WATERLOO - It's a family thing. That's the way many describe the nonlivestock portion of the Black Hawk County 4-H and FFA Fair, where children in kindergarten through 12th grade display homemade and/or homegrown projects that sometimes include many generations of family members.

"4-H gets in your blood," said Soo Greiman, a supervisor in the foods and nutrition category. "It's something you can do together as a family. We all have an emotional connection to the projects."

Greiman's youngest child is 22, so she hasn't been to the exhibit as a parent in a few years, but she says it's something she can't stay away from. She said she particularly likes the food division because so many of the exhibits are recipes passed down from generation to generation.

One such recipe was entered this year by fifth-grader Jennifer Wiley. Jennifer had a plate of "Great-Grandma's Sugar Cookies" displayed in a box with her late great-grandmother's photo. Jennifer used a spool of thread to press a design into the cookies, just like her great-grandmother.

"I think they taste good," Jennifer said. "And I miss her."

Jennifer, who has been a part of 4-H for four years, was accompanied by her older sister, Kayla, their mother, Lori, and their grandmother, Lavonne Oltrogge.

"I think it's a good learning experience for them," Lori Wiley said. "They learn a lot of new things, and I get to do things with them like baking and sewing that we might not have time for otherwise."

Oltrogge said she enjoyed seeing her granddaughters' creations.

"I keep an eye on them when they are baking," she said.

Ten-year-old Patricia Patnode took a different approach for her project this year. Patricia, a junior 4-H member, likes to collect empty cicada shells off the trees in a park near her home. She decided to build the cicadas a house.

The house is made of scrap wood and is complete with walls and lots of rooms. It features a large table made out of a CD, a tiny plastic refrigerator and a bathtub made out of a large bottle cap. Patricia even took the time to cut names out of magazines, which she glued to each of the many beds in the cicada house, giving it a dorm-room feel.

"Last year I made a paper house for them, and it wilted," Patricia said. "This year I tried to make it sturdier. It took me two weeks total to do it."

Patricia is named for her grandmother, Patricia Frank, who accompanied her to the exhibit.

"There are a lot of neat things here," Frank said. "I think the kids learn self-respect, and self-discipline because they have to keep notes and write booklets. It's a good thing for them."

4-H members are divided into three categories: Clover Kids, who are in kindergarten through third grade, junior members, who are fourth-graders and not eligible for state fair consideration, and full members are fifth grade through high school. All members are judged conference style at the exhibit and entries that the judges feel particularly stand out are set aside for state fair consideration.

Each county in Iowa is allotted a certain number of exhibits based on the number of entrants they have, according to Alan Ricks, the county extension education director. Ricks estimated that Black Hawk County has close to 350 members including the Clover Kids.

"The best part of this is looking in the eyes of the kids," Ricks said. "You see the pride they have in the projects they have completed, and it's fun to see the families here together. Our hardest part is done at this point, and we just get to enjoy seeing the kids."

Contact Samanatha Donisi

at (319) 291-1423 or

samantha.donisi@wcfcourier.com