I’m a little late getting this post out, but late is better than never most of the time, and definitely in this case.
I’ve been procrastinating a bit for a variety of reasons. First, I did all the interviewing and reporting for a news story that I pitched to a couple of established news outlets, which both passed on the story. I don’t know if it was because the story was too controversial, or if they didn’t know who I was to know the story was well-vetted and accurate (even though I offered to provide contact information for all my sources), or, as I strongly suspect is the case, it would have hit some advertisers that newspaper managers are more and more loath to upset.
Secondly, I had to decide how to approach this topic as a blog post, because it could go in about a million different directions.
In any case, here’s the deal.
It seems that a few disgruntled, jealous adults have misused their power and authority (and perhaps even intimidation) over a youth-led organization to enact a new rule that was designed to exclude a very limited number of children from participating in a livestock sale at the Great Frederick Fair.
In what many people close to the situation and familiar with the organization involved believe is nothing more than a retaliatory, vindictive move, The Frederick County 4-H Beef, Sheep and Swine Club voted to exclude from its annual sale any youngsters who sold animals at another county’s fair.
The new rule is so specifically written that this year, it targeted two children and only two — Matthew and Mark Chaney of Libertytown.
Many believe it is no coincidence that the rule was enacted after Matthew won a couple of top prizes at the 2014 Great Frederick Fair.
Rather than encourage their own children to work harder and commit more time to their projects to defeat their competition, parents took it into their own hands to eliminate that competition.
And it worked.
Take a look at the news story I prepared and then I’ll follow up with the rest of the story as it panned out during the last week of the fair.
It’s too late to do anything about this egregious act this year, but someone needs to fix this for next year. Either Frederick fair officials need to demand that no one be excluded from an activity happening under its auspices, or the board needs to tell the Beef, Sheep and Swine Club it can no loner hold its sale during the fair.
I’m sure a more youth-friendly group of folks would be more than willing to step up and run a similar sale for all exhibitors.
Here’s the story:
All is not well within the Frederick County agriculture community.
And more than a few people are upset about it.
At issue is a controversial move by the Frederick County 4-H Beef, Sheep and Swine club, which regulates and runs a livestock sale at the annual Great Frederick Fair.
In March 2015, the sale club passed a motion that would prevent youngsters from selling animals at the Frederick fair sale if they had sold animals at other fairs outside of Frederick County. The motion was so narrowly written that it gives the perception of specifically targeting just a few students, many believe, leading them to think the motion is vindictive rather than supportive of local youth agriculture initiatives.
Libertytown residents George and Carol Chaney believe strongly that the motion passed by the Beef, Sheep and Swine Club specifically targets their two sons, Matthew and Mark. And they believe that it is no coincidence that the boys’ participation became an issue only after Matthew won grand champion market lamb in 2014.
“If Matthew had gone under the radar instead of winning grand champion, I don’t think we’d be having this conversation at all,” Carol Chaney said.
The March 19, 2015, BSS Club minutes state, “We also had the 4-H versus FFA discussion and a motion was made by Kendall Harshman that if FFA members sell at a different county fair, they aren’t eligible to sell at Frederick fair. The motion was seconded by McKenzie Wolfe and was passed by the club.”
“I believe this motion was the act of adults who pushed it upon the children of the club without giving them full and accurate information,” Carol Chaney said recently. “The youth leaders of the Beef, Sheep and Swine Club were used as pawns to push the agenda of jealous adults.”
She also believes the motion was “railroaded” through at that particular meeting because she informed club officials she and her sons would be unable to attend because of a previous commitment. She told Leslie Harshman, an adult volunteer in the club, that her family had a Howard County 4-H function to attend that evening.
“I was told people asked to have the motion tabled until the next meeting but it was decided the action had to be voted on then,” Chaney said.
Rules make it clear that youngsters cannot belong to 4-H in more than one county. Because Carol Chaney grew up in Howard County and was a 10-year member of Howard’s 4-H, she chose to enroll her children there when they expressed an interest. Chaney also served on the Howard County Fair board for 19 years, so it was only natural that Howard County was where her family would devote its energy, she said.
But the Chaneys never attempted to join two different county 4-H organizations.
As Howard County 4-H members, Matthew and Mark over the years showed and sold animals at the Howard County and Maryland State fairs.
It wasn’t until they started high school and joined Future Farmers of America that they started raising separate project animals for showing at the GFF. Matthew, a Linganore High School senior, started showing at the Fredrick fair as an FFA member his sophomore year. Mark, a junior, will be participating in his second Frederick fair.
FFA rules prevent freshman from showing animals.
The boys attended the April 2015 meeting of the livestock sale club to plead their case. They read aloud from a letter spelling out information about their need to have two sets of animals; the requirement of attending a set number of meetings; and paying dues to two organizations to be eligible to participate.
“It is disappointing to know that adults in positions of knowledge know these facts but did nothing to communicate them to everyone,” the boys wrote in their letter. “It’s disappointing to know that this was not previously discussed … and when others asked to have it tabled, they were denied. It’s disappointing to know that two very valuable youth agricultural organizations have not tried to work better together and that adults would not work toward promoting fellowship (one of this club’s objectives) and help build character among our members but instead to allow petty jealousy to fester and grow.”
Great Frederick Fair officials believe the decision to exclude certain participants does not support the mission of the local fair.
“These recent changes made by the BSS club do not coincide with our mission statement, ‘The Great Frederick Fair Inc. exists to promote agriculture and the education of our youth about the industry of agriculture,’ ” GFF president Joseph Devilbiss wrote in a March 9, 2016, letter to Frederick County Extension educators Todd McKinney and Donielle Axline.
McKinney and Axline are paid employees who oversee Frederick County 4-H under the auspices of the University of Maryland’s Extension Services.
Alluding to a previous letter sent to Rick Walter, without response or acknowledgment, Devilbiss wrote that the fair “felt inclined to readdress our position.” Walter oversees 4-H activities in Howard, Frederick and Montgomery counties.
“The Great Frederick Fair Board of Directors has come to a unanimous decision that all FFA members must have the opportunity to sell their animals during the Thursday night sale,” Devilbiss wrote. “We are hoping you can accept this decision and cooperatively move forward.”
By June, the fair board appeared to back off the strength of its previous letter when it sent another letter to McKinney and Axline.
“The Great Frederick Fair Board of Directors supports the 2016 Beef, Sheep and Swine Sale will be run as it has in the past, but encourages and continues to support the 4-H and FFA to find common ground for sale rules that will work for both organizations,” Devilbiss wrote in a letter dated June 3. “We are hoping you can accept this decision and cooperatively move forward.”
While the fair board appears to support the participation of all 4-H and FFA members, an Aug. 10 letter from BSS club leader Robert Fogle Jr. says the opposite.
“The fair board sent a letter in June informing the 4-H Extension educators and leaders of the club that they support the club and the club’s management of the sale, therefore the sale will be ran as it has been in the past under the rules and guidelines you as an organizational body approved at your meeting,” Fogle wrote in his letter.
After spelling out dates and times for arrivals and weigh-ins and other rule reminders, Fogle wrote, “You cannot have sold animals at another county fair either as a 4-H member or FFA member.”
Fogle’s statement contradicts the BSS Club’s minutes of March 2015, which state only that FFA members who sell animals in another county are not eligible to participate in the BSS sale. No mention is made of 4-H members.
Email and phone requests for an interview to Devilbiss were returned by Karen Crum, executive assistant to the fair board.
“The Frederick County 4-H Beef, Sheep and Swine Club has always run the sale but we expect 4-H and FFA members to be able to participate,” Crum said Sept. 8. “We expect the sale to be run as it has in the past with 4-H and FFA working cooperatively together.”
Chaney said that this decision as it stands according to Fogle affects only her two boys. Another child who would have been affected (and has also won grand prizes recently) aged out of the program, but a couple of siblings from those families will be affected in the next few years.
The decision to exclude a finely targeted group of youngsters from the sale mystifies community members and 4-H veterans alike.
“This decision doesn’t make any sense all,” Dan Braucher, a former 4-H extension agent, said Friday. “The rules state that you can’t be a 4-H member in two counties but that isn’t the case here.”
Members of both organizations have always been encouraged to take advantage of the educational opportunities offered by the fair, the 30-year agriculture educator said. Each organization sets its own requirements for participation and it is the responsibility of each youngster to meet those requirements.
“This decision to exclude some kids because they sold animals in another fair makes no sense, there’s no logic to it,” Braucher said. “You can only sell an animal once; these boys have two different sets of project animals to meet the requirements of each organization.”
Matthew and Mark have gone to the additional expense of raising two complete sets of animals needed to participate in the two different county fairs. In addition to the expense of raising, grooming and training animals, the man-hours are doubled as well. They have to keep two sets of record books and need to be able to discuss their projects with judges.
“This sale is important because that’s where the kids make some money back and allows them to buy animals next year,” Carol Chaney said. “This idea that the boys are ‘double-dipping’ is ridiculous. They work twice as hard to be able to show at the two fairs.”
Braucher said he just couldn’t come up with a single, positive, educational reason for this exclusion, or see any way it would help or support the mission of 4-H.
“I think it’s a personal vendetta that will hurt both groups,” he said. “We’re all role models and this decision puts a dark spot on us.”
Scott Shorrow, who owns Landscape Concepts in Frederick County, has supported the livestock sales for the past couple of years at the invitation of the Chaneys.
“I’ve been a fair vendor with a display for my company for several years,” Shorrow said. “But I started going to the goat and beef, sheep and swine sales because of the Chaney boys.”
Shorrow was disappointed to hear of the club’s decision that appears to target just the Chaneys.
“For them to be excluded from this sale makes no sense,” he said. “They have to have separate projects, separate record books, twice the expenses, twice the time involved. They don’t have an advantage over anyone simply by participating in multiple shows. You can only sell an animal once.”
Shorrow said he isn’t privy to all the inside politics and doesn’t know many of the families involved, but sees no positive outcome for the sale club’s decision.
“The Chaney boys work hard and do well in these shows, that’s what it is, cut and dried,” he said. “That’s what this is all about.”
Shorrow said agriculture is a way of life for Matthew and Mark.
“This is their life, their passion,” he said of the boys’ livestock training. “They don’t do sports, they don’t have jobs or other hobbies — this is their job, their hobby, their passion. Why should they be punished for having a passion that perhaps others don’t have?”
Shorrow said he would not participate in this year’s BSS sale.
“I’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars at these sales but I can’t participate in a sale that excludes anyone,” he said. “I can’t be a part of something that excludes kids.
He fully expects to support the goat sale, which is governed by a different club.
As of Tuesday, the statement from Fogle denying sale participation to the Chaneys was the last official word on the sale.
If, when the dust settles, that decision remains, Carol Chaney said her boys will abide by it and let it roll off their shoulders.
But exclusion from the sale won’t prevent the boys from showing their animals, and won’t stop them from their mission of breeding, raising and training champion animals.
“Both boys are extremely competitive and they are passionate about their livestock projects,” she said. “This decision will just make them more competitive.”
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