22 —Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 7, 1972 Mrs. Harold Fry By Mrs Charles McSparran Farm Feature Writer This is National 4-H Week 0 H Benson, Goldfield, lowa, *s credited with starting the 4-H Club in 1906 He was inspired to use the 4-H clover as represen ting head, hands, heart and health Even prior to 1906,'in the early 1900’s, seed corn was given to boys in lowa to grow and the boys put on demonstrations This movement caught on until today four million young people in the United States belong to 4-H. Lancaster County has 2,534 members. Many people have contributed very much to the 4-H clubs in Lancaster County. Victor Longenecker, Elizabethtown RD3, has served 39 years as a 4-H leader. Mrs. Harold R (Dorothy V.) Fry, Stevens RDI, has the Mrs. Dorothy V. Fry, Stevens RDI, with her recipe book “Recipes From The Caribbean and Latin America" stands in front of a set of book shelves with a dried arrangement of grasses in a cork covered vase and two pieces of drift wood resembling a duck sitting on a log. A polished stone is used for the duck’s eye. Goats beard and a Norwegian troll complete the arrangement. longest service record as a woman 4-H leader. Mrs Fry was honored Tuesday night at the 4-H Leadership Banquet held at the Farm and Home Center by receiving a 30- year certificate and the ruby clover award. She became 4-H leader for the Lincoln Community Club m the spring of 1942. There were bet ween 35 and 40 children in the club The boys and girls had corn, tobacco, baby chicks, home gardens and flowers Mrs Fry says “Indoor gardens are my speciality in the community club ” Mrs Fry started the Jolly Caterers 4-H Cooking Club in the early i9so’s She now has daughters of her former 4-H Club members m the club There were 24 girls in the club this year Mrs Fry always has the club meet at her home Her husband tore down a barn around 1947 and built an outside picnic pavilion, including a fireplace, with materials from the barn The girls use it for tne cooking club. They also use her kitchen to cook the food. The girls are usually in the club about five years. They take one phase of cooking each year. Courses they have been taking are “It’s Fun To Bake”, “Tasty Snacks”, “Meal Time Magic”, ‘ ‘Meats and Vegetables , A Tribute to a Dedicated 4-H Leader and fruits. In “Free Lance” they can prepare what they want to. The Jolly Caterers have an organization meeting, followed by six cooking meetings. They eat at 7 p m. The Club is divided into four groups. One group plans for the next meeting. The Servers and Go-Between set the tables. The Clean-Up Crew washes the dishes and the Cookers come early enough to have the meal cooked by 7 p.m. Sometimes the girls are given home work to do. They must prepare a food at home and bring it to the meeting. They usually have a Mother and Daughter meal at Mt. Airy Fire Hall and they prepare the meal and put on a program Their roundups are held at Lincoln Lutheran Church and sponsored by Farm Women Society 3 on the third Saturday of August Achievement Day is held in August at the Farm and Home Center Here the girls enter something on their own. The Community Club made a float and it competed with other youth organizations in the Ephrata Fair parade. They also had an exhibit at the fair. Mrs. Fry says “I always en joyed the Exchange Trips I was a chaperone. There were two or three adult chaperones for the bus load of 24 4-H members. I went to Kendall County, HI. and •• • • For Today, The Easy Way”, “Foreign Cookery” and “Free Lance.” In “It’s Fun To Bake” they learn to make muffins, cookies and a plain cake. In “Tasty Snacks” they make such things as pizza, cookies, sandwiches, beverages and homemade candies. In “Meal Time Magic” they make yeast breads. In “Meats and Vegetables” they stress food values, balanced meals and attractive meals. Last year they had “Foreign Cookery” and learned to make French, Italian and German dishes. This year they took “Meals For Today, The Easy Way.” In this they learned to add certain ingredients to prepared and boxed foods to make easy meals. This wasn’t so popular among farm families where they have their own meats, vegetables Essex County, Mass. I also went for a winter weekend to Syracuse, N Y I barely made it home because of a blizzard and had to leave my car in Lancaster. A few of the 4-H members had to stay in Lancaster until their roads were opened ” 4-H members have to be 14 years or over to go Mrs. Fry coached 4-H plays together with Mrs. John Herr of Mount Joy. She also trained county-wide flower identification teams to go to Penn State. These young people not only had to identify all the flowers but had to be able to spell the names correctly. They chose about three to go, and one year had the champion, Ada Louise Kreider of Lincoln. Dorothy has actually been involved in 4-H work for 45 years because she was in a 4-H sewing club that met at old Clay School when Miss Anne Forbes was in The Lancaster County Ex tension Office. She learned to darn expertly which has always been a help to her. She also learned to make aprons and a complete set of undies without patterns. She was a 1931 representative to Penn State Club Week. Dorothy is the daughter of William D. Eberly, Ephrata. She has two sisters and one brother. Her mother died when the children were quite small so Dorothy was raised by her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Ezra Keller. They lived between Lincoln and Clay, on a 108 acre farm where they raised beef cattle. Dorothy did just about anything around the farm. Her grandmother taught her to cook. She cooked for threshers when she was nine years old. Her grandmother taught her many fundamentals in measurements, etc., which she never forgot. She and her husband live on a 12 acre farm on Kleinfeltersville Road, near Hopeland in clay Township. They keep six sheep and a few chickens. The meadow is used to pasture the sheep and a neighbor uses the balance of the land to grow alfalfa. The Frys also have two Araucana chikens that lay green eggs and some Siamese cats. Harold has worked some twenty years for Wohlsen Construction Company, Lan caster. Although the Frys have no children of their own, Mrs. Fry has worked extensively with many children. She has been a Mrs. Harold R. Fry, Ephrata Library Coordinator, holds an antique pottery vase filled with dried grasses. In background is an attractive bulletin board arrangement to interest young readers at the Lincoln Elementary School. She used cloth cut-outs of butterflies, dried grass with green paper leaves plus a straw rooster. The slogan “Let The Reading Bug Grab You" is accentuated with a big bug. public school teacher for 39 years, having taught 28 years in the classroom and 11 years m the library She graduated from a two year course at Millersville in 1933. She worked one year at Thompson’s Shirt Factory, now owned by Shore and Son at Brownstown. She met her husband there. She started teaching in 1934 at Fairview grade school, Clay Township. She later taught at Fetters, Clay, Warwick and again at Clay grade school. When Clay was changed to a graded elementary school she taught the sixth grade. Mrs. Fry still prefers the one room school to the graded school. She took a Sabbatical leave in 1961 and 1962 and received her Bachelor’s degree at Millersville State College. She went to Drexel in the summer and evenings and received her Master’s degree in 1967. She specialized in library work. Mrs. Fry became librarian for the whole Ephrata Elementary area but for the past three years she has been library co-ordinator also for the Senior and Junior High Schools. She spends two days at Clay Elementary School, two at Lincoln Elementary and Friday doing co-ordinating work. She has trained 13 student teachers m the library program at the Lincoln School. There are three librarians now on the Elementary staff. She sees 750 children every week. She says “It makes you feel sad to lose this close relationship with the children.” Her knowledge of classroom books has helped her tremendously with library skills. Also her 4-H work has given her insight into identification of plants. She is often called upon to identify plants. She loves to read. She organized 32 teachers in a reading class. Each buy a 1972 book, fiction or non-fiction, and puts it in the club. They keep a book two weeks, then pass it on. When a book has made its rounds it is returned to the owner. Mrs. Fry belongs to the American Library Association, Pennsylvania Library Association and Lancaster County Librarians. She is a member of Delta Kappa Gamma Chi Chapter. She belongs to Ephrata Hospital Auxiliary. She and Harold are members of Zion United Church Of Christ, Lincoln. She works with Percy Clark of Lancaster as a recruiter for Drexel Alumni, to get students to go there. She talks on cooking and does book reviews for women’s groups for fun. She tells stones for Retarded Children’s Day Camp. She will speak to a church group this fall on “How To Choose A Good Book.” She went at least three times to speak in the new Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C. Miss Marjory Hendricks, owner of the Water Gate Inn, asked her to talk on “Home Butchering," “Wild Natural Things You Can Eat” and she talked in Pennsylvania Dutch for the Pennsylvania Society when there were crowds of 200 to 250 people. One time she couldn’t go so she sent the Hammer Creek Mennonite Sewing Circle and they quilted there. The Water Gate Inn has now been torn down to make way for the Kennedy Cultural Center. Mrs. Fry went to Europe two years ago on a six week’s tour relating to children’s literature. Twenty-six people went onthis tour of Spain, Greece, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland, studying mythology. This tour was an extension course with Oklahoma State University. Mrs. Della Thomas, professor of Children’s Literature with the University, went with them. Mrs. Fry was a Girl Scout Leader for Hopeland Troop, Rolling Hills Neighborhood, in the Lititz area for 20 years but had to give it up when she became librarian. Mrs. Fry is occupied many evenings and Saturdays with going to meetings, getting books, and various things, yet she and her husband do many things together. They like to go to sales to buy antiques, pressed glass and compotes with lids on. They lost a lot of paneled thistle glass and antique furniture when their home burned in 1945. They replaced their house with a Cape Cod stlye house which has lots of alcoves to store things in. They travel quite a bit and buy antiques here and there. They went to Far Away Inn, a country inn near Elkins, West Virginia. Mrs. Fry says “I love to go to Vermont.” Of course there are many antique shops there. Last summer they went to Salt Lake City, Utah. They have flowers blooming continuously around their home. They also gather weeds and dry them. They make dried arrangements. When Mt. Airy Fire Company Auxiliary serves meals they do the decorating. They use fresh flowers such as tulips, lilacs, annuals, dried weeds, gourds and pumpkins. They have a vegetable garden and both work in it. She canned a lot of tomatoes and string beans and made raspberry jelly. She froze sugar peas and tomato juice. Harold has a rock tumbler which is run by electricity and uses various abrasives to polish stones. Mrs. Fry says “I like junky rings.” He makes rings, pins, necklaces and bracelets from the stones he polishes. He does this strictly as a hobby. One of Mrs. Fry’s hobbies is designing and making wall hangingswhich she uses mostly at school. To make these she buys material with scenes, butterflies, animals and what have you, then she appliques them. She likes to qulit, to do crewel embroidery and she can crochet. She makes animals of papier mache. She collects drift wood to use for decorating. Her supply closet has all kinds of materials for decorating. She has trophy cabinets at both Clay and Lincoln (Continued On Page 23)
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