Growing community leaders

MARSHFIELD, Wis. — Becky Bauer dedicates much of her time to growing a crop she considers every bit as important as the ones raised on her family’s dairy farm. For the past 12 years she has served as the general leader of the Golden Glow 4-H Club in Wood County, raising future community leaders.

“It’s important to get kids involved, to teach them to give back to their community,” Becky said.

Steve and Becky Bauer and their children — Brittany, Tony, Zack, Courtney and Jeremy — milk 103 cows on their dairy farm near Marshfield. Brittany’s fiancé, Carter Grove, also helps out on the farm and serves as an adult volunteer in the Bauers’ 4-H club.

The Golden Glow 4-H Club is the largest in Wood County, with 120 members who are geographically spread across the county and into Clark and Portage Counties.

While many clubs have witnessed a decrease in active members in recent years, Becky said their club has continued to grow, with many large families among the membership rolls.

Steve credits the club’s vibrance largely to Becky’s tenacity through the coronavirus pandemic.

“I did drive-thru meetings in the parking lot to keep the club going and members engaged throughout the pandemic,” Becky said. “We had separate tables. They would get a snack, a community service, a project for them to pick up — they got everything they would have at a regular meeting.”

The Bauers first became members of the Golden Glow 4-H Club when Brittany was old enough to join as a cloverbud, but the club has family ties for Becky. Her parents, Mark and Kathy Binder, met as members of the club and recently celebrated their 51st wedding anniversary.

Brittany is beginning her third year at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls studying agriculture education.

“I really embraced 4-H and it led me to choose to go to school for agricultural education, to become a teacher and teach kids about ag,” Brittany said. “4-H had a major impact on my social skills, as I was involved in so many different activities.”

When her own 4-H days ended, Brittany began serving as an adult volunteer.

“I got involved in the Wood County (Youth) Llama Project and showing llamas really brought out some leadership skills for me,” Brittany said. “Now I’m the youth educator for the Wood County (Youth) Llama Project and the assistant superintendent for exotic animals’ department at the Central Wisconsin State Fair.”

With Becky’s long tenure as the club’s general leader, all the Bauer children followed in their sister’s footsteps, with membership beginning in kindergarten.

“They’ve been tagging along since they were babies,” Becky said. “They’ve never really just been 4-H members. For some families, 4-H is just once a month. But these guys are automatic volunteers — they got right into the nitty-gritty, the planning and organizing.”

Steve and Becky recognize how those years of service have molded their children.

“They’re the first ones to jump in if a kid needs help with something,” Becky said. “They may not realize it or see it, but I do — as both a leader and a mom.”

4-H involvement has helped Tony and Zack, both high school seniors, find their areas of interest.

“Wherever I can connect the farm and 4-H, that’s what I’m interested in,” Tony said. “Mostly crops and agronomy are what I’m interested in.”

Zack has discovered a penchant for entrepreneurship through his 4-H projects.

“Brittany influenced me into showing lots of animals,” Zack said. “I still show poultry. This year I hatched a few out from birds I had raised last year. I have learned a lot about raising a lot of different kinds of animals through 4-H.”

The Bauer children have all embraced the swine project, raising pigs each year to exhibit at the fair and show in the market sale. They purchase their pigs from other 4-H families in the area.

“I like the pigs, probably better than people,” Courtney said. “We get them when they’re a couple of months old and raise them, train them to walk and get ready for the fair.”

Jeremy has followed along with his older siblings as well.

“I took chickens and did crops one year, too, but I like the pigs as much as anything,” Jeremy said.

Zack was introduced to making maple syrup by the Bauer’s neighbor, Mark Cournoyer, during the pandemic. Cournoyer is the ag instructor at the School District of Auburndale. Maple syrup has turned that into an area of entrepreneurial interest that Jeremy has also taken an interest in as well.

“I’ve paid off everything I’ve done, but I’ve never made a dollar,” Zack said. “This year I started working with another 4-H kid on the syrup.”

Becky said her children working with other kids and networking is a benefit her children do not realize.

While project learning is important to Becky, she said the most important thing she wants her 4-H members to learn is the value of volunteerism and embracing community service.

“Our club has a requirement of community service to exhibit at the fair,” Becky said. “Opportunities we provide include working at the Rotary Winter Wonderland, Toys for Tots, Adopt-A-Highway and playing bingo and taking petting zoos to local nursing homes.”

While she did not realize the full scope of what she was doing at the time, Brittany said one community service project has impacted her as an adult.

“We used to do a program called Nutrition on Weekends,” Brittany said. “It didn’t hit me until I was older — we were making meals for a kid who might not have gotten fed at home on the weekends. That made a huge difference to those kids.”

Besides community service, the club also requires members to give a demonstration or talk each year.

“I tell my families, these demonstrations aren’t meant to traumatize the kids,” Becky said. “It’s to get them comfortable standing up in front of a group, talking. So many people can’t do that nowadays.”

While they may not immediately see the benefits, Becky said she feels secure that as adults they will value the experiences.

“When they get older they begin to realize the impact they can make in their communities,” Becky said. “That is why we really push community involvement — we want them to focus on the world around them, not just themselves.”