By LINDA CHION KENNEY
Hillsborough 4-H leaders, club members and supporters celebrated their shared mission as they gave testament to the unique characteristics of each club’s purpose and potential for empowering young people with essential life skills.
Count among those in attendance Saturday, Aug. 24, at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa, a veteran educator whose deep ties to south Hillsborough County extend far beyond her Riverview High School boundaries. As a result of those extensive ties, Karen Hamilton, an agricultural education and vet assisting teacher, is set to receive in October the 2024 Harvest Award for Outstanding Woman in Agriculture, presented by the Hillsborough County Fair Board of Directors.
Hamilton’s backstory gives testament to her laurels and recognition as a 4-H club leader for some 35 years and now in her 42nd year as an ag teacher at Riverview High, with stints before that at Eisenhower and Rodgers middle schools.
“We don’t survive without agriculture,” Hamilton said. “I tell my kids it’s important to us at least three times a day: breakfast, lunch and supper. We all need to be good consumers, and the best way to be a good consumer is to know where things come from. So that’s what I hope to teach the kids, as well as to be good stewards of the land.”
Teaching, “It’s something new every day, and it never gets old,” Hamilton added. “I get to see all those little light bulbs come on when they realize, for example, that peanuts grow in the ground.”
After school twice a month, Hamilton leads the Chautauqua 4-H Club, for ages 8 to 18 (and sometimes as young as age 5).
While some 4-H clubs have a specific interest, such as archery, photography and dairy goats, Hamilton leads a traditional club that each year focuses on three topics chosen by club members. This year’s focus is wildlife, camping, and animal science with a poultry focus. Moreover, the club operates Sassy Cows for Savvy Kids, a branch for children with special needs.
UF/IFAS Extension agents, Amber Norris, left, and Shelby Mauch
Overall, as a “youth development organization that empowers young people with skills to lead for a lifetime,” 4-H achieves this mission through hands-on, interest-driven projects in areas like health, science, agriculture and citizenship. The moniker “4-H” stands for head, heart, hands and health.
Overseeing 4-H clubs countywide are Amber Norris (traditional clubs) and Shelby Mauch (school-based clubs), who, through the University of Florida Institute of Food and Consumer Services (UF/IFAS) Extension in Seffner, work as 4-H extension agents.
Among the materials handed out at the open house was a long list of past and possible 4-H projects, including aerospace, animal husbandry, cake decorating, coding, fine arts, gardening and horticulture, industrial arts, leadership, money management, performing arts, public speaking, scrapbooking, STEM, veterinary science, wood science and yoga.
As for Hamilton’s lifelong 4-H allegiance, she credits her parents, who, upon moving to Florida, told their daughter the only way she could have an animal was if she were part of club. At age 8, Hamilton became a 4-H club member and acquired her cow, Bandi.
After graduating from the University of Florida, where she majored in animal science and agricultural education, Hamilton landed her first teaching job. She interviewed with Earl Lennard, the much-beloved school superintendent and Riverview resident, who at the time was agricultural supervisor for Hillsborough County public schools. Decades later he would receive the Posthumous Memorial Award at the 20th annual Harvest Awards ceremony in 2021, three years after his death after a long illness.
The ties that bind run deep in Hillsborough County 4-H, and Hamilton is a good example. Interviewed by Lennard for her first teaching job right out of college, Hamilton, in turn, taught ag education to Lennard’s children, Missy and Jeremy, who attended Eisenhower Middle School and graduated from East Bay High, and have long-standing careers with Hillsborough County public schools.
“I taught Dr. Lennard’s daughter and son both and got to know the family very well,” Hamilton said. “Even as the ag supervisor, Earl was looking to see what was best for the kids so they could get the best education.”
The same can be said of Hamilton, said the students and parents representing the Chautauqua 4-H Club at the Aug. 24 open house.
“She’s special because she’s Miss Hamilton,” explained Summer Campoamor, whose twin boys, now in college, studied with Hamilton in high school. “She’s the best teacher, everyone loves her and she’s very knowledgeable on a wide variety of things. When I have questions about anything, I ask myself, ‘What would Miss Hamilton do?’ ”
Tina Byrnes said it was Miss Hamilton who supported her daughter during the trying times of COVID and that she remains as a parent club helper even though her daughter has since graduated.
Linda Chion Kenney photos
At the Hillsborough 4-H open house, from left, Tina Byrnes, Nico Sommer, Karen Hamilton, Christina Campoamor, Madison Goodman and Summer Campoamor
As for the Harvest Award Hamilton is set to receive Oct. 10, “It couldn’t be more fitting,” said Christina Campoamor, a club parent. “She dedicates every moment that she has in her life, work or not, to kids and animals and agriculture. Everything in her life is this.”
Madison Goodman has the student’s perspective, as does her mother, who also had Hamilton as a public school teacher.
“This year I’m graduating and I currently have five classes with Miss Hamilton,” Goodman said. “She’s always been the teacher I could go to to ask for help. She’s very understanding and always willing to help.”
For more on Hillsborough County 4-H, both as a traditional club and in the school setting, call 813-744-5519 or visit https://sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/hillsborough/ and search for “4-H Youth Development.”