4-H Ambassadors offer opportunities for younger members

A group of 30 local 4-H members have stepped up to leadership roles for Steele County clubs and have been planning activities for the 2025-2026 school year.

Last Saturday, the 4-H clubs held their first event of the new school year, Shop with Santa at St. John Lutheran Church in Owatonna.

Addison Hjelmen, a ninth grader at Blooming Prairie, helped plan the event.

She said she has been a member of 4-H ever since she was eligible to join as a Cloverbud. She is a member of the Merry Lane 4-H Club.

Her family raises goats, she said, and that has led to her passion for goats, which she shows at the fair. She has also been involved in showing beef, rabbits, poultry and other 4-H projects.

“It helps my confidence and talking to people,” she said of why she is in 4-H.

She said she encourages others to join 4-H, as it can build friendships that can last, something not as common in other activities.

Her older sister, she added, was also a 4-H member.

AJ Kohn is in eighth grade and has been involved with 4-H for six years as a member of the Pratt Commandos. AJ is a fourth generation 4-H member who got involved in 4-H in second grade, and entering at the fair was a big reason for joining.

AJ first joined 4-H during COVID, when projects had to be done on Zoom. “When it got to be in person, it is hard to describe, it was uplifting, pushing you to do your best.”

It was getting involved in livestock in third grade that kept AJ in the program. By sixth grade, AJ had become the historian for the club and later was the treasurer and club president.

“It’s nice to be in something bigger than yourself,” AJ said, and “still have individual camps and meet other kids.”

There are lots of reasons to join 4-H, AJ said.

“What do they like to do? 4-H has a spot for that. If a person likes spaceships, there is aerospace. Writing, art, knitting, working with your hands, engineering, there is something for everyone. It’s also okay to just do livestock.”

Jack Bruns is a college student studying carpentry at Riverland Community College. He, too, has been a 4-H member since Cloverbuds. Jack is a member of the Merry Lane Club in Blooming Prairie and is a graduate of Blooming Prairie High School.

His whole family, including parents and grandparents, has been involved in 4-H and showed livestock. His projects have included dairy, swine, rabbits and poultry.

4-H members can remain in the organization for a year after high school, Jack said, and although he still feels like a member this year, he also is more of a leader.

He said he has met a lot of people in 4-H and met his best friends “running around the fair.”