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Article from the front page of the Redlands Facts.


Below is the article, which explains some things i have been dedicated to for most my life.

4-H Club is about more than animals VANESSA D. OVERBECK , Staff Writer

Though the East Valley 4-H Club¹s roots lie in agriculture and animal husbandry, the club¹s unique flexibility has allowed it to evolve with the changing interests of America¹s youth. John Trammel is the East Valley 4-H Club¹s resident technology expert and is leading the club¹s foray into geographic information systems technology. The club received a software grant, giving them 25 copies of a GIS program from Redlands-based ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute) for use in a community service learning project. "Without ESRI, this project would not be feasible," John said. The technology bug bit John at a national 4-H technology conference held in St. Louis in 2004. He and 400 other 4-Hers participated in a volunteer project that involved mapping a newly renovated park using Global Positioning System technology. John has already used the GPS software to create a map of all the county 4-H offices in California. His project revealed a possible factor contributing to the decline of 4-H clubs in Southern California. John found that in Northern California, where 4-H clubs enjoy higher enrollment, there were more than six times as many county offices as there are in Southern California. John said the nine offices in the southern region must oversee much larger areas, which strains their resources. "It¹s hard to reach out to those outlying areas when you have this one little office trying to manage a huge area," John said. A proposed project for the technology team is to create a map of all the veteran memorials in the county. "We realized that a lot of people don¹t know where these memorials are so they lose interest in honoring the veterans in our country," John said. 4-Hers more artistically inclined may not be as interested as Lauren Christensen in poultry or as enthusiastic about plant hybridization as Briana Swallows, and they may not get as excited as John about advanced computer software. However, in 4-H there is something creative for everyone to learn about photography, compete in musical contests, write poetry and even submit paintings in art contests. Henry Frye not only enjoys raising animals, but he also participates in the East Valley 4-H Club¹s photography project led by John¹s father and club co-leader Steve Trammell. Steve became involved in 4-H as a child when his mother took in some sheep. Unsure of what to do with the animals, he and his mother joined 4-H. Steve¹s true passion, however, was not animal husbandry, but photography. He competed in various photography contests all the way up to the national level during his years in 4-H. Rozie Trammell, the other co-leader, described photography as a "strong project" in the East Valley 4-H Club. The participants learn about composition, lighting, color, balance, still lifes, landscapes, animal shots and action shots. "They start out with the basics and they take it as far as they want to," Rozie said. 4-Hers such as Henry have entered their photos in expressive art contests at the local fairs, in the National 4-H Calendar contest and the California 4-H Web site contest. Henry earned several first place prizes for a shot of his brothers in the kitchen with - what else? - a chicken. Leadership and community service One of the most important aspects of 4-H in the minds of the participants and the leaders of the East Valley 4-H Club is volunteerism. "Community service is extremely important for all the kids. It¹s important for them to realize that there are people who need our help," Rozie said. Giving at 4-H begins within the club with a reverse birthday present. Each member of the East Valley 4-H Club makes a cash donation to the club on their birthdays. At the end of the year, the "birthday money" is donated to a charity chosen by the club members. One of Briana¹s favorite club activities is help serve lunch at the Highland Women¹s Club Scholarship Luncheon. "The ladies always seem so happy to see these kids who are willing to help and we all get to wear our whites," Briana said. The East Valley 4-H Club has been involved in service projects that range from collecting pull-tabs to making cards and surgery pillows for patients of Loma Linda University Medical Center. They collected blankets for the victims of the 2004 Old Fire staying at Norton Air Force Base and jackets for the Redlands Family Service Association. East Valley 4-H also helped the forestry service clean up an old shooting range near Lake Arrowhead, and collected plant specimens for the forestry¹s greenhouse. "We¹ve done such a wide variety of community service activities to encourage the kids to care about the community they¹re living in, because it is a part of who they are," Rozie said. "Part of learning is caring about what goes on around them outside their small world." Often the club¹s service projects follow the interests of the club members. Appealing to Briana¹s horticultural interests, the East Valley 4-H Club was part of the initial attempt to clean up and relandscape El Rancho Park on Greenspot Road in Highland. "Our club took it on and helped transform it. It was so much work, but it was a lot of fun to see the little kids playing in the dirt and planting trees," Briana said. Rozie hopes the club¹s service projects educate the children on the importance of being active community members. She also finds service learning a good way to introduce the club members to increased responsibility as they progress through 4-H. "The kids learn to become citizens of their community. They learn to become leaders and they take on greater responsibility as they move through the program," she said. The sense of ownership and responsibility John felt during the club¹s service projects led him to take on a more active leadership role. "What kept me coming back at the beginning was that it was fun and we got to do all of these different activities that had nothing to do with school," he said. "As I got older and became involved in more official stuff it became about giving back to the program. Now I just keep coming back because I just love it." For John, 4-H is not about animals or plants or even technology, but about youths helping and encouraging each other. "It¹s about working with people your own age and trying to get them to do the best they can," John said. "In 4-H, you are the one with the power. 4-H revolves around the youth." John has participated in 4-H youth leadership conferences all over the nation. He is the president of the Southern California Teen Council and he served as a state ambassador at the California Focus Conference held in Sacramento this past year. After 12 years in the program John summed up the power of his experience in 4-H in a dozen words: "It made me realize I had the power to change the world." E-mail Vanessa Overbeck at voverbeck@redlandsdailyfacts.com