She’s clad in mud-covered boots-dirty from hours of work in the barn-and a T-shirt dampened from working in the early morning hours of the scorching summer heat. She takes her time, methodically wrapping each one of her sheep’s legs, ensuring that they will be in perfect condition for when they will eventually compete. Then, she wipes the dirt off her shoes and goes inside to work on one of her coveted quilts, delicately piecing fabric together to create a stunning design. Mount Vernon junior Mya Stoner has a unique hobby, one quite uncommon for girls her age. Stoner participates in 4-H, an association for those interested in creating quilts and clothes, showing animals, creating delicious dishes, and simply put: exploring new opportunities. 

Mya described 4-H in a few words: “It’s a space and community where you can give back to your community.” 4-H itself stands for “Head, Heart, Hands, Health”. Head is for clearer thinking, heart is for greater loyalty, hands are for larger service, and health is better living. For Mya, 4-H is more than just a club, but rather a community brought together with the desire to create and to discover. Those who participate in 4-H can partake in various educational opportunities in five main categories: leadership, agriculture, arts, healthy living, and STEM. Students can create clothes, learn new recipes, volunteer within the community, show animals, and much more. With these projects, they can attend both county and state fairs to display their projects and earn recognition for their hard work. Mya herself mainly focuses on creating quilts and showing sheep, as well as the occasional participation in home improvement projects. 

Since she was a young child, Mya has always been interested in 4-H. She was practically born for the club, with countless members of her family playing roles in the club in their youth. She herself began attending the 4-H club when she was only 10 years old- in 4th grade. Although joining 4-H was initially scary, Mya is beyond grateful that she decided to attend her first meeting, reflecting that, “I think it (4-H) is something that kids need to be exposed to at an early age.” Mya began her 4-H career in participating solely in consumer sciences, but she has since branched out to other opportunities involved more heavily in agriculture. Her father, Kyle Stoner, recollected that Mya “begged and cried for two years” for the ability to show sheep. Her wish was finally granted in eighth grade when she was given her first two sheep. Since that fateful day, Mya has never looked back. In fact, the only regret she has is that she never started earlier. 

It has been a long process, but Mya has come a long way since her early beginnings in 4-H. She now serves an instrumental role as club historian  in her 4-H club— the Mount Vernon Trail Blazers. As historian, she creates a record book of her club. She takes pictures and collects newspaper clippings to piece together the accomplishments and history of the Mount Vernon Trailblazers. Not only does Mya have a distinguished role in her club, but she also holds the lofty title of Linn County youth council vice president. For this, she helps to organize committees and events, along with assisting others whenever needed- something that has gifted Mya with strong leadership skills and important abilities.

Not only has Mya moved up the ranks of her 4-H club, but she has also found smashing success in showing her sheep. This past year, Mya took care of and showed 4 sheep. Through blood, sweat, and tears, Mya ultimately placed 18th for carcass lamb at the Iowa State fair. She also experienced great success in 2023, most notably winning the title of grand champion carcass lamb — the highest honor given in the category. In addition to this, Mya took home fourth place in the white breed influence category, something that was quite the accomplishment. In fact, Mya’s cousin and fellow 4-H member, Maciann Stoner, noted that “I think she works very hard and is successful with it (showing sheep).” The Mount Vernon sophomore commended Mya on her awards and expressed that they were very well deserved with her perseverance and long hours. 

Although showing sheep is a major event for Mya, she also enjoys exploring her creativity through 4-H by creating quilts and other artistic projects. “All of the quilts I have done and entered into the fair have gone to the state fair,” Mya said. All in all, Mya has had three quilts along with a quilt rack be entered and recognized in the state fair. Mya was also recognized with the Donna-Timm memorial award this past year for one of her projects— something that signified that her project was one of the best presented at the fair. She was extremely touched by the award in particular, and noted that,  “I just thought that it was really special and a big honor.”

Although Mya has garnered so many honors as a result of her work, it’s not always easy. Doing what she does is something unimaginably challenging and is extremely time-consuming. Over the summer, Mya sacrifices much of her time to take care of her sheep and prepare them to be shown. She typically wakes up at around 7 a.m. each morning to begin to tend to her sheep. Throughout the day, she takes on the responsibility of feeding and walking the sheep as well as maintaining their appearance through thoroughly cleaning their legs. In addition, she shoulders the burden of teaching the sheep to follow her and to listen to commands. 

All in all, it typically takes Mya around 50 minutes to work with each sheep, a number that adds up quite quickly. With her typical four lambs, Mya will often spend around 3-4 hours each day over the summer with her sheep. Mya admitted that with this amount of work, “You have to make sacrifices; you can’t hangout with your friends all the time.” Mya is also no stranger to health troubles with her sheep. This past summer, Mya was forced to tackle the challenge of heat stroke and coughing fits among her sheep. This was no easy task; “I learned how to do the dirty jobs,” Mya said. 

In addition to the effort that she expends on her sheep, Mya’s artistic and design projects take up much of her time. She typically tries to begin creating her quilts before Christmas break in December. From picking out her fabric to finally putting the binding on the quilt, the process is extremely lengthy and she often will not be finished with it until the end of  May. “It’s about five months while needing to juggle school work and other extracurriculars,” Mya said. “For about two months I would have my sheep then too.”

Though 4-H takes a lot of time from Mya and serves as a huge commitment, it is still undoubtedly an important part of her life and a crucial part of her education. 4-H provided her with career workshops and was one of the key motivators in her interest in going into the agricultural field. Her father echoed the importance of 4-H in her education and life experience: “You learn not to give up, nothing is going to be given to you.” Not has 4-H been merely educational for Mya, but she also said that she had found great fellowship and relationships in her experience. “You meet a lot of people, they all have the same mindset as you,” she said. Simply put, Mya has found a lot of value from her 4-H experience, both educationally and socially.

Although 4-H seems quite exclusive, it does offer many valuable opportunities for all different backgrounds. “4-H is not just agriculture, anyone can just do it,” Maciann said. Mya also stressed the variety of activities that 4-H offers — from baking to showing animals to creating quilts and much more. She said that the most important thing that was often misunderstood about 4-H was that it is simply for those interested in farming and agriculture and that anyone interested in learning or making a difference in 4-H is welcome. “Just get involved,” Mya insisted, “Everyone is open to new people.”