My wife was asked if she had any picture’s from our days as a 4-H shooting sports instructors. The request was from our local 4-H office, the pictures were for an upcoming sportsman’s dinner they were to be hosting soon.
Cheryl and I coached shooting sports for about 15yrs or more, and we also helped many kids with their swine projects also.
My wife spent some time the other night looking through files on her computer and put together a folder full of pictures.
I started going through them, and it kinda made my eyes leak looking at all those babies that we had in our 4-H group. I became “uncle Don” to a whole slew of kids down through the years.
I sent some pictures to the parents of some of those kids and it started a conversation with one of my close friends… she said “life made more sense back then” to which I replied “Not sure if it made more sense, but I think it gave us more sense of purpose.”
There was a time not long ago that my wife and I were walking into a restaurant and this young man raced ahead of us to hold the door open for us. As we entered the young man called me Mr. Hartman and asked how we were doing and so on. We chatted a good 10 minutes about life and how he had come back to visit his grandfather, and he said he was doing well… and for the life of me I couldn’t
remember who he was! I was just too embarrassed to ask him his name. He was so nice and respectful that I hated to ruin the moment for him and end the conversation we were so thoroughly enjoying, by interrupting him to ask his name.
We were shooting sports instructors and our teams did well through the years, winning many district, state, and even competed in many national events… but I could care less how well those kids shot. I think teaching them respect, patience, sportsmanship, and common courtesy was way more important to learn than winning.
Some of these kids are married now with families of their own. Some went on to bigger and better things with impressive achievements and careers, and some with maybe not as impressive careers, but they turned out to be good people nevertheless. The most impressive thing is that I haven’t heard of a single one that has gotten hooked on drugs or that has been thrown in jail!
I’m so proud of all of those kids and how well they’ve all turned out.
I have been apart of many organizations throughout the years. But I think that being a 4-H leader to the youth, gives a sense of purpose of making the world a better place, and possibly making a difference in some young persons life.
I’m not sure if life made more sense back then, or we just had more sense of purpose.
