Mary Loveland
Daily Elk Citian
Beckham County's 4-H program has been falling behind lately when it comes to community involvement. Compared to surrounding areas like Washita and Roger Mills, Beckham County is hardly active in 4-H, and for an unfortunate, but explainable, reason.
"We're different here then other counties because we don't have that life-long leader," Greg Hartman, agricultural and 4-H youth development educator for Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service in Beckham County, said. "We've had to go out and find new leaders every third year."
Not only does Beckham County lack volunteer leaders for 4-H youth, but up until four and half months ago Hartman was the only educator in the entire county, which made him the one man circus when it came to extension services that included much more then just focusing on 4-H.
Stephanie Ezzell was hired in August of 2011 to join Hartman as a county educator. Her focus is on family and consumer science as well as 4-H, but that still puts Beckham behind counties like Washita that have three educators, which allows one to focus completely on 4-H.
Ezzell, who has been an educator before in Noble County said it takes several years to turn the program around.
"The first year you're just learning," Ezzell said. "The next year you're getting a plan together and implementing new programs. Then by the third year, you get to know your volunteers, leaders and members. It would only take a year to a year and half to accomplish that if all I did was focus on 4-H."
As of right now, all 4-H planning for Elk City and Sayre come directly from the county Oklahoma CES office. There are no volunteer leaders for this entire area.
"I'm still working on trying to find someone that will commit to being the overall leader for Elk City youth," Ezzell said. "I think most of the problem comes from the misconception that it's going to consume a lot of their time."
According to Ezzell, Beckham County was one of the most involved 4-H programs in the state just a few years ago. That has dramatically changed.
Noble County has a population of 11,561, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Ezzell said they had nearly 300 4-H members. Beckham County, on the other hand, has a population of 22,119, nearly twice that of Noble's, and has only around 100 members.
"It was a shock to me that the 4-H involvement wasn't at least equal," Ezzell said.
The main problem is again a lack of volunteers, and because of this, youth in Beckham County haven't been able to participate in nearly as many activities as many other Oklahoma 4-H members have seen.
Both Washita and Roger Mills Counties held or will be holding their annual speech competition this year. Beckham County youth will not have the opportunity to compete in something like that.
"4-H has also started a new competition that mimics the Food Network show Chopped," Ezzell said. "Members come in groups of two to four and each group get the same basket full of ingredients. They open it up and have to create something in a certain amount of time."
The regional competition for this cooking match is being held in Lawton this weekend. However, no Beckham County members are entered.
Since Ezzell has become a county educator she said she has seen an increase in interest and membership.
Ezzell has several plans in place to get Beckham County's 4-H program back to where she thinks it should be.
"I'm going to do summer workshops that haven't been offered here in quite a while," Ezzell said.
The workshops will last the majority of the day. The day will start off with an educational component, move into a self-prepared lunch and then into making projects that can later be entered in the state and county fairs.
Other plans in the making involve an annual Fabric and Fashion Show and implementing a talent show.
"There's more to 4-H than just showing livestock," Ezzell said. "A lot of people don't know that."
But to get the program up and running again, Ezzell said it will take teamwork and definitely some volunteer work.
"It's baby steps," she said. "But we have good plans and it takes time."