West Virginia’s 4-H presence at this year’s state fair demonstrated a much more diverse educational platform from its agriculture base.
West Virginia’s 4-H presence at this year’s state fair demonstrated a much more diverse educational platform from its agriculture base.
With representation from all 55 counties, the sprawling 4-H State Fair exhibit hall was not big enough to contain the nearly 3,000 student project entries.
First organized in 1912, West Virginia 4-H has more than a century of experience in youth development. In 2022, there are about 142,000 4-H club members in all 55 West Virginia counties.
Club members may also learn about higher education opportunities and even be eligible for scholarships offered by WVU Extension.
State 4-H Curriculum Specialist Jenny Murray said a strength of the organization has always been to embrace diversity. She said 4-H is doing just that with an expanded instruction platform.
“We’re in the business of educating our next generation of West Virginians in the areas of agriculture all the way through things,” Murray said. “Areas such as cooking, rocketry, science, healthy lifestyles, and being good citizens in our communities.”
Murray said the biggest challenge for 4-H is getting all student members access to resources like transportation, mentors and financial support.
“For the young people in our state, some of them are positioned to have better access than others,” Murray said. “Trying to break down those barriers so that all youth have the same access is probably our biggest challenge.”
Anyone between the ages of 9 and 21 can join 4-H with a parent or guardian’s permission. Younger kids, ages 5–7, who are interested in the practices of 4-H can start in the Cloverbud program, which focuses more on fun and social activities that set the stage for future learning.
On May 25, 1937, William Kendrick, a pioneer of West Virginia’s 4-H program, died at age 55. “Teepi,” as he was nicknamed, was born in Alabama and moved to Morgantown to attend West Virginia University. In the decade before World War I, WVU had established corn clubs for boys and canning clubs for girls as a way to teach modern agriculture. Kendrick became the state agent in charge of these groups and adopted the 4-H name. He soon broadened the scope of the clubs beyond agriculture to emphasize various aspects of youth development.
Kendrick was enthused by a local 4-H camp he visited in Randolph County in 1915. He envisioned a statewide 4-H camp and selected the site of “Stonewall” Jackson’s boyhood home in Lewis County. Jackson’s Mill would become the first state 4-H camp in the United States. Kendrick also cofounded the 4-H All-Stars to recognize outstanding leaders in the movement. This concept eventually spread to other states.
“Teepi” Kendrick inspired a generation of young West Virginians to be the best at whatever they did. A shrine at Jackson’s Mill is dedicated in his honor.
On May 25, 1937, William Kendrick, a pioneer of West Virginia’s 4-H program, died at age 55. “Teepi,” as he was nicknamed, was born in Alabama and moved to Morgantown to attend West Virginia University. In the decade before World War I, WVU had established corn clubs for boys and canning clubs for girls as a way to teach modern agriculture. Kendrick became the state agent in charge of these groups and adopted the 4-H name. He soon broadened the scope of the clubs beyond agriculture to emphasize various aspects of youth development.
Kendrick was enthused by a local 4-H camp he visited in Randolph County in 1915. He envisioned a statewide 4-H camp and selected the site of “Stonewall” Jackson’s boyhood home in Lewis County. Jackson’s Mill would become the first state 4-H camp in the United States. Kendrick also cofounded the 4-H All-Stars to recognize outstanding leaders in the movement. This concept eventually spread to other states.
“Teepi” Kendrick inspired a generation of young West Virginians to be the best at whatever they did. A shrine at Jackson’s Mill is dedicated in his honor.
What happens to a community as coal jobs go away? Here are some things you might expect: many people leave, schools empty, local businesses struggle to keep their lights on. But here’s something that may not come to mind: extra curricular sports go away.
That’s what happened to children in McDowell County over 25 years ago. They lost their local soccer league. And while the thousands of lost coal jobs may not come back, thanks to a 4-H project, and about a dozen volunteers, soccer is making a comeback in McDowell County.
It’s a windy fall day. Two teams of children hurdle towards a green ball. Parents are cheering, and shivering.
9-yr-old Andrew Curry playing goalie at a match in Welch, W.Va.
9-year-old Andrew Curry is watching, waiting for his turn to get back into the game.
“I like that you get to run a lot because I used to play baseball and you didn’t get to do a lot of activity,” says Andrew. He likes to play defense the best. He’s one of 156 elementary students playing soccer this year in McDowell County.
The games are held once a week at Mt. View High School.
Parents and other volunteers coach for free, people like Tom Morsi, a retired coal miner.
“We started a soccer program up here in Welch 26 years ago,” says Morsi. “Jobs started going down, people started leaving, going to other states…and they disbanded. Now a lot of kids that played soccer have kids that play in this soccer league. It’s come full circle.”
Morsi says they want to keep the cost low to make soccer available to any child who wants to play. Parents pay $10, local businesses and funding from West Virginia University’s 4-H program pays for the rest.
Although there is no breakdown of childhood obesity rates by county, here in McDowell, 45% of adults are obese. That’s almost twice the national average, of 28%.
Take McDowell County, where traveling 30 miles through rugged mountains means an hour’s worth of driving. To help parents have an easier time getting their children to soccer practice, the teams mostly practice in makeshift fields in neighborhoods throughout the county.
Places like “church parking lots or old baseball fields that you could turn them into a practice soccer field,” says Nathaniel Smith, another volunteer who’s helped get this soccer league up and running.
Smith says this soccer league is just one example of what’s possible in McDowell, even though times are hard.
“And my hope is…turn some things around, make some things better, and work together.”
Smith says they’d like to see at least two hundred families sign up to play next year. The economy here may be spinning out of control, but he’s not giving up. He hopes they can start middle and high school teams in the next few years. Smith gestures toward the children at play and says, “these kids are the future of McDowell County.”
There are 100,000 less sheep in the state of West Virginia today than during the 1970’s. Now, there are 36,000 sheep in the state. The demand for synthetic fibers over wool for our clothes and blankets is one reason for the sharp decline. One man from Upshur County is about to hang up his shears. After sheep shearing for 64 years, Calvin McCutcheon says he will retire next year.
At just under 80 years old, Calvin McCutcheon looks like a bodybuilder. His thick stocky torso is bent over while he wrangles a full grown sheep, trying to get it to lay still and stop thrashing.
But this is nothing- McCutcheon holds the state record for shearing 300 sheep in one day.
Sheep at Sam Cunningham’s farm in Beverly, West Virginia
He began shearing when he was a teenager. At a 4-H Farm in Spencer, someone with WVU Extension offered to teach him.
“And as a cocky 14-year-old I climbed down off the fence and said “I’ll try anything once. I’ve sheared a 100,000 sheep since then.”
At 23 years old, he was determined to step away from the shearing business and become a Methodist pastor.
“But the best sheep shearer in the 10 county area lost his arm to a corn picker the fall before. So he got his arm cut off. He couldn’t shear sheep any more. And they were hurting. I sheared 1,200 sheep right there in that area.”
And so, McCutcheon picked his clippers back up and became a sheep shearing preacher.
He prepares for the spring shearing season almost like an athlete- he goes to the gym about 20 days a month, working to strengthen his shoulders and his lower back.
Beverly, West Virginia. This field is down the street from Sam Cunningham’s farm on Rich Mountain.
One of the farmers who hires McCutcheon to shear sheep is Sam Cunningham, who says it’s just really tough to raise sheep, and there’s not a lot of money in it. “I used to keep 75, now I keep 10 head around here just for my grandkids,” said Cunningham.
Cunningham runs the wool up to a buyer in Pendleton County, named Joe Harper. From there, it will get sold to South Carolina, where it’s carded, and then exported to woolen mills China. Most of the woolen mills in this country have gone out of business.
The view from Sam Cunningham’s farm on Rich Mountain
Farmers here in West Virginia earn less than a dollar per pound, which is hardly even a profit. Some farmers make value added craft products out of their wool, which can help turn more of a profit. Sheeps and Peeps Farm in Aurora and The Holler Farm in Renick are two businesses that sell locally made wool crafts.
Sheep farmers earn more income selling the lambs as meat.
Even though the wool industry is on the decline, there’s still a high demand for sheep shearers because sheep farmers still try to keep the wool off their sheep’s backs to keep them clean and healthy.
But there just aren’t many people interested in learning the trade. Some farmers in West Virginia even hire people from out of state to shear their flock.
Over the years, Calvin McCutcheon has taught dozens of young people to shear sheep, but most of them quit because the physical labor is so tough.
“Well if someone wants to shear sheep, they’ve got to be willing to do hard work, learn a skill and keep at it.”
In 1955, McCutcheon won fifth place in a national contest for sheep shearing. In sheep shearing, time is important, but the way you handle the sheep and keep them comfortable and controlled is the main thing judges look for.
When he won the national award, McCutcheon was recruited by a professional shearing company to work full time out west.
“I was invited to be a part of a shearing band that would migrate from Texas to the Dakotas. I would have been able to make in 4 months times more than I made all of probably 20 years before I made that much money as a pastor.”
But instead- he decided to stay in West Virginia, and that’s where he plans to stay, even as he puts down his professional sheep shears next summer.
Although he officially retired as a Methodist preacher, he was recently asked to return as a pastor, so he’ll be continuing that work next year.
