Mount Airy 4-H Dairy Club, celebrating its 100th year, has over the decades produced numerous members recognized for their outstanding club work on state and national stages.
It began in 1925 when Francis Phillips, William Hamilton and Austin Runkle were selected for the New Jersey exhibit of dairy club animals at the National Dairy Show in Indianapolis, where they won four first prizes out of a possible six.
And it continued this year. Jacob Van Doren and sisters Carlee and Chloee Roell in June competed at the National Holstein Dairy Bowl in Kentucky. They finished fifth in the nation of 13 teams. Mount Airy’s Dairy Bowl members have dominated the state contests for more than two decades, after studying and practicing for months each year.
Visitors can meet former and present club members during its 100th birthday celebration Thursday, Aug. 24, as part of the Hunterdon County 4-H and Agriculture Fair near Ringoes, N.J.
Robert Hamilton was selected for the State 4-H Judging Team at the National Dairy Show in 1926 and then the following year, Austin Runkle was chosen as a delegate to the first National 4-H Camp Conference in Washington, D.C.
In 1939, the club received national recognition when the cow of Abe VanDoren became the first 4-H cow and the third cow in the country to birth a calf that was artificially bred. Another big event that year was when several female Mount Airy members took part in the International Milkmaids milking contest at the New York World’s Fair.
The club had several National 4-H Club Congress winners beginning with Agnes Best in 1946 and continuing with some of current county residents such as Jo-An’ VanDoren Beck, Jeff Bowlby and Treacy Everitt Weeks. After Austin Runkle, other representatives to what became the National 4-H Club Conference included Roger Everitt, Irvin Hockenbury and David Bond, all of whom went on to become prominent local farmers and civic leaders.
Some recent participants in another national 4-H event, Citizenship Washington Focus, were Jeff Bowlby, Oliver Elbert and Kyle Young.
The 1963 NJ Dairy Judging Team that placed second in the nation at Waterloo, Iowa consisted of Mount Airy members Nancy Coleman Bachardy, Joann Coleman Vieth, Dennis Verity, and Somerset County’s Melody Todd Heaton.
Betty Jane Coleman Hunt represented the U.S. as an International Farm Youth Exchange Student in Sweden for six months in 1965. Also that year, at the World’s Fair in New York, Linda Harrison won a calf from the Isle of Jersey for her outstanding club work with Jersey cattle. Also in the 1960s, Mount Airy had two soil judging teams that won the state contests and went on to represent New Jersey in Oklahoma at the nationals. On these teams were the Van Dorens (Jo-an’ and Fred), the Wolfs (Christine, Ed and Norman), John Gordeuk and Lee Paulmier.
State Dairy Bowl winners from the club represented New Jersey at National Holstein Conventions in multiple states. Members competed in Jeopardy and Speech contests at the national level and Cassidy Hunt took part in National Guernsey Convention Dairy Bowl contests in four states.
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