The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
4-H links family to county fair
It’s one thing to be a kid these days.
But it’s an entirely different thing to be a kid who participates in the Lake County Fair.
Through various organizations like 4-H, the area’s youth have a unique opportunity through the fair to learn responsibility, commitment and a host of valuable skills they’ll rely upon for the rest of their lives.
Such is the case with 8-year-old Alex Bowman and his sister, 12-year-old Izabelle. The pair hail from Thompson Township and have been involved with the “Our Gang” 4-H club and the Lake County Fair for several years now.
“I was in 4-H, myself,” said Lindsay Friedel, Alex and Izabelle’s mom. “And some friends of our’s were in the livestock club and said ‘oh — you should start (Izabelle) in 4-H.’ So we did. That’s when she was eight. We started her without any animals, just to get her feet wet. She liked it, then jumped in with both feet.”
Now Izabelle also is active in the fair’s Junior Market Livestock group which consists of kids from a number of 4-H clubs, and helps raise funds for everything from fair ribbons and trophies to banners, showmanship chairs and club apparel.
This year, she raised ducks, a pair of pigs and two lambs for auction. Her brother, who is in his last year as Clover Buddy (4-H for children under nine), has four dairy goats he showed this year, his mom and dad said.
Both Friedel and her husband, Mike Bowman, can’t say enough good stuff about their kids’ involvement with 4-H and the fair.
“I wish every kid would have the opportunity to do it,” Bowman said. “I think it’s a great experience. It teaches them so much.”
He said that, through their 4-H projects, Alex and Izabelle are learning everything from responsibility and commitment to a solid work ethic and even a good dose of good business sense.
“It really teaches them so much,” he said as Alex, Izabelle and Lindsay washed the two hogs Izabelle raised this year: Beauty and Beast. “I mean, even from a business standpoint. This really is like running a business.”
Friedel agreed, adding that busy kids are good kids.
“It teaches them responsibility,” she said. “And it keeps them out of trouble. All these kids are so busy. They don’t have time to get in trouble.”
And it’s a good time, too, according to Izabelle who, when she’s in the thick of raising livestock for a 4-H project, she gets up as early as 5 a.m. to tend to the animals before catching the hour-long ride to school on the bus to Berkshire High School.
“I like (participating in the fair and 4-H), because I like to hang out with my friends, and I like the fair food,” the outgoing 12-yearold said, adding that she likes how some of the judges do their thing, too. “I liked the poultry judge a lot. He was fun.”
Friedel said the judging is yet another part of the educational aspect of the fair.
“Our judges are very educational,” she said. “They explain to the kids what they’re doing and why. They’re just very thorough and they do such a great job.”
Alex said he just likes the animals.
“The animals are my favorite,” he said enthusiastically.
Bowen said some folks don’t understand how a child can raise an animal that’s ultimately going to wind up on someone’s dinner plate. But, to him, that’s one of the most important things about his children’s involvement with the fair.
“The responsibilities are huge, and that’s a big part of this. They learn so much,” he said. “But you’ve got some people thinking what you’re doing is wrong. They’re like: ‘How can you name and raise an animal only to have it ultimately become someone’s dinner?’ or ‘How could you raise an animal for so many months, then just sell them at market?’ But that’s just the cycle of life. And I think people have gotten away from that and that’s not necessarily good.”
He said that he’d rather eat the produce of his own family’s endeavors than buying from the grocery store.
“The way I look at it, doing it this way, you know what you’re eating,” he said. “When I buy something off the shelf at the store across the street, I don’t know how it was raised, what it was fed — none of that.”
Friedel echoed her husband’s sentiments.
“They’re locally raised. They’re hormone and antibiotic free and are pasture raised,” she said. “You’re getting a way better quality of meat than anything you’d get at the grocery store.”
Just ask Izabelle, who said a lamb that didn’t sell at the fair during a past year wound up on their dinner plates at home.
“Yeah — we once bought our own lamb back and she was pretty tasty,” she said.
Friedel said any money Izabelle derives from the fair either gets donated, is used for purchasing the following year’s projects or goes straight to the bank for her college fund.
But monetary gains aside, both Bowman and Friedel agree there are so many important lessons their children are learning through all the hard work and dedication they exhibit while preparing for fair.
“It’s teaching them responsibility — not only with the animals. 4-H is always giving back to the community, too, and they’re earning that aspect of it, too,” she said. Bowman agreed. “All of the kids take great pride in taking good care of the animals as they raise them, even knowing that they’re going to wind up on someone’s dinner plate,” he said. “And, as far as buyers go, some will come in, buy an animal, then donate it to the Salvation Army or another charity. It’s really just an all-around good thing for the community, the kids, everyone involved.”