Opinion

4-H a common denominator of Putnam Lilly Scholars

Monday, April 20, 2009

A couple weeks ago, media released the names of the two 2009 Putnam County Lilly Scholars. Tabitha Arnold's and Tyler Heavin's common denominator goes beyond both being students at South Putnam High School. Both will be 10-year members of the Putnam County 4-H program and have been among some of this year's most outstanding members.

Ladies first, Tabitha Arnold pays tribute to 4-H for a number of her life skills and accomplishments. She cites community service, value establishment, responsibility, and the importance of hard work being key factors she developed personally through 4-H experiences. Her ability to "give back" by teaching younger 4-H'ers about projects or working with their animal projects has been one of her hallmarks. Four of the six projects that Tabitha completed while a 4-H'er directly included animals or people. These are attributed to learning to be personally responsible. Projects included cats, child development, foods, goat, sheep and swine.

Tabitha's future plans are to major in pharmacy at either Butler or Purdue. It will be exciting for Putnam County to watch Tabitha seek to utilize her experience of working hard all year on a project to get the purple ribbon to transition into seeking that Boilermaker or Bulldog pharmacy diploma through more hard work.

Tyler Heavin completed 4-H projects in bee keeping, dairy, electric, floriculture, Junior Leaders, shooting sports, and swine. He cites the benefits of being a 4-H'er as key to learning responsibility, time management, animal care/well-being, and being respectful to others. One of Tyler's keys to being respectful to others is being a gracious winner while a good sport by being the first to congratulate another person who might be picked for a top honor.

Tyler was also active in several of the 4-H leadership programs that included 4-H camp, Roundup, State Fair Youth Leadership Conference and the State Fair Junior Leader Conference. These programs helped Tyler develop people and communication skills to be more outgoing by reaching out and being the one to initiate a relationship or friendship. He is not one to sit back and wait for someone else to introduce him to others. Tyler states that he would encourage all youth to become involved with 4-H, as there is no other program with so many multi-disciplines where one can learn and meet so many people and he certainly has no regrets.

Future plans for Tyler include attending either Butler University or Franklin College to double major in chemistry and biology since he likes both so well he can't pick one over the other. Medical school and a post-doc in biology or chemistry are also on the agenda. It will also be exciting for Putnam County to watch this outstanding resident develop into an adult as he desires to come back to the area to work in the medical field.

Too often stories of youth in trouble are highlighted in the news. Here are two youth who both have already contributed significantly to the community. More awesome is the future as both said they want to "give back" to the community and their families who have given them so much as they grew up in Putnam County. This theme runs deep and is more common than not among all 4-H members and families.

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Upcoming Events

April 19-22: Food Animal and Agriculture 16th Conference Nashville

April 22: Basic Food Preservation Workshops, Terre Haute.

April 24-26: Wildflower Foray, Gardening Series T. C. Steele State Historic Site

April 25: 4-H Sheep Tagging & Retinal Scan, Fairgrounds, 8 AM-Noon

April 25: Goat State Fair Wethers Retinal Scan, Fairgrounds, 1 PM

April 28: Extension Homemakers Spring Dessert --Fairgrounds 7 PM

April 29: Goat/Sheep Parasite Workshop 2, Brick Chapel, 6:30 PM

April 29: Basic Food Preservation Workshops, Terre Haute

May 2, 3: Southwestern Indiana MG Assoc. Plant Sale

May 6: E.H. Leader Lesson "One Day Trips in Indiana" 7 PM, Extension Office

May 6: Basic Food Preservation Workshops, Terre Haute

May 9, 10: Garden Gala 4:00 p.m. Gardening Series T. C. Steele State Historic Site

May 16: Festival of Flowers Paint Out 7:00 AM

May 16: Gardening Series T. C. Steele State Historic Site