeing three of their members coping daily with the Type 1 form of the disease, said 4-H agent Kayla Neill. The result was an October Walk to Cure Juvenile Diabetes that attracted 520 participants and raised more than $59,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
“We were thinking maybe $10,000 would be a good goal,” Neill said, “but nothing like this.”
“We may not ever know all the good that will come from this effort,” said Leslie Chalmers, the special events manager for the research foundation. “It was just tremendous; these kids were very motivated.”
A key to the effort, she said, was planning that began months before when a team of 4-H youths gave some 20 to 25 presentations to local businesses and civic groups, making the case for why support for juvenile diabetes was so important.
“From there, it took off like wildfire,” Chalmers said.
Two 15-year-old 4-H members in Montgomery County, Elizabeth Wishert and Barry Carter, got their families involved in an October clothing drive that generated over 5,000 pieces of clothing and bedding – about three pickup truck loads – for the Society of Samaritans, a local charity in Magnolia, northwest of Houston.
“We expected that maybe we might collect a few bags of clothing here and there,” said Elizabeth’s mom, Cindy Wishert, a 4-H volunteer. “But the kids distributed flyers door to door in several subdivisions, inviting people to leave unwanted clothing on their front porches on a designated pick-up day. We were overwhelmed by the response.”
Judy Everett, a spokesperson for the Society of Samaritans, said that the local youth in 4-H have always been great supporters of the charity’s efforts to assist some 11,000 people each year.
“They bring in a quarter of the donations we receive,” she said. “We really appreciate these kids and how they serve the poor in this community.”
Audra Linnartz, 17, helped her Dimmit County 4-H Club in South Texas clean up a Carrizo Springs cemetery that had all but been abandoned.
“We mowed and raked and picked up dead branches,” she said. “This was one of those places that everyone drove by and saw the need, but nothing got done.”
About 50 people turned out to help, said county 4-H specialist Richie Griffin.
“This was a good way of showing respect for the families of some of the town’s oldest settlers,” he said. “We only got about half the cemetery cleaned and were planning another work day, but some other group saw what we’d done and decided to finish the job.”
Lepley noted that a number of the One Day 4-H community service efforts seemed to have a contagious element.
“One of the surprises coming from this event, besides the great generosity of so many people, is that many of our clubs are forming new local partnerships for ongoing community service work. One Day is on its way to becoming More Days in numerous counties, which is really exciting.”
Texas 4-H, a division of the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, has 65,000 youths enrolled in clubs and reaches another 650,000 children through special educational opportunities in schools and neighborhood centers.
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