Sara and Thomas Leitner, rural Oskaloosa, showcase their County 4-H Fair projects.
by Bridget Weishaar
Leitner Farms, rural Oskaloosa, is a busy place when it comes to County 4-H Fair week.
Jolly Junior 4-H members Sara, along with younger brother, Thomas, are enrolled in eight projects between the two of them.
Sara, who shows in the senior age division, is enrolled in clothing construction/buymanship, swine, archery, and the leadership project; Thomas is in clothing construction, rocketry, robotics, and swine. He is in the intermediate division, ages 10-13.
Sara has been enrolled in 4-H for nine years and one of her favorite things about the program is using her leadership skills at the Citizenship In Action conference held each January.
She has attended the CIA conference for the past three years. 2020 was a virtual conference, with the last two held at the Kansas state capitol.
“A lot of people my age don’t know how to communicate with adults and 4-H has helped me with that,” Sara said.
Sara’s list of accolades include Jolly Juniors club secretary and 4-H council representative. She is in her second year of being the Council treasurer and filled out an application to become an ambassador of the 4-H program in 2023-2024.
In the years to come, she is hoping to further her leadership goals and return to the 4-H progam after college graduation.
She is this year’s queen candidate for her club, giving a speech July 7 at the royalty competition.
“4-H and public speaking has helped me gain self confidence, something I never had before,” Sara said.
One project Sara excels at with the help of her mom, Catherine, is the constructed clothing project. Last year Sara constructed a pair of dress pants with a wool coat. It won numerous county awards in both the constructed consultation division and the senior fashion revue. She modeled it at the Kansas State Fair. She also constructed a formal dress that will come in handy during the remainder of high school.
This year, she will present a prom dress she constructed along with several of her favorite buymanship outfits.
Aside from being judged on projects and showing pigs, Sara is most looking forward to working in the concession stand with her best friend, Aurora Hoffman, and the livestock auction on the last day of the fair.
“Selling my pig means I get to put money away for college,” Sara said.
Among Sara’s favorite fair memories are the year she and fellow 4-H member Lizzie Henry’s fed a decorated cake to her pigs, and also when she and Lily Lloyd put glitter all over their pigs before selling them at the auction.
Thomas, age 11, has been enrolled in 4-H four years. One of his favorite projects is robotics.
Last year, his robot won grand champion at the county fair. He then showed it at the state level, winning a purple ribbon.
This year’s robotic exhibit involves a moving conveyor belt and a cell phone app.
Thomas enjoys the time he spends with his Berkshire pigs, Beretta and Quirrel. Berkshires are medium-sized pigs predominantly black in color with white on their face and legs.
Along with the market barrow and breeding guilt class, Thomas will also be in the swine showmanship class for his age division.
He chuckled when stating one of his favorite fair memories was when his pig peed on him in the ring right in front of the judge.
Sara and Thomas are the children of Josh and Catherine Leitner. The couple moved to Jefferson County in 2014.
Catherine, a stay-at-home mom, fills her time homeschooling Thomas through Kansas Virtual School and trying to keep up with their massive garden. She spends countless hours canning and preserving vegetables and tries to stockpile a year’s worth of product each summer. Along with gardening and canning, the working farm raises and processes their own pigs along with an occasional venison when the season allows.
In the midst of being mom, the Jolly Juniors club leader and the countywide clothing superintendent, she is also on the county swine committee and the achievement banquet committee.
Josh is an 18-year employee of the City of Lawrence.