The phone call from my dad came Friday night–my great aunt Rosella had passed away that morning, at the venerable age of 93. The funeral was Sunday at 2:00.
Sunday? This Sunday? At 2:00 in the afternoon? But that’s 4-H Day at the Bres! That’s the day more than 4,000 4-H’ers and their families descend upon MSU’s Breslin Center to cheer the MSU women’s basketball team on to victory! I’m supposed to be there to shoot photos, handle any media folk and soak up all that 4-H green-wave energy. But I loved my great aunt and duty called, so off to the funeral I went.
Cheers! (Beth Stuever photo)
The cheering went on without me. 4-H tattoos were plastered on cheeks and hands and foreheads, and whole sections of the stands looked like an advertisement for envy, they were so full of fans wearing 4-H (and Spartan) green. Nearly 10,500 fans were in attendance–a season high and the seventh-largest crowd ever–and 40 percent of them were 4-H’ers. With that many four-leaf clovers in the stands, how could the Spartan women do anything but win their 600th game and extend their winning streak to five games?
Uniquely Yours buttons (Beth Stuever photo)
Out in the concourse, tables were set up where 4-H entrepreneurial clubs were being, well, entrepreneurial and selling their stuff. I really wanted to get one of those buttons made by the Uniquely Yours club from Macomb County. Wait a minute, you’re saying. Entrepreneurship? You thought 4-H was just about cows and cooking, didn’t you? But 4-H today is so NOT like it was when I took sewing and indoor gardening back in the 70’s (yes, I’m that old). 4-H is going high-tech these days.
This event is different from all the other 4-H statewide events in Michigan. It’s not about skill building and education, which is what happens at 4-H Communications Day and Great Lakes & Natural Resources Camp. And it’s not about career exploration, which is the hallmark of 4-H Exploration Days. No, this one’s just about fun. And being together. And saying thanks to the thousands of people in this state who volunteer for 4-H.
Sparty helps say the 4-H pledge (Beth Stuever photo)
This is the one where a handful of 4-H kids gets to go down on the floor and lead the crowd (10,489 people!) in saying the 4-H pledge–and the whole place just echoes with it. This is the one where they get to have their picture taken with Sparty or the Spartan cheerleaders. They get to go to the MSU bookstore in the Union and grab some ice cream at the MSU Dairy Store, even though it IS January and only 15 degrees!
You get the picture, right? Unfortunately, I didn’t get the picture(s) this year; my buddy Beth did me a solid and took the pictures for me, and she took some fabulous shots. I can look at them and see what I missed, but it’s not the same as being there. I may have been wearing black at Aunt Rosie’s funeral, but my heart was secretly bleeding green.
February 6, 2009 at 6:27 pm
I was so proud of our 4-H when all the kids and Tom Coon stood and lead everyone in the pledge. Though I was far in the stand, I told my six year old son about all the good work 4-H does in the community.