Spotlight on: Mary Baldwin
4-H Youth and Outreach Agent
Douglas County
I guess you could say that I’m right
back where I started! What I mean is that my first full time job out of college
was with the Colorado State Cooperative Extension Service many, many years ago.
After five years at the Extension Office in Baca County, I left the position to
raise a family.
From Mom, I went on to do a variety of other jobs in
Colorado and Kansas such as U.S. Postal Service Carrier, Human Resources
Specialist for an unemployment insurance office, elementary reading teacher,
Adult ESL teacher, library assistant, substitute teacher, GED teacher, and
director of adult education at a community college. (Sounds like I
couldn’t hold a job, but the truth is that my husband’s job took us
to a variety of locations!). Then, about five years ago, I found myself back in
Colorado reading an advertisement for an extension agent in Douglas
County!
4-H has been a big part of my life. I was a ten year 4-H member
in Ohio, worked summers at a 4-H camp through college, have been an extension
agent twice in Colorado, and was a 4-H leader and parent in Kansas. Eons ago in
1968, I attended National 4-H Congress.
My husband and kids were also
ten year 4-H members. Gary, my husband, was a Baca County 4-Her. (He jokes that
some of the rules and guidelines in that county can be attributed to his 4-H
participation. For all 4-H agents, you know what that means.) My daughters,
Melissa and Katie, were 4-Hers in Finney County and Cloud County, Kansas. (To
my knowledge there are no rules attributed to their 4-H membership!) Both girls
are now grown and married. Melissa is a medical technologist in genetics and
lives in Wichita. Katie works for USDA in Washington, D.C.
In the little
spare time there seems to be these days, I like to read, go fishing, and
travel. Although I like to see the world, the best traveling is to Kansas and
Washington, D.C. to see our kids.
My claim to fame as the 4-H Outreach
Agent in Douglas County is the embryology project into the schools. This year
the program reached over 1700 students. Several times in the past two years I
have had kids come up to me in a store and say, “Aren’t you the
chicken lady?” The outreach program is a great one to work with, but I
also enjoy working with the traditional program – especially
Cloverbuds.
I love trying to find and build new types of outreach and
traditional programs in 4-H while trying to improve the ones we already have;
it makes this profession a creative endeavor.