4-H Show Your Colours Feature: 4-H is in Emily Bieman's blood

BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN

As 4-H Canada encourages all members, leaders and supporters to “Show Their Colours” this month, there are few who have done so to the degree that Belgrave-area native Emily Bieman has.

 

Bieman was recently chosen as the Brussels Fall Fair Ambassador and, on that special night at the Brussels Legion when she introduced herself to the members of the Brussels Agricultural Society, she spoke extensively about her commitment to the Huron County 4-H program and the important spot it occupies in her life.

 

Bieman first joined the fabled rural life-themed club when she was nine years old, which is the youngest age you can join. She began with clubs with which she was familiar, beef and sheep clubs, both animals she had at her family’s home farm, but would expand from there.

 

Going even further back, however, 4-H was in Bieman’s blood before she was even born. Some of her grandparents have been instrumental members in 4-H clubs and both of her parents, her father in Huron and Bruce Counties and her mother in Prince Edward County, were members as well. So, it only makes sense that Bieman would be destined for 4-H greatness.

 

Even now as a university student, Bieman remembers attending her first-ever 4-H meeting and how it made her felt. She felt at home and she feel as though she was among peers with similar interests for one of the first times.

 

She had already spent some time showing animals at local fairs, namely the Elementary School Fair in Belgrave and the Brussels Fall Fair, but the hands-on learning style that 4-H embraces really spoke to her immediately. So, she immediately connected to 4-H and wanted to learn more, participating in as many clubs and projects as she could. She has now completed over 60 and is still going as a full-fledged member, not yet aging out to be a leader, which she also plans to be when the time comes.

 

And while many of the clubs have been right up her alley, showing animals she’s been familiar with her whole life, it’s some of the other clubs, venturing into completely uncharted waters, that have stuck with her the most.

 

Many of the clubs she has completed have been livestock-centric, but she has also completed many life skills clubs, in addition to other livestock projects, but with animals she doesn’t really know. In fact, in 2019, she undertook a 4-H goat club and had to borrow an animal from a friend’s farm in order to take part.

 

Another club that sticks out in her mind is the curling club, which was the first time she played the iconic winter sport. Since then, she has continued to play throughout high school - all thanks to the introduction made by her local 4-H club.

 

She also fondly recalls the International Plowing Match (IPM) club in 2017 in advance of the match, which was held in Walton that year. That served as one of the largest projects in the local association’s history and led to the group hosting a live animal display at the match, welcoming thousands to view it over the duration of the event. Around that time, she also remembers a special project set up by 4-H to create barn quilts.

 

Over the course of those years, Bieman says she’s made many friends with whom she is still close. She noted that the program brings together people with similar interests from all over the county, meaning that it transcends the school system and introduces members to other members from different communities, school regions and backgrounds.

 

As for the impact that 4-H has had on her young life, Bieman says it has played a major role in helping her to become a more confident person, something that has served her well throughout high school and now into university. That, in addition to all of the connections she’s made within her personal life as well.

 

And while she is still a member of the association, participating in projects when she is able, she’s also working behind the scenes to help the association flourish. She volunteers and maintains the group’s website, in addition to running its Facebook and Instagram accounts.

 

At 19 years old, she is a junior leader within the organization, a role she’s taken on since she was 15 years old. She has two more years until she turns 21 and she will officially age out of the youth-oriented organization, but she says she has every intention of staying on as a leader as she leaves her teens and enters her 20s.

 

The organization will host its annual awards night at the Libro Hall in Clinton next month, on Friday, Dec. 6. To keep up with Huron County’s 4-H Association, follow it on Facebook or Instagram.