As a family-owned, independent seed company, we believe it’s both our right and responsibility to get involved in the communities where we do business. That’s why we look for opportunities where our interests and expertise align with community needs.
One such opportunity presented itself a few years ago during a regular meeting of the Iowa 4-H Trustees when I learned that Franklin County is one of the few counties in our great state without an endowed 4-H scholarship. I had a proverbial “light bulb moment” and decided then and there that I wanted to spearhead efforts to establish an endowment that would help the next generation of agricultural leaders in their pursuit of higher education.
Why is it when you come up with an idea that you find yourself leading the charge? Now I’m helping lead the charge to raise $20,000 to endow the Franklin County 4-H Scholarship. As much as I enjoy baking, I could never raise the needed dough through bread and muffins alone!
Our fund-raising efforts kicked off last fall with a Brown Bag Burger Benefit during harvest. Thanks to Fareway of Hampton, Franklin County Pork Producers and Rainbow Feed & Grain for making our first-ever barbecue a success! Special thanks to Craig Donnelly of KLMJ, the staff at the Franklin County Extension Service and my parents for their service. (Yes, 4-H is still a family affair– 20 years later.) And all of the area residents who came out on a beautiful fall day to support this cause also deserve a round of applause; we sold 396 pork burgers from our inventory of 400 burgers!
The Brown Bag Benefit helped raise awareness about the endowment fund, but it was just one tactic in our overall campaign. The majority of our funds will be raised through the creation of a book documenting the history of agriculture in Franklin County. The completion of this book is going to take the support of our county and of Franklin County natives.
To garner participation in our book, we began by inviting Century Farm Families to share their stories in honor of the 100th year of 4-H in 2012. Coincidentally, this book will be written during the 65th anniversary of Latham Hi-Tech Seeds. Yours truly will definitely be submitting a story about our company’s founders and the contributions they made to agriculture and farm life here.
We hope you’ll join our efforts, too! It’s as simple as sharing your family’s farm story. Click here to download a form and to learn more about the donor levels. Feel free to contact me directly to see how I might help tell your story.
When I sit down to write articles for our blog, I feel like I'm sitting down with my family at the dinner table, ready to talk about 