​Click here for the individual scholarship application – Due April 30, 2022

 

Click here for the group scholarship application – Due April 30, 2022

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PAST RECIPIENTS

 

Samantha Rennie, Croswell, Michigan

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Sam Rennie, a 2021 Croswell-Lexington High School graduate, grew up in Croswell, Michigan, where she was actively involved in 4-H for many years and in high school, spent time volunteering with Ag Community Relief. She was last year’s scholarship recipient, and since then, has continued her education at St. Clair County Community College where she is studying marketing. 

 

She said the scholarship has helped cover the costs of her classes and books, for which she’s grateful as she’s learned a lot over the last year that’s helped her advance her career. 

 

“I’ve learned a lot of different skills that will help me in the marketing industry, like how to design optimization projects and social media projects,” Rennie said “That was really cool because I didn’t really know how to do that, and I learned a lot about it.” 

 

Rennie said she hopes to work in the agriculture industry after she graduates, specifically in photography, and she'll get a chance to do just that this summer. Between her experiences in class, 4-H, and other volunteer work, she qualified for an internship with Farm Bureau. 

 

“I originally applied for the internship that was based in the marketing field, but after they got to know my photography background, and knowing I owned my own business…they came back with an offer to contract me to specifically go around and take pictures,” Rennie said. “Some agents request professional pictures from around the area and they don’t really have anyone doing that. They’re trying to get out of using stock photos…so they want me to travel around and take pictures that they can use for their website. I’m extremely excited.” 

 

When she’s not in school or honing her photography skills, Rennie can be found in the barn with her two show steers, Milo and Otis, getting them ready for upcoming livestock shows, and when local opportunities arise, she said she likes to stay involved with Ag Community Relief.

 

“Ag Community Relief is a disaster relief organization so it’s about everybody coming together as a community during disaster,” Rennie said. “It means a lot because it means people care for each other and they’re willing to help out and it makes me feel really good that I can be part of it.” 

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​Affton Schlochtermeir and the 4 Leaf Clover 4-H Club from Meade, Kansas

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Affton Schlochtermeier is a member of the 4 Leaf Clovers 4-H Club in Meade.  When her family decided to help out with the orphan calf project, she had no idea the work load that was about to happen.  Trailer after trailer of calves showed up at her families home.  She was part of the initial handling of the calves that received any necessary medications or care and one bottle of milk.  After deciding if the calves were well enough, they either stayed to receive more care, or were passed along to another 4-H family to care for.  Affton’s home was one of the two primary locations for drop points for the calves.  Anyone involved with the project understands this is quite the undertaking.  Before the fire, some of us would have considered Affton a private person that was always willing to help where needed, but never wanted to be in the spot light.  Week after week, Affton helped receive donations from strangers, welcoming them into her home and facilities.  Donations were organized and then reorganized, time after time.  Then families that received the calves, would stop by to pick up the supplies they needed to care for the calves.   Affton also was one of the primary 4-H faces with the Media.  Being on of the oldest 4-H members to help with the project, she was an ‘easy’ target, but easily one of the best to be chose also.  Affton’s composure throughout this project has been something that not only the younger 4-Her’s have looked up to but also many adults.

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When the 2017 Starbuck fire broke out, the 4-Leaf Clover 4-H club began messaging one another as a group knowing that they needed to do something to help. One of the members whose family was affected by the fire, suggested that they begin taking in baby calves orphaned by the merciless fires. – It only took a short time after a group email to know that the club had enough support to see the project through.

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 Needless to say, this project blew up much bigger than ever imagined.  A couple of families from the 4 Leaf Clover 4-H club took the driver’s seat, getting calves picked up, organizing caretakers, and taking in supplies. The number of calves needing to be placed grew rapidly. Fortunately, the club itself had  8 families that offered to take calves in, and then reached out to other volunteers to help care for 100 baby calves.

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This group has been awesome to give up so much of their personal time to work with these babies to give them a normal life!  When a new group of calves came in, 4-Hers gathered, to give shots, treat wounds, and to make sure they could get a bottle down the baby before it was re-homed. Sadly, tough decisions had to be made on some of the more severely burned animals.  The club put forth every effort to keep all of the calves alive if it was humanely possible. That meant tubing 3 of the more burned babies 3 times a day for many days, until their jaws were healed enough to take a bottle.  Some of the families had wounds or burns that they had to treat daily to prevent infection. The caretakers basically put their personal lives and livestock on the backburner for the first 2 months while the survival of these babies was critical.

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To the public watching this club work together to help their neighbors the task seemed fun and cute. It wasn’t always that way, however.  Most of these families already had a full morning of chores, without adding burn treatments, and bottle feedings, fighting lung issues from smoke inhalation, scours from stress, and other sickness. But they did it graciously, without complaints, and with a selfless heart, not for publicity or a big pat on the back, but because they are part of the bigger rural America, and as we have seen from across the country…..this is just what Rural America does.

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