Westmoreland County Cooperative Extension -

Salute to Excellence

2003 Lifetime Volunteer Award

James Dunmire

Lucas Shirey, Grandson; Nadine Bruce, Daughter and Jim Dunmire

Sitting: Natalie Bruce, Granddaughter, Jim Dunmire, Emma Dunmire, Lucas Shirey, Grandson. Standing: Daughters; Nadine Bruce and Emma Shirey

Mr. Dunmire has been a 4-H leader for 41 years. Jim and his wife Emma serve as the organizational leaders of the Beaver Run 4-H Club in the northern part of Westmoreland County. The Beaver Run 4-H Club has been acommunity based 4-H club that has offered youth educational project work from entomology to geology to woodworking to livestock production to the family sciences and nutrition. Children from all walks of life have reaped the benefit of the caring and mentoring of Jim Dunmire.

Jim doesn’t just serve as the club level leader, Jim is everywhere! Jim serves on the Westmoreland County 4-H Board of Directors and as the 4-H exoffcio representative to the Westmoreland Fair. He serves as 4-H spokesperson as he attends each monthly Fair Board meeting. He also serves on the SW Regional Leader's Symposium Committee and is helping with the planning of the 2004 NE Regional Leader's Forum scheduled for Pennsylvania. Jim is the overall superintendent of all indoor 4-H exhibits at the Westmoreland Fair. He organizes all the displays and is responsible to build all the display fixtures for the clothing, foods, engineering, photography, plant science, anything non livestock at the fair. He erects the displays and then at the end of the week must dismantle and store the displays. The 4-H building at the Westmoreland Fair is “Jim’s Building”.

Each January, Jim drives the Westmoreland and Indiana County 4-H entries to the PA Farm Show and then returns to pick them up at the end of the week. This three and one half hour trip has been a snowy experience some Januarys, but Jim never complains. This has opened so many opportunities up for 4-H members in Westmoreland County that would never have been able to be a part of the Pennsylvania State Farm Show.

Jim is the kind of volunteer that is a doer! If you need it done, Jim is there. When a horse ring was needed for the 4-H horse members, Jim was there with bulldozer in tow. When we needed woodworking help with incarcerated youth at the Juvenile Detention Center, Jim was there with saw, sand paper and glue. When the 4-H queen contest needed a stage, Jim was there with material and platforms to make it a special experience for the members.

Jim’s family and grandchildren have and continue to be active 4-H members. In this time, Jim has never questioned a judge's decisions, been unkind to others in competition or worried about the size of the prize. He is a kind individual that works for the betterment of kids.

MaryAnn Herd

Salute to Excellence

2002Westmoreland County Volunteer of the Year

MaryAnn Herd came to the 4-H program eight years ago because of her interest in Llamas and her love of children. MaryAnn is a teacher by trade and used those skills to develop and grow one of the most respected 4-H Llama programs in the state. Up until 1994, Llamas were not a recognized 4-H animal science project. The interest in the community in llamas was growing with more producers joining in the industry. Consequently, interest by youth with these animals began to develop. The Westmoreland County 4-H Board of Directors gave their support to develop a 4-H llama program. MaryAnn began the initiative by searching the country for other 4-H llama programs and gathered 4-H llama curriculum from across the Untied States. MaryAnn developed, based on research resources of other land grant universities and her education background, three levels of hands on learning experiences for the 4-H member to learn about llamas.

The desire to exhibit their projects at fairs, animal science exhibitions and schools prompted MaryAnn to challenge Penn State University and the 4-H leader liability insurance company to include llamas as an accepted 4-H project for exhibition. MaryAnn found out that this was an educational process that policies and restrictions on the animals were based on misconceptions that llamas were dangerous to the public. Thanks to MaryAnn’s efforts llamas are recognized as 4-H animal science project and permitted to put on public exhibition. This opened the door for the 4-H llama members to hold their round-up at the Westmoreland Fair as other 4-H animal science projects do. The first show had 12 llamas. Today between the 4-H youth show and the open breeders the show numbers have increased to over 60, more would be involved if barn space were available.

MaryAnn and her family have an open door policy. They have brought lots of new families to the 4-H experience by their willingness to share their knowledge and their home to members interested in 4-H. She developed a llama leasing program for youth who could not afford to purchase an animal or lacked the facilities to keep one. Several youth have taken advantage of this opportunity and are active 4-H members.

Although, MaryAnn came to 4-H due to her interest in llamas, she has embraced the 4-H process for developing youth into capable, caring adults. The 4-H members present demonstrations and do public speaking at county, regional and state competitions. These youth are the most active when spreading the word about 4-H in the community. If you need 4-H members to share their story, the llama members are there, libraries, schools, community festivals, holiday parades, barnyard zoos etc. She has urged llama club members to get involved in their community by initiating the 4-H penny challenge to help nonprofit organizations.

MaryAnn has encouraged her members to take advantage of learning about citizenship through State 4-H Capitol Days and improving their communications skills at the PA State Ambassador Conference and Outstanding Project Book Awards and other 4-H personal growth experiences.

As the interest in the llama project grew across the state, MaryAnn saw the need to share the learning and the fun by developing a multi county resident llama camp. The camp has grown in attendance and has reached youth from 4 different counties and one other state. The week end camp is not only an educational opportunity but MaryAnn has used the opportunity as a leadership development experience for the llama teens by having them work to organize and implement the program and serve as counselors.

MaryAnn has grown personally through her 4-H experience and now works part time as the extension educator for the school enrichment program in our county. She also serves as our Regional Events Coordinator, which organizes and records the paper work end of the SW Regional 4-H experiences i.e. camp, teen conferences etc.

MaryAnn is a caring delightful individual that came with an interest and molded that interest around the development of youth. She is respected by her fellow peers and always willing to help.