82-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 11,1986
Lancaster County Outstanding 4-H'ers Encourage Others To Join 4-H
BY SALLY BAIR
Lancaster County Correspondent
PENRYN-LITITZ - For Sallie
Gregory, 17, and Stacy Nestleroth,
16, being named the Outstanding 4-
H’ers of Lancaster County is an
honor they don’t take lightly. Both
young women have been long time
4-H members, and they hope to use
their title to encourage more
people to join 4-H and to challenge
current members to become more
involved as they get older.
Both Sallie and Stacy have made >
4-H a priority in their lives,
sacrificing some school activities
to make possible their wide par
ticipation in events outside Lan
caster County. As 4-H week draws
to a close, we salute Sallie and
Stacy and their contributions to
Lancaster County’s 4-H program.
Sallie Gregory and Stacy
Nestleroth have many things in
common. Perhaps most important
to the story of their 4-H
achievement is that they both grew
up in families that had firm
commitments to the 4-H program.
Sallie is the daugher of Mr. and
Mrs. Robert Gregory, 28th
Division Highway, Lititz. She
remembers her mother, Mary
Alice, now deceased, leading a
cooking club in their home. “1 was
here for every meeting ever since I
was little. I could hardly wait to
join.”
Sallie also had three older sisters
who were active in 4-H, whom she
wanted to emulate. “I looked up to
them,” she recalls, “and I wanted
to do the things they did.”
Her sister Martha became a
leader, then Jane, and now Sallie
continues the tradition by leading a
cooking project herself as a teen
leader. “It is mostly younger kids
just starting out in 4-H. They seem
enthusiastic about 4-H and I like to
make cooking fun.” Sallie is
currently a member of the Boots
and Saddles Club, the Clay Cooking
Club and the Lancaster County 4-H
Exchange Club.
Similarly, Stacy’s mother,
Hazel, held sewing meetings in
their home when Stacy was little.
“We’d get kicked out during the
meetings. I really wanted to be in
it,” Stacy says. With a February
birthday, she had to wait an extra
year before she could officially
join.
She has now been a member of
jcy leads a first year cooking project as teen leader. She
tries to keep the members' enthusiasm by telling them all the
opportunities she has had as a 4-H’er.
Sallie Gregory looks over her blue form, which qualified her
as a county winner in the horse category. A member of the
Boots and Saddles 4-H Club, the Clay Cooking Club and the
4-H Exchange Club, Sallie was named one of Lancaster
County's Outstanding 4-H’ers at Achievement Night.
the Elm-Penryn Club for eight
years, and has taken projects from
veterinary science to pet care, to
sewing and photography. She too is
a member of the Lancaster County
4-H Exchange Club. The daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Mark Nestleroth,
R 5, Manheim, both 4-H’ers, Stacy
now has four sisters to follow in her
footsteps.
Not only will Sallie and Stacy
represent the county as Out
standing 4-H’ers, but they were
both elected to leadership positions
in the 4-H Exchange Club. Stacy
will serve as president and Sallie
as vice-president. '
Having become close friends in
the last few years by participating
in the same 4-H events, both girls
look forward to working together
during the coming year. Both have
some ideas about things they
would like to see happen in the 4-H
program, and they feel strongly
about the need to keep 4-H’ers
active in the program as they grow
older.
Sallie says, “The first couple of
years are the learning years. We
need to keep the older members in
so that the younger ones have
people to look up to and follow
after.” Often members must be 13
to participate in county and
****■
A
regional events.
Sallie recalls, “I wanted to be in
those activities and it took forever
for me to get to that age. Now it’s
going so fast.”
Stacy adds, “I think it is really
important to talk to the younger
kids about the special events they
can go to. Camp is where I started
throwing myself into 4-H. It is
really neat at camp. Everybody
gets drawn really close and you
have to support each other.”
Stacy has participated two years
in the multi-county camp, and she
talks it up both to the members and
to their parents, believing that
parents are more likely to send
their children to camp if they know
some of the people working there.
Stacy feels so strongly about the
benefits of 4-H camp that she took
off the last three days of school last
year when there was an overlap.
“I hope to really get people in 4-
H and get them really involved. I
want to break some of the attitudes
people get in their heads about 4-
H,” Stacy states. She said she
frequently finds that people have
little knowledge of the real 4-H
program and the opportunities that
are available.
Both girls agree that one of the
biggest benefits they have derived
from 4-H is the ever-expanding
number of friends they have made,
both within the county and at
regional and state events. Stacy
says, “It’s a widening crowd. I’m
sure I know about 50 to 60 4-H’ers
from around the state, and maybe
100. You also get to see what goes
on in 4-H in other parts of the
state.”
Sallie adds, “I have met so many
people.” She recalls being “so
scared” the first year she attended
Leadership Congress at Penn State
because “I thought I wouldn’t
know anyone.” When the fire
alarm went off minutes after her
arrival, Sallie met a girl in the
stairwell and they quickly became
fast friends; they are still
corresponding. “I get to see her at
every event,” Sallie now says.
As members of the Exchange
Club, both traveled to Michigan as
part of that program. Sallie says
this was a terrific way to get to
know others since she hadn’t
known many of the group before
they left on the plane. She notes,
“The trip was great. It helps you
mature and be more responsible
for yourself. It gives you self
discipline.”
Stacy agreed that the exchange
trip helped local 4-H’ers learn to
cope in situations different from
their experiences in Lancaster
County.
Though difficult for an observer
to believe, Stacy comments, “I
was very shy when 1 was little.
Now I can get up and I can talk in
front of any group. I still get a little
nervous, but I can feel comfortable
Stacy Nestleroth plays with the family dog Luther who was
her pet care projert for this year. A member of the Elm-
Penryn Club and the 4-H Exchange Club, Stacy was named an
Outstanding 4-H’er at Lancaster County's Achievement Night
program.
wmesiead
c l&ies
in front of a group.”
Part of her success in public
-speaking comes from giving
speeches in the public speaking
contest. This year she tailored her
speech around promoting 4-H,
calling it “The 4-H Sharing Ex
perience.” It was good enough to
earn her the right to go to State
Days, but she chose instead to
remain a member of the Con
sumerama Team whch wound up
in first place. Being a part of a
judging team is also a confidence
builder, because team members
must give reasons for their
decisions.
Sally has participated on the
horse judging team, and she, too,
credits 4-H with improving her
self-confidence. She gave her first
cooking demonstrations when she
was quite young, and has given
several horse demonstrations.
“It really helped me become
more confident in speaking in front
of my class. It is easier for me than
for my classmates.” She admits to
still getting nervous, but says,
“You have to be a little bit nervous
to make it good.”
Sallie adds, “Giving reasons on
the horse judging team helped me
leam to speak well.”
Both girls aspire to attend
National Congress, the ultimate 4-
H experience. Sallie says, “I’m
really looking forward to doing
more things. I am still following in
my sisters’ image. It made an
impression on me when they
. proj< iger is just six years
old, and Sallie says they are still learning as she works with
the horse and attends shows.
participated.” Stacy adds, “If I am
chosen to, attend. National
Congress, I will feel like I have
really achieved something.”
To be selected is no small feat, so
Stacy says, “I am working to
round out my blue form. I must go
in leadership 'or achievement,
since I haven’t had many years
with one project.”
This year Stacy adapted a
veterinary science project which
allowed her to work with the
Humane League, something she
thoroughly enjoyed. “It was neat;
a lot different from what I ex
pected. We help to exercise the
animals and give them attention,
though we do whatever is needed.”
The project requires that a 4-H
member donate a minimum of 12
hours to the League. Stacy hopes to
take it again this year.
She also took a project called
“the stress connection,”
something that she foUhd in
teresting since she is leaning
toward psychology as a possible
college major. “I like to analyze
how the mind works,” she says.
She also likes to work with children
and to write, so she has several
options. A junior at Manheim
Central High School, she also has
time to focus more clearly on the
future.
In the past she has carried pet
care and swine projects and was a
member of the Woolies Club for
five years, eventually giving it up
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