82-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 11, 1995
He’s FFA, She’s 4
GAY BROWNLEE
Somerset Co. Correspondent
SOMERSET (Somerset
Co.) —When Andy and Melisst
Hippie moved here from Freder
ick County, Virginia, so And>
could teach ag mechanics at the
Somerset Area High School, the>
had good reason to rejoice. Foi
one thing, the Pennsylvania
natives would be closer to both
their families, and second, they
expected an economic benefit
from the relocation.
“If it tells you anything,” Andy
says with a reminiscent chuckle,
“in the 10 months we lived in Vir
ginia, I put 36,000 miles on my
car.
His family home is 20 miles
north of Williamsport in Lycom
ing County and hers, much further
west in Armstrong County. Visit
ing home often was a must.
As one of five ag teachers in a
big county-wide system, the Vir
ginia job was Andy’s first official
teaching position. Earlier, his stint
of student teaching was at Clear
field High School, Clearfield
County. Working as a long-term
substitute, Melissa was also
employed, when the Somerset
opportunity unexpectedly arose.
“There are only about 148 ag
teacher positions in the state and
they don’t open very often,” Andy
said. But knowing his preference
was Pennsylvania, Andy’s friends
and contacts were tracking all the
possibilities.
In March 1993, news spread
that Ed Shoemaker, Somerset’s ag
teacher, had died.
Andy took over the empty posi
tion that June. Summer recess was
ideal for him as orientation time.
He prepared for the task ahead,
got acquainted with the area, and
touched base with his record book
students.
“It’s difficult when you are
stepping into a situation of a very
well-liked person,” he said. “I
know what it’s like to be a begin
ning ag teacher. My teacher in
ninth grade was a beginner.”
Persevering with confidence,
Andy soon had friendships deve
loping with students and FFA
members.
‘There are a lot of days (now)
when kids talk to me about things
not connected to ag—they just
need someone to talk to. You
become a friend,” he said.
Meanwhile, his spouse like
Andy, had earned her degree from
Penn State, having majored in ag
scicnce as opposed to his, ag
education. By studying tenacious
ly, she managed to complete col
lege in three years instead of four.
She and Andy graduated together.
“1 wouldn’t recommend it to
anybody,” she advises those con
sidering demanding so much of
themselves, but adds rosily, “I
guess I did it for love.”
Fortunately, student teaching
took Andy out of sight for a few
months during the last semester.
Minus that distraction education
got Melissa’s full attention.
Their college romance spawned
when he was a sophomore and
she, a Ireshman. Having both
attended (a year apart), the Gover
nor’s School of Agriculture, they
discovered that between them was
a lot of common ground.
Ag was his career choice. He
liked what he learned in Mon
loursville High School, was very
involved in vo-ag and FFA; with
leadership, public speaking, par
liamentary procedure and ag
salesmanship. Kids who struggle j
found that Andy’s knack for
remembering information and his
willingness to help them, was very
beneficial.
Too, the 200-acre Trout Run,
Hippie dairy farm, among the
county’s biggest, and home to
Jack and Patricia Hippie and their
four offshoots, laid the interests of
agriculture in Andy’s early life.
Not so, Melissa. Her rural, non
farm background saw her dad —
Gerald F. Crawford, Moreno,
Calif., as a funeral director, her
mother—Betsy Crawford, Free
port, working in a steel mill, and a
grandfather who was a chemist,
which hardly brought the Freeport
Area High School honor student
into close contact with agriculture.
It did, however acquaint her with
environmental issues that impact
not only society in general, but
also the farmer, literally, on every
side.
Attending the Governor’s
School of Agriculture rather than
of Science, was a lucky coinci
dence for Melissa, caused by a
glitch with her application. The
“very intensive” five-week school
courses were animal science, plant
science soils, leadership and an
independent study project She
fell in love with agriculture.
Andy says, “The benefit is that
you work with one professor the
whole five weeks.”
February 21, 991, probably is
the most notable date in the lives
of the Hippies.
Where to go on spring break
was the problesm. Andy and
Melissa argued whether to go to
his home or hers.
“It was the biggest fight we ever
had,” admits Melissa.
Finally, Andy handed her a cute
new teddy bear, which effectively
infuriated the young woman furth
er, as would a scarlet cape being
waved before the eyes of an angry
bull.
It wasn’t just any stuffed bear,
though, as Andy calmly pointed
out by calling her attention to the
baby bruin’s neck ribbon and the
diamond engagement ring
attached there.
Of course, he was proposing
marriage and she couldn’t stay
angry in those circumstances. So
his folks got a telephone call while
hers got the spring break visitors.
In May 1992, both graduated from
Penn State and married the fol
lowing October.
Last June, Melissa, after being a
caseworker for Somerset County
Children and Youth Services,
became'the first female ag agent in
the Somerset County office of the
Penn State Cooperative Extension
Service where a very active and
very traditional 4-H program is>
thriving.
“We have a very high retention
of leaders,” said the new agent,
“unlike some counties who have
very high leader turnover. There is
lots of parental involvement in
H, It's All In A Day’s Work
Somerset County 4-H.
“A lot of hard work has gone
into the 4-H program. If you look
at the lenght of time the kids stay.
in 4-H, it’s double the state aver
age,” Melissa reported, noting
how many of the county’s teens
stick with the program.
“We have more ‘teens in the
program. I think it’s more impor
tant to make an impact on a teena
ger than on an eight-year-old,” she
observed.
“I think any experience a child
has with any organization is bene
ficial to a child. With so many
broken homes and both parents
working, kids need it. They need
positive role models.”
Melissa believes that her
responsibilities—the 4-H inter
state exchange program, county
fashion revue, foods revue,
demonstration contests, public
speaking and square dancing, will
go smoothly because a strong
foundation was laid over the years
by the now retired Bob Antram, a
former interim director at
Somerset.
As they chat, the Hippie’s are
. kept busy monitoring the move
ments of their active little son,
bom Dec. 15, 1994, who seems
Sf
V ■?
Andy and Melissa Hippie and son, Britton.
determined to inflict his unwel
come attention upon the cats —
Taylor and Sparky. When that
fails, Britton remembers the glas
ses of iced tea and soda placed on
the end table.
Advancing their education was
always an accepted fact for the
currently expectant, Melissa and
her two teenaged sisters.
“I like being a mother,” she
says, “but 1 like to do things other
than being a mother because I
think it makes me a well-rounded
person.”
Kept busy by their jobs and
attending various evening FFA
and 4-H affairs, the spouses happi
ly report that their workplaces are
but five minutes from home and
the babysitter located along
Andy’s route to school.
Family time is important which
means they all go to work-related,
evening engagements whenever
possible.
“In Somerset County,” said
Andy, “there’s a distinct differ
ence between FFA and 4-H. FFA
is co-curricular, part of the school
curriculum. If you are in ag, you
should belong to the FFA.”
Making good grades in high
school was never a problem for
either of them. Both had 3.9 grade
point averages and stood amongst
the top ten percent. His class had
180 students and hers, 169.
Traveling to his home, where
his dad’s parents also occupy the
farm and his mother is disaster
coordinator for the Lycoming
County Chapter of the American
Red Cross, Is' a four-hour jaunt
from Somerset.
So by the time they arrive, if
after work on Friday, everybody is
ready for bed. And waiting to go
until Saturday—well, that’s too
short of a weekend when you got
ta’ turn around and come back on
Sunday.
But still, the Hippie’s aren’t
complaining. They try to adapt
themselves to the circumstances
and know they have much to be
thankful for.
vff '' s *x /I