Lane Electric Supports Local 4-H Youth
By Craig Reed
3 4-H members were rewarded at the Lane County Fair Youth Auction for the time and effort they put into their animal projects.
The animals raised and marketed by Charlotte Keepers, Lorelei Friesen and Carmen Nunes were bought by Lane Electric Cooperative.
“It’s all about supporting the kids,” says Gary Foster, a retired Lane Electric serviceman who, with his wife, Sally, bids at the annual auction on behalf of Lane Electric.
Gary and Sally say the 4-H and FFA programs give young people an opportunity to learn responsibilities and gain confidence in themselves.
Charlotte raised a beef steer, Lorelei a hog and Carmen a pen of chickens.
“I’d like to thank Lane Electric not only for the support for me, but the support it has given to the Lane County auction over the years,” says Charlotte, a Pleasant Hill resident and member of the East Lane 4-H Club.
“I’m very grateful to Lane Electric for buying my pig,” says Lorelei, a Eugene area resident and a member of the Spencer Creek 4-H Club. “The amount they spent was very generous. I appreciate it a lot.”
Lane Electric has been a participant at the auction since 2006 when General Manager Rick Crinklaw and the board of directors approved supporting a few students and their animal projects each year. Debi Wilson, the current general manager, has continued the tradition. Gary and Sally visit with the students prior to the auction and then bid on animals.
In the early years of buying a beef steer at the auction, Lane Electric would make cut-and-wrapped packages of meat available for sale to its employees. Beginning in 2010, the beef has been turned into hamburger packages and donated to Food for Lane County. The meat is then distributed to food pantries in Lowell, Oakridge, Veneta, Cottage Grove and McKenzie, communities in Lane Electric Cooperative’s service area.
“I think this is a really great thing,” Charlotte says. “It makes me proud that I raised this animal, and it’ll go to help those in need.”
Charlotte, a senior at Pleasant Hill High School, got her steer last October. She cared for him and worked with him for 10 months. Besides providing food and water, she worked with him “at least a few days a week,” training the steer to halter and be led. During the month prior to the auction, she spent time almost every day with the steer, walking, washing and brushing him.
“It takes a lot of time and energy,” Charlotte says. Charlotte’s younger brother, Max, also had a steer, so the siblings were able to share the work and spend time together with their animals.
Charlotte and her steer earned a blue ribbon in the showmanship class and finished second in their conformation class. The steer weighed 1,250 pounds, and an estimated 600 to 650 pounds of ground beef was donated to Food for Lane County.
Nathan Keepers, Charlotte’s father, says having an animal project is good for children.
“They learn to take care of something else besides themselves,” he says. “There’s the sales aspect of it. Having to market to businesses like Lane Electric helps them to learn to talk to adults and to be more comfortable with that. With kids more and more on their phones these days, these 4-H projects help them develop their interpersonal skills.”
Marketing by the students includes bringing letters describing their projects to the Lane Electric office and other businesses and then talking to potential buyers prior to the auction.
For Lorelei, a sophomore at Churchill High School, this was her 4th year raising a hog. She got her animal in March and fed, watered and worked with the hog almost daily for 4 months. The work involved 15 to 20 minutes a day of walking exercise to build muscle and then frequently washing and brushing the hog during the last month before the auction.
The hog weighed 277 pounds. “That’s a very good weight,” Lorelei says. After buying the hog, Lane Electric sold it back to the open commercial market at the fair market price.
Carmen, an 8th grader at Cascade Middle School and a member of the East Lane Small Animal 4-H Club, raised 10 chicks she bought when they were 1 day old. This was her first year raising chicks for the meat market after entering the showmanship and breed classes with adult chickens the past 2 years.
“I wanted another challenge,” Carmen says. Carmen put the chicks in dog crates with “lots of food and water and under a heat lamp,” for the first 4 to 5 weeks then turned them outside where they could scavenge for their own food.
“I took my best 3 (chickens) in weight and personality to the fair,” Carmen says. “I didn’t know if anybody would bid on my chickens. I’m super glad (Lane Electric) supported me and my birds.”
Supporting children and their animal projects is a tradition Lane Electric plans to continue into the future.
