SHERIDAN — As Sheridan County Fair week inches closer, local businesses celebrate the hard work 4-H members put into their yearlong projects while also recognizing mutually beneficial relationships year-round.
Shipton’s Big R and Farmers Co-op of Sheridan are two local stores providing feed and supplies to students raising show animals. Every year, the stores create a place of gathering for members that help strengthen community relations and encourage interest in agriculture in the next generation.
Giving 4-H students a discount is an important starting point, said Sam Depew, store manager of Shipton’s Big R in Sheridan. Many students are investing in their projects, and by creating a pathway for students to obtain resources negates the initial challenge of investing in livestock projects.
Shipton’s Big R donates feed and gift cards to the students and provides discounts for those in the 4-H program. The store also provides a buyback program for the members’ critters not sold at the live auction. This gives 4-H participants the opportunity to earn back money they invested in their projects.
Farmers Co-op also provides a discount on feed for 4-H students and participates in the 4-H sale at the end of the Sheridan County Fair. Farmers Co-op staff fund a pancake breakfast on the last Saturday of Fair Week.
The discounts encourage students to come into the store, and the stores seek to strengthen community-based values through transactions, Depew said.
The 4-H program often sees rural students participating in the events. Visiting Shipton’s Big R allows them to talk to like-minded people and discuss their interest in their animals, Depew said. He added the community comes together to support the members in their continued interest in agriculture. The stores are an important converging point for the students to see agriculture in action, he said.
The commitment, time and dedication students put into raising animals is admirable and a worthwhile venture, Depew said, and he enjoys supporting it.
Many members participating not only reap the benefits of raising their own animals but the benefits from the community they engage in at a business level, said Tom Novak, general manager of Farmers Co-op of Sheridan.
“4-H students understand the value of community-based business. In the future, they will promote our store and they will continue to do business here,” Novak said.
Novak said he believes 4-H members are the future of businesses like Farmers Co-op. When these students are grown, Novak said, they and their children will choose to do business where their values are aligned.
Businesses are not merely a tool for transaction but where community comes together. At the center of it, store managers said they want to encourage students to pursue agriculture as a career.
“It’s really about the kids,” Depew said.
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July 27, 2021 at 11:30PM
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4-H members patronize, give back to local businesses - The Sheridan Press
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