Delaware 4-H awards : youtube.com/watch?v=4xpIOJ3i_7E

Gems of 4-H community service

Article by Michele Walfred and Delaware 4-H staff Photo by Michele Walfred and Delaware 4-H staff | Video by Michele Walfred November 11, 2022

Delaware 4-H youth honored for extraordinary service leadership

The Delaware 4-H honored two Delaware youth leaders, Jarrett Butler of Magnolia and Ainsley West of Milton, with the Delaware 4-H Diamond Clover Award.

Created in 2014, the Diamond Clover Award celebrates and acknowledges excellence in extraordinary, sustained and focused service learning in their community. Delaware 4-H is coordinated and administered through University of Delaware Cooperative Extension.

The Diamond Clover is not awarded every year, nor in every county. The honor is not bestowed because a 4-H member reached his or her turn. It must be earned. The process moves through five stages and requires extensive documentation of a major community service project with lasting impact.

“Ainsley and Jarrett represent the dedication and tenacity that we hope for in a 4-H youth leader,” said Doug Crouse, 4-H state program leader. “Each of these individuals took our mission of 4-H leadership and community service to heart and to the ultimate level — the highest bar.”

Crouse’s pride extends to the families, clubs and communities who supported each and every effort along the projects’ journey.

“4-H’ers like Ainsley, Jarrett and the eleven Diamond Clover 4-H honorees who have come before, are the finest role models for our younger 4-H members learning the value of service leadership,” Crouse said.

Overcoming obstacles

Jarrett Butler, like most 4-H youth, enthusiastically attended the Delaware State Fair each year. Confined to a wheelchair, Butler found it difficult and challenging to tend to his bathroom duties and personal needs. Each year, the process to find a location proved inconvenient and uncomfortable. Beyond his own needs, Butler also identified a lack of private areas for nursing mothers attending the fair. He took action. The fair installed better handicapped and nursing facilities.

Jarrett Butler was honored with a Diamond Clover Award pin at the Kent County 4-H Achievement Event in the fall of 2022 for his work to have accessible family restrooms installed in facilities at the Delaware State Fair. Those restrooms are compliant with regulations in the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Butler kept pushing. He wanted an ADA-compliant family restroom. After meeting with the Delaware State Fair administration, Butler’s next challenge required identifying funds. His mission led him to the Delaware Legislative Assembly; he found motivated partners in Rep. Lyndon Yearick, Sen. Dave Wilson and Rep. Valerie Longhurst. Butler’s efforts spanned a long process throughout 2019 involving many planning meetings and discussions.

His perseverance paid off, resulting in funding the Delaware Capital Bond Budget in 2020. The new facilities were built and dedicated in 2021. Butler’s accomplishments made local news on Town Square Live.

In the article, Rep. Lyndon Yearick sang his praises.

“Jarrett was very specific with his requests,” Yearick said. “Like any good lobbyist, or someone taking an active role in something they believe in, he had a plan, he had ideas, he had suggestions, and he was very, very thoughtful in what he was recommending. And I need to stress that he undertook this not to help himself, but to help other people that he saw were in need. Jarrett is an excellent example that one person can make a positive difference.”

Delaware Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester stops to congratulate Jarrett Butler on his Diamond Clover Award at the beginning of the Kent County recognition event as his family looks on.

Ainsley West of Milton and a member of the Hollymount 4-H Club serving the Lewes-Milton area, reached near and far — including overseas — for her 4-H Diamond Clover Award project.

“Cards for America’s Adopt a Soldier” was the initiative earmarked for her Diamond Clover journey. The mission of West’s project is to send homemade cards to soldiers and their families throughout the year, not just on special holidays. West recruited 4-H clubs, community clubs and schools to assist with the project.

Each handcrafted card expressed the personal thoughts and gratitude of its creator.

Over a two-year period, other 4-H local clubs donated 50 to 100 cards every other month. While the pandemic slowed many other activities down to a trickle, West took advantage of homebound 4-H members looking to keep busy. As a result, more than 1,700 cards were sent to American military service members. It was important for West to remind the recipients they were thought of throughout the calendar year.

Ainsley West works with 4-H club members to create hand-crafted cards to send to U.S. service members.

“I knew men and women in the military were really only getting cards during the holidays,” West said. “I wanted to be able to help change that just a little so those in service knew we were thinking of them year round.”

For an effort like this to work, sustainability is paramount. Through West’s encouragement and planning, the effort is an established activity in many clubs. She also wants to expand her audience so that others receive the heartfelt well wishes from the 4-H community.

“These cards can also go to service people in hospitals and even their families,” West exclaimed.

In addition to 4-H clubs and local schools, West envisions local retirement communities to join in the project.

History of the award

In a word-association game, calling out ‘4-H’ might garner a few likely responses — farms, petting zoos, show pigs or blue ribbons. Any of those terms are certainly accurate; however, 4-H’s solid agriculture tradition represents only a fraction of the nation’s largest youth program.

As 4-H evolved and expanded, so did its curricula, projects and activities. More than a century later, 4-H offers a much broader and diverse selection of experiential learning. Today, leadership and community service hold equal sway, values emphasized in every 4-H club and 4-H youth member.

Throughout its history, 4-H long acknowledged excellence with blue ribbons, trophies and project pins, and awarded many scholarships to its 4-H members. But when a career 4-H member dedicates their time, often years, to go above and beyond in service leadership, is a blue ribbon enough?

Delaware 4-H didn’t think so. Coordinated and administered through University of Delaware Cooperative Extension, the program’s staff noticed that a signature capstone recognition did not exist. So, it set out to provide a special recognition with the Diamond Clover 4-H Award, a program adapted from Maryland 4-H.

In 2014, Delaware 4-H “The Boy Scout Eagle is the gold standard of youth awards, and it was used as the model for the Diamond Clover,” said Dan Tabler, a retired 4-H agent with a long career in Delaware, Maryland and West Virginia.

Since its inception, 13 youth have earned their Diamond Clover Award. Past honorees include: Sarah Bell, Ashley Conroe, Mikayla Ockels (2014); Holly Anderson (2015); Spring Vasey, Hannah O’Hara and Garrett Geidel (2018); Leslie Webb (2019); and Zoe Probert, Lake Vasey and Weston Williams (2021).