Posted on April 21, 2011 at 1:20 PM by Global Reach
4-H has always been a very important part of Deborah Osborn. She was a member of Prairie City Champions and Homemakers 4-H Clubs from the years of 1965 – 1973. During that time, she held multiple offices, was Jasper County Beef Queen in 1972, showed Market Beef, and took multiple projects to the fair. In 1970, she was a 4-H exchange student to Canada. There she met Trudy, whom she has remained friends with to this day. Not only did she accomplish all of that, but she also met her future husband at a 4-H event!
She and her husband had three girls. When the oldest, Liza, was 9, she had Liza join the Jolly Workers 4-H Club in Kellogg. After the first year, Deb became the assistant leader. Later on she became the head leader. While she was a leader, she stressed the importance of citizenship. She did this by having her club members complete projects like collecting pop cans to buy teddy bears for the local ambulance, buying gifts for people in need off the Angel Tree at Christmas, and started a food pantry in Kellogg.
As a leader she was always trying to make sure her club members were able to do their best no matter what they were doing. She started having a project day before fair. During this day, the kids would bring their projects in and get them mocked judged. This would allow new members to get a feel of what judging is like. It gave everyone a chance to get ideas on how to improve what they had done.
Deb is a great fan of fun and always wanted her club to have fun no matter what they were doing. Every year the club competed in Share the Fun at the county fair. Some of the things they did were a jump rope routine, puppet show, clown show, the Adams Family, and the Button factory. Out of the sixteen years as leader, her club made it to the State Fair with a Share the Fun Act almost every year.
In 2005, she was diagnosed with cancer. Even faced with such a difficult disease, she always came to the meetings. It was her way of letting the 4-H’ers know that even though she was not feeling her best, she always wanted them to do their best and that she would continue to be there for them.
Even after retiring as leader, she continues to work to improve 4-H for the future. A few years ago she began to raise money for new sheep pens. With the help of the Jasper County Fair Board, she was able to raise enough money to replace all the pens in the Sheep Barn.
She was a good 4-Her, a great leader, and continues to try to improve 4-H for the future.
Categories: Jasper
