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Megan Hines reflects on four generations in 4-H
FAIRFIELD – National 4-H Week is the first week in October, and the occasion gave 4-H leader Megan Hines a chance to reflect on her career in 4-H and her family’s time in the program, which has now reached four generations.
Hines grew up on a farm southeast of Fairfield on Glasgow Road. Her parents, Kim and Steve Keller, raised Hines and her two sisters, Chelsey Blum and Hanna Keller, to be 4-H members.
“My mom was a 4-H leader growing up, and we were members of Jefferson G’s 4-H Club,” Hines said. “My mom’s mom, my grandma Ruth Heston, was a 4-H leader in Van Buren County. She and her brothers and sisters were in 4-H as well.”
Hines recalled that her 4-H club growing up was all girls. She enjoyed getting to know them, and she learned a lot from the club’s leaders. The 4-H’ers did community service projects, visited nursing homes, and did sewing projects.
“I enjoyed showing animals, and I feel I learned a lot of lifelong skills in 4-H,” Hines said. “I got to go to Washington, D.C. on a 4-H trip for the National Convention, and I did some other trips, too, to St. Louis and Chicago.”
Grandma Ruth instilled many skills and values into her daughter Kim and into her grandchildren, and now Hines is instilling those very principles into her 11-year-old daughter, Brooklyn.
“Sewing has always been huge in our family,” Hines said. “Grandma taught Mom how to sew, and she passed it down to her daughters. We did a lot of clothing projects and quilts. And now my daughter just did a sewing project that went to the state fair this year.”
Hines said that Brooklyn and her cousin Addison, also 11, are keeping alive the “lost art” of sewing.
Some traditions are difficult to keep up with, but Hines and her family try as much as they can.
“My mom showed horses, and we were very big into horses growing up,” Hines said. “My daughter doesn’t have a horse now, but my uncle still has horses.”
One of the neat accolades that Hines shares with her mother is that they were both crowned county fair queen. Kim was crowned Van Buren County Fair Queen in 1975, and then Megan won the honor at the Greater Jefferson County Fair in 2004. Hines said it was fun to represent Jefferson County at the Iowa State Fair, which had a special celebration in 2004 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the first state fair in Iowa, which was held in Fairfield in 1854. The celebration included a caravan of horses that traveled from Fairfield to Des Moines.
Today, Hines leads the Des Moines Ramblers 4-H Club. She said it’s been so fun to see her daughter become so excited about her 4-H projects.
“She’s in her element when she’s in 4-H,” Hines said. “When she takes things to the fair, the judges tell her what she can do to improve, and she’ll remember that and do better the following year. Watching her grow has been really neat.”
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
