By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN

dobrien@dailynews.net

The letters totally engulfed the back of young Konner Haas' T-shirt.

Small or large, the 3-year-old Antonino boy couldn't read the words anyway. But you can bet the older 4-H'ers and their parents get the message loud and clear.

Wearing black shirts with a green and white emblazoned message of "Knowledge 4 Life" sitting atop a 4-H four-leafed clover on the back, Good Hope members and their families gathered for a holiday party and monthly meeting in the basement of Antonino's Catholic church last month.

As the older club members readied the head table for a model meeting they would be taping for the upcoming 4-H Day competition, the younger ones had fun bopping around the area, seemingly energized by their new shirts. The front of the shirts reads "Good Hope 4-H Club: The Power of Youth."

"(4-H) is definitely a family affair," said Kim Schmeidler, one of the club leaders for the Buckeye Junior Farmers, one of the two oldest clubs in Ellis County.

4-H values stay the same

Buckeye and Good Hope both were chartered in 1933 and will celebrate their 80th birthdays next year.

While 4-H has changed since the start of those clubs nearly eight decades ago, the core values remain the same.

"Kids learn so many invaluable skills in 4-H," said Susan Schlichting, 4-H and youth development Extension agent for Ellis County. "From the responsibility of learning how to set goals and carry out those goals to communication skills, getting along with others, working together as a team ... "

Schlichting stopped, adding the list could get long.

"There's a good mentoring thing that goes on with the young ones watching the older ones," she said. "They learn how to take those roles on later on because they've watched the older ones."

That's why Todd and Laycie Haas decided to immerse their family into 4-H at such a young age.

Their oldest son, Kaden, is 5. While he's not yet old enough to fully compete as a 4-H'er, he can participate as a "Cloverbud," the name given to those younger than the official 4-H age of 8.

The younger the better

Laycie (Keller) Haas remembers being involved in 4-H at a young age -- younger siblings of 4-H'ers then were called a tag-a-longs -- and she participated from age 5 to 18 in the Ellis Sunflowers club.

"I learned a lot from 4-H, definitely wanted our kids in it," Laycie Haas said, adding their daughter, 1-year-old Khloe, already is following around her older brothers.

That's what Allen and Ellen Schmidt thought, too, when they had five of their eight children enrolled in the Buckeye club in the early 1990s.

Nick Schmidt was not yet a year old when he moved away from Hays back in 1996, and his family's departure left a big hole in the membership of the Buckeye Juniors 4-H Club.

Nearly 20 years, three states and six graduated older brothers and sisters later, Nick, now 16, is back in Hays and an active member of the Buckeye club along with brother Sam, a year and a half older than Nick.

Allen Schmidt retired from the U.S. Army Reserves in 2009, and he and his wife moved back to the family farm north of Hays a year later.

"Part of the reason we wanted to move back was to give them some of the experiences their siblings had," Ellen Schmidt said of her two youngest sons. "And 4-H is one of those. Our older kids learned so much from being in 4-H."

Lifelong lessons

Judy (Joy) Rohr was a member of the Buckeye club in the 1950s and '60s, along with her four siblings. She called being involved in 4-H "a guideline for living."

"I did so many things (in 4-H) that I could use later in life," said Rohr, who raised her family in Denver before returning to Hays approximately 10 year ago.

Participation in the Buckeye-area youth club runs deep for Rohr's family. One of her great uncles, Walter C. Joy, started Buckeye's predecessor, the Capper's Pig Club, in 1921.

Joy also was instrumental in promoting the first 4-H Fair in Ellis County in the early '30s.

Buckeye took a big hit in enrollment when the Schmidts moved, losing their club president -- 13-year-old Brett -- along with four other clubs members and an adult club leader (Ellen).

But the club survived and now is one of the largest in Ellis County with nearly 30 members.

Buckeye members, along with Good Hope and the other five clubs in the county, are preparing for the annual 4-H Day.

Schlichting said she thinks it's 4-H's fundamental values of helping youth reach their full potential while concentrating on head, heart, hands and health that helps clubs survive the ebb and flow of enrollment.

"It's hard to name all the skills kids learn in 4-H," she said. "And you see young parents now who were in 4-H growing up getting involved again, wanting their children to have the chance to learn those same types of skills."