VIDEO: Despite funding scare, 4-H continues role at county fair

Like many of her fellow 4-H club members, 13-year-old Jessica Hansen of West Chicago was worried she wouldn’t be able to compete at this summer’s DuPage County Fair.

Each year, hundreds of 4-Hers from clubs across the county enter projects and animals into competitions at the fair, held in July at the DuPage County Fairgrounds in Wheaton. But this year, Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced he was planning to withhold $17.8 million in state funding for 4-H and other agricultural programs because of the state’s ongoing budget problems.

Without state funding, the University of Illinois Extension, which runs the county’s 4-H programs, said it wouldn’t be able to hold competitions at the fair.

“I was really worried about (the funding issue),” said Jessica, who is in her second year in the Just Say Nay 4-H club. “I thought it wasn’t really fair for it to just have ended like that for kids who haven’t been able to experience 4-H.”

Blagojevich announced he would release the funds in late April, but not before 4-Hers took action to save their portion of the fair.

Club members from around the county held spaghetti dinners, car washes and bowling fundraisers and solicited donations from businesses. They raised more than $10,000 to make sure the 4-H pavilion wouldn’t sit empty during the fair and wrote letters to their local legislators asking them to urge the governor to release the funds.

Christine Birns, 4-H coordinator for DuPage County, said that through the funding scare, members learned the importance of staying active in their communities and advocating for issues that are important to them.

After the money was released many members said, “Wow, I really can make a difference,” Birns said.

Thanks to the 4-Hers’ efforts and Blagojevich’s change of heart, the show was able to go on at the fair.

Jessica won a chance to compete at the 4-H show at the state fair in Springfield in August. She entered an animal science display about the Australian shepherd dog breed. She decided to research the breed because her family has a 3-year-old Australian shepherd.

Kayla Meyer, 17, comes all the way from Hinckley — about 30 miles west — to participate in the Wheaton-based Opportunity Getters 4-H club.

Her 1-year-old Charlois steer, Herbert Sherbert, was grand champion of his division in the 4-H cattle competition on the opening day of the fair.

Kayla said she is following in her family’s footsteps by participating in 4-H in DuPage County. This is her 10th year in the program.

She planned to auction off the 1,440-pound steer at Saturday’s livestock auction. Her father, Bryan Meyer, said they hoped to sell him for about $2 per pound.

While auctioning off cattle is part of the business, Kayla said she will be a little sad to see Herbert Sherbert go.

“At first, I didn’t like him. He was really mean and used to shove me against the wall,” she said. “But now he’s so nice. ... He’s like my big teddy bear.”