—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
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danger on a bicycle. Ron used his bike a lot this
summer as a teen leader of the county's only 4-H bike