Sisters Makena Reeves and Danielle Reeves have prepared all year for County 4-H Fair week.
by Bridget Weishaar
The Jefferson County 4-H Fair may still be one week away but for sisters Danielle and Makena Reeves, Valley Falls, preparations began as early as last October.
With the beef project being one of her favorite projects, Danielle makes her fair picks in early fall and starts the process of halter breaking soon after, with the goal of being trained well before the Christmas season.
Raising animals is not an easy feat for most, but at the age of 13 Danielle already has stock in her family’s Shorthorn herd. She currently owns eight cows and a bull named Kenneth, two of which will be shown in the market beef and breeding heifer classes at next week’s fair.
Being in the 4-H program the past seven years has brought many life lessons to the Reeves farm. Important lessons to Danielle are not to leave the gate open and don’t do chores in your flip flops if you want to keep all your toes, she said.
Along with the beef project, other projects for her this year include photography, visual arts and crafts, woodworking, dog, and horse. New on her list this fair season are food preservation and the home environment project.
At the club level, Danielle is the current Valley Victors historian. She is the princess candidate this year awaiting results July 21. She is also the secretary of the Jefferson County Horse Club and the 4-H Council secretary.
Along with her long list of projects, she volunteers many community service hours with her club. Each year she helps the local Lions Club by hanging Christmas lights on Broadway and helps serve a chili feed at Hometown Christmas. She was solely responsible for the Hometown petting zoo this year, bringing farm animals for the public to enjoy.
This year, Danielle is looking forward to having her dad around to help out and for moral support. During last year’s fair he was involved in a farming accident leaving him hospitalized.
Of all projects over the years, sheep has been the least favorite for Danielle and her younger sister, Makena.
One of her favorite fair memories was selling her sheep “Frank the Tank” her first year in 4-H, and then not having to be in the project any longer.
Looking ahead, Danielle would like to add cake decorating to her list of projects after trying her hand at a workshop this past month.
Danielle will be a freshmen at Valley Falls High School this fall. She is active in the FCCLA project and will be enrolling in ag classes.
Eight-year old Makena is only in her second year of 4-H, but has been following in her older sisters footsteps for years.
The duo’s project list is identical, except for the bucket calf project. Restrictions of the project cap out at age 12.
Much like her older sister, her least favorite project attempted has been the sheep and goat project.
Most of Makena’s projects are already complete and judging has taken place for her home environment project and arts and crafts. The dog obedience show and the horse show will also been finished prior to the beginning of the fair.
Makena’s age places her in the junior division when showing. She will try her hand at showmanship in horse, dog, beef, and with her bucket calf named Cheese.
Cheese is a perfect name when wanting to dress as macaroni and cheese in this years bucket calf parade to be held July 26 following the 75th annual parade.
Makena’s summer days are filled with feeding and watering her animals, practicing leading them around the yard, washing them, and keeping them cool.
Besides all the hard work fair week brings, Makena is looking forward to spending a lot of time just hanging out with her friends.
The siblings are the children of Randy and Toni (Kneen) Reeves. Toni grew up in the 4-H program herself, spending 12 years split between the Winchester and Valley Victors clubs and finishing her career with the Jolly Juniors 4-H Club.
Much like her girls are now, she was involved in woodworking, foods, beef, horticulture, sheep and dog. At one time or another, she held every office possible at the club level and was the 4-H Council president at time or two.
In her adult life, she has been the treasurer of the 4-H Foundation for six years, on the Program Develop Committee for the district, and has been on the newly formed Booster Club for the past three years.
Other titles include serving as a past Cloverbud leader and current craft leader for the Valley Victors. On the county level, she has spent four years as the current beef superintendent and is in her fifth year as a community leader for the club.
She is a Human Resource Information Systems Administrative Supervisor for Stormant Vail, Topeka. She oversees the HR computer systems and has the flexibility to work from home.
While Randy didn’t grow up involved in the 4-H program, he is no stranger to the scene. Along with Toni, he is also the county-wide beef superintendent, the club beef leader, and just recently joined the Fair Board.
He has been employed by Hollis Truck Line, Valley Falls, for the past 18 years.