Loyal Lads and Lassies 4-H club celebrates 60th anniversary

By Cheyenne Thomas Sixty years ago, on a Thursday evening in January, in the home of Gilbert and Jean Loos, the Loyal Lads and Lassies were formed with 21 children as the first members. Since its start, the Loyal Lads and Lassies has continued to teach many of Loyal’s children the values of leadership and volunteerism along with many skills they can use on their path of life.

The Loyal Lads and Lassies 4-H club was officially founded on January 16, 1964. In an article found in the Jan. 23, 1964, Loyal Tribune, the first leaders of the club were named at its inaugural meeting.

“A new 4-H club was formed east of Loyal, Thursday night, January 16. It will be called the Loyal Lads and Lassies,” said the article. “Parents and their children interested in 4-H met at the Gilbert Loos home and after discussion on the meaning of 4-H and work done, 21 signed up for membership. Election of officers was held with Linda Capelle, president; Mary Miller, secretary; Peggy LaBarge, treasurer; Jackie LaBarge, vice president; and Debbie Capelle, reporter. Mrs. Gilbert (Jean) Loos will be the new leader. The leader and officers will plan the year’s program before the next meeting.”

The original founders of the Loyal Lads and Lassies have since passed away, leaving the story of how the club was formed to be told by their children and others who were impacted by their actions 60 years ago. Pat Bennett, the daughter of Gilbert and Jean Loos, was 12 at the time of the founding of the club. From her recollections, the club was started as a off-branch of the Prosperity Pea Pickers, which was the main Loyal 4-H club at the time.

“I think the Prosperity Pea Pickers were just getting too big at the time and we wanted a more central club,” she said. “We were just a smaller group, but we did the same things that we did when we were a part of the Prosperity Pea Pickers. We prepared for the Clark County Fair, had projects and met every month.”

In the club’s earliest days, those meetings were held in the basements and homes of different club members. Bennett said she recalled moving around from house to house for their monthly meetings before settling on a location in town that was owned by the Loyal bank. Today, the Loyal

Please see Loyal Lads and Lassies, page 17 Loyal Lads and Lassies,

from p. 1 Lads and Lassies hold their meetings at Trinity Lutheran Church.

“I remember meeting in different homes, I remember one time having a meeting in Becky Larson’s basement,” she said. “We had a demonstration once a year and speech contests.”

As the years continued on, Bennett said her mother continued to help out with the Loyal Lads and Lassies, being a leader for the club’s first 18 years. Alongside her, Margaret Artz and Violet and Delmer Cappelle also served as leaders. Eventually, they passed the torch on Jeannie Koski and she was leader for several years before Coni Meyer and Mary Kipp took on the role.

“I was a co-leader with Mary Kipp,” said Meyer about her time as leader. “When Mary and I took over, the club was almost ready to fold. The membership was low with many families graduating out. Mary took over the paperwork and did the people part.”

Through hard work and determination by both the leaders and involved families, the club endured. Meyer and Kipp eventually retired and Cindy Weyer led the club, followed by Tanya Wilke, who retired from the leadership role last fall after about 15 years of leading. The club is currently co-led by Wendy Lambrecht and Kaila Fitzl.

Leadership was not the only thing to have changed over the decades. Even as the Loyal Lads and Lassies dealt with varying levels of membership over the years, other Loyal 4-H clubs struggled with numbers and volunteers as well, to the point that many eventually disbanded and their kids transferred into the Loyal Lads and Lassies. Ironically, the Prosperity Pea Pickers — which the Loyal Lads and Lassies was an offshoot from — was one of the first to go, folding sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s. The Spokeville Meteors was another 4-H club to disband, and more recently, the Beaver Center/Jolly Workers disbanded and their members also joined the Loyal Lads and Lassies.

Today, the Loyal Lads and Lassies is one of the largest remaining 4-H clubs in Clark County, with 62 members from third grade to age 19, nine Cloverbud members and 22 adult volunteers. The group meets on the third Sunday of each month at 7 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church in Loyal, as the building provides the club plenty of space to do its projects.

“We’re able to split up the kids into different groups to work with them,” said Lambrecht. “We have a separate group for Cloverbuds, for example, where the parents take turns each month volunteering to help them do their activities.”

The activities change from month to month. While the club still participates in the Clark County Fair every year, there are plenty of other actives they do to support the community and volunteer. For the past five years, they have worked with the Loyal Lions Club to decorate the Purple Park, while for the past 15 years, they have taken care of placing flowers around the “Welcome” signs outside of Loyal. They also volunteer each year at the Loyal Dairy Breakfast, rake leaves in the fall, and help other organizations such as the Loyal Food Pantry, Salvation Army and Ronald McDonald House.

“We have done quite a bit of community service over the years,” said Wilke. “We have done the dairy breakfast in the spring, and have had some of our families host the event. Rake leaves in the fall, collect books, have a float at Corn Fest, help with the food pantry. Bell ringing for the Salvation Army. We try to come up with something new each year to do like helping out at the Ronald Mc-Donald House.”

“We are whatever our kids and families want us to be,” added Lambrecht. “Some of these kids want to focus on doing the fair. Others want to do other projects. There is a place for everyone who wants to be a part of 4-H.”

As a whole, 4-H provides many opportunities for kids, Lambrecht said. No matter their age, she said there are always opportunities to learn new skills and grow to be a leader.

“Their ages range from five up to 19,” she said. “There are so many opportunities for 4-H. When they get older, they can go on state trips, have international travel and other programs they can take advantage of. 4-H teaches kids leadership and volunteerism, public speaking and community service. Those are all important things to learn.”

Reflecting on how the Loyal Lads and Lassies have reached their 60th year, Lambrecht said reaching the milestone is a testament to the dedication of all the volunteers and the Loyal community that supported the club. Without them, she said, the Loyal Lads and Lassies would not be possible.

“It’s really a statement on the backing 4-H gets from our community,” she said. “We wouldn’t be able to do much without the volunteers and community taking part in this. We’ve had so many volunteers to keep this club going; just like any other club, you need volunteers to make it happen.

The fact that we’ve been able to keep going for 60 years says a lot about the dedication everyone has to this club.”

Bennett agreed. “I think it’s awesome. Mom started it and now their great-grandchildren are still taking part in it,” she said. “It has still kept going. Fifty years ago, all you had was 4-H, that was what got you out into the community and got you involved in community life. It is nice to see it still is there teaching these skills to kids, even with the competition it has now with other activities.”

For a picture of the current 4-H club members, see page 19.