Prairie Dell 4-H, a part of the Iola community for 95 years, has disbanded.
The club, which at its peak had 60-plus was down to three this year, not enough to remain a viable 4-H organization, noted club leader Terri Kretzmeier.
“We were down to seven last year,” Kretzmeier said. “One aged out, another chose to sit out a year, and two siblings decided they wanted to go to another club with more animals.”
A 4-H club must have at least five members, and represent at least three families, Kretzmeier noted.
“It’s emotional for me,” Kretzmeier said, noting she was a Prairie Dell member when she was a child, even raising a calf and finally showing it as a steer in her final year before college.
It was probably no surprise, upon Kretzmeier’s return to Iola after college that her club leader, Suzy Wilks, recruited her to take on an adult leadership role.
Kretzmeier remained as a club leader, long after her daughters, Elizabeth and Michelle, both progressed through 4-H.
“It’s been quite a few years,” Kretzmeier said.
She rattled off the avenues opened to her daughters through 4-H. Both were invited to national conferences and won countless ribbons and awards for their proficiency. Michelle’s duct tape dress project was even featured at a Style Revue.
WILKS’S association with Prairie Dell goes back even further. Her father, Don Nichols, was among the founders in 1929.
The club got its name after Star Valley 4-H’ers and others merged and began meeting at the old Prairie Dell school south of Iola.
Wilks, 85, grew up around 4-H and the farm, before later becoming leader for 37 years.
She didn’t know it, but as a child, Wilks was the second of what became four generations of her family to proceed through Prairie Dell after her children, and then grandchildren, signed up for 4-H.
“Back in my day it was mostly farm kids, but every one of us served as an officer at some point. That taught us good organizational skills,” she told the Register last October. “It was good for us as kids but also as a family.”
ATTORNEY Bob Johnson recalled being a part of Prairie Dell in the 1980s, under the leadership of Wilks and Kretzmeier.
