—Uncattf Firming, Saturday. Oct 26.1974 34 Kim Martin and Ro 4-H Teen Leadership Award Winners by: Sally Bair Farm Feature Writer The success of the entire 4-H program rests on the concept of leadership leadership provided by local leaders and teen leaders. While local leaders have the responsibility of carrying the programs through, teen leaders provide a very powerful assist in bringing know-how to specific project areas. Last week two energetic teenagers received awards as outstanding teen leaders in the county. Kim Martin, 15, a member of the Garden Spot 4-H Home Ec Club and Ron Walton, 17, a member of the Penn Willow 4-H Club, shared the honors. Both have been 4-H members for six years, and for both the award represented a lot of hard work as teen leaders over the past summer. According to assistant Home Economist Anne Hinkel, the award was based on the teen leaders record books, and an evaluation of what they bad planned to do and what they actually accomplished. A story was submitted with the project books and this helped show how each teen leader learned and grew through their project. Miss Hinkel said the amount of individual initiative shown was also a factor. Kim lives at 34 Diller Avenue, New Holland, and is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Roy M. Martin. She is in the tenth grade at Garden Spot High School. This year in 4-H Kim had a sewing project - making it her sixth year. She sewed a long sleeved polyester knit dress, and was a county dress revue winner and a semi finalist at regional dress revue. Her garment also received a first place ribbon at the New Holland Fair. In addition to sewing, she had a second year knitting project in which she made hairpin lace and she also made *? macrame belt. While she really loves sewing and working with her hands, her work as a teen leader came with the first year cooking group, “Tricks for Treats”. One of Kim’s jobs as teen leader was to organize a full dinner which the members of the cooking projects gave for their parents. There were 36 parents at the dinner, so it was no small chore to organize the food for so many people. Kim said the menu included finger sandwiches, lasagne, salad, squanto beans, french bread, brownies and apple crisp and cinnamon balls. She said, “We just planned the dinner as we went.” As evidence of the good planning that went into the dinner, she showed lovely hand lettered invitations and menus. Kim said, “Even though I was a teen leader in the same project this year as last year, I still learned a lot. The teen leadership project is helpful because it gives me an idea of what leaders go through. It helped me gain confidence and will be a big help to me as president next year. It has just helped me a lot with 4-H.” She added, “I was really surprised when they called my name for the award -1 didn’t even know they had it.” Kim put her organizational ability to good use in helping to plan and carry out the decorations for county dress revue, and she helped with the games at Achievement Day. Also, as first vice president, she had to take over for the president at the end of the summer and on her own planned the annual club social, which meant making arrangements for bowling, a swimming party and a picnic. The Garden Spot 4-H Club has a big fashion show of its own, and Kim helped with it. When it was suggested some entertainment was needed, she took it upon herself to organize eight members - including herself - who sang songs on the nostalgia theme. The same group was in the top ten in the county talent show and also performed at Achievement Day. Mrs. Roy W. Hoober, coordinator for the club, said this was the first time a member of her club had received the teen leadership award. She praised Kim, saying, “She provided outstanding leadership, always giving above and beyond the call of duty. Kim has a lot of potential - she gives everything to 4-H.” Kim said she joined 4-H because she knew a neighbor who was in it, and because she thought, “I can leam to sew.” She explained that her mother sews, and so she wanted to leam too. Her mother has since become a leader in the club. Kim said she also has noticed that many members drop out after they leam to sew or cook or whatever they joined f ta Kim Martin shows her teen leader project book. In the foreground is the engraved silver bowl she received as outstanding teen leader. to learn. But she says, “I found out there are many other 4-H activities that I want to participate in.” She is a member of County Council, which she says is “a lot of fun and a good way to meet other 4-H’ers”. Two years ago she attended 4-H Club Congress at Penn State, where she says a teen leader workshop helped open her eyes to some of the things to be done as teen leader. This spring she went to a teen leadership retreat at Dublin Gap. Kim said, “This was a good workshop, because it came at the beginning of the year and got everybody going.” One of the most valuable parts of 4-H work, according to Kim, is “meeting other people”. She helped her club host a girl from Maine on the 4-H exchange this past summer, and she is hoping to go along on the trip planned to Colorado next summer. In school she plays on the junior varsity hockey team, which means practice every night after school with at least one game per week and sometimes more. This is her second year with the team and she plays right fullback. Kim was on the tennis team last year and hopes to try out again this year. An activity which Kim speaks of with great enthusiasm is Junior Achievement. Each company sells stock, manufactures a product, and keeps business records. Last year the company to which Kim belonged made wooden candlesticks and this year they will make book ends. Kim said she really likes it and became interested when her brother was in it. In high school she is also a member of the Garden Spot Performing Arts, which produces four shows annually. One year she worked with costumes, and this year she will be an usherette, and will be required to make her own dress. Kim is also a member of the First Assembly of God Church in Lancaster and a member of their youth group. There appears to be little time for hobbies, but Kim says, “I make a lot of my own clothes, and I have already started working on Christmas gifts.” She has a brother Rick, 17; and two sisters, Sharon, 13 and Carla, 8. Ron Walton is the son of Mr. and Mrs. John G. Walton, Jr., R.D.I, Conestoga. In his six years as a 4-H member he has taken projects in flowers, vegetables, cooking and teen leadership. Ron’s major responsibility this summer was working with his club’s bicycle project, the first of its kind in Lancaster County. He said about 15 members completed the project, and the major emphasis was on activities with their bikes, learning safety rules and the bicycle code and playing bike games. Although there is a state project book which was used as a guideline, Ron said most of the activities were ones he thought of himself. Ron was responsible for setting up the bicycle rodeo which was used at the Penn Willow round up, and also at the county-wide Achievement Day. He said the ideas for the rodeo “came out of my own head”. The teen leader project helped Ron learn a “lot of responsibility”. He added, “It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun. I got to know a lot of other people.” Surely one of the reasons for Ron’s receiving the award was the very complete scrapbook which he kept with pictures and stories on the bike club project. Mrs. David Kreider, one of the leaders of the bike projects, said, “Ron was really the leader for the project. He really was a tremendous help and has a lot of leadership ability.” She said she was very pleased that he showed tiie initiative to follow things through. “He deserves a lot of credit - he was very serious about his work.” Ron was a leader for the cooking over coals project, something he had taken previously. He had had three years of cooking projects, including tasty snacks, outdoor cooking and “chef’s league’’. He said, “I don’t really know why I took cooking at first, but there were other boys taking it and I thought it would be fun.” One of his favorite dishes is beef pot pie, something he didn’t leam in 4-H. He said he just likes to try new things. Cookies, fudge, beef stew and cooking on the grill are some of the other things he enjoys. Mrs. Walton said she is really happy to have an ambitious cook in the family, but admitted that at first the messiness and the idea of having someone else in her kitchen bothered her. Now she says, her children experiment when she’s not around. Ron had two years of vegetable projects when he grew tomatoes, green peppers, lima beans, string beans and some others, and although he hasn’t taken the project recently, he keeps on growing vegetables. In fact, during the summer he had gardens going at three locations and sold his produce at a stand across from his home. He took an annual flower project one year and said he still enjoys growing flowers. He cared for flower beds all around the Walton home this summer. One of his more recent undertakings was making a terrarium, which he entered in three fairs and got two first and a second. Ron said he joined 4-H because he didn’t like Boy Scouts. He said, “I think 4-H is really worthwhile.” He was news reporter for his club in 1973 and won the out standing 4-H news reporter award for the county. He was also a treasurer and served on county council for two years. This year he attended Club Congress at Penn State and participated in the leadership school, where he said, “I learned quite a bit.” Ron is a senior at Penn Manor and would like to go to college and possibly major in Spanish. He plays a saxophone in the football and concert band, the stage band, the pep band and the orchestra. After school, Ron delivers papers, something members 1 Continued On Page 35] danger on a bicycle. Ron used his bike a lot this summer as a teen leader of the county's only 4-H bike
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