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College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

CFAES

New 4-H Center Receives $50,000 Pledge

July 17, 2002

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Tiney McComb, chairman, president, and CEO of Heartland Bank, feels he has much to give back to the program that significantly impacted his life as a 9-year-old boy growing up on a farm. "I began my 4-H tenure as a 9-year-old. I've been involved in 4-H almost 50 years. All of the members of my family, my wife and kids, were in 4-H. I personally believe I owe a lot to the organization for skills it gave me as a youngster. It's payback time for me. That's why I stay involved," said Tiney McComb. Now, McComb, who met his wife at 4-H camp, is helping another generation see the benefits of 4-H as he fills out membership forms with his 9-year-old grandson. McComb and his wife Helena, along with his bank based in Gahanna, pledged $50,000 to the new Ohio 4-H Center to be built on The Ohio State University campus in Columbus. The center is being built to give 4-H a home, in part as a celebration of 100 years of 4-H in Ohio, and as the organization prepares for yet another century with increasing program offerings, technology and membership. "I sort of lived 4-H. Growing up on a farm, 4-H was a vehicle to help me do many, many things. It's a tremendous builder of self-esteem in young people. It was wonderful times and I was so fortunate to have many great mentors," McComb said. As past chairman of the Ohio 4-H Foundation and a current member of the steering committee for the Ohio 4-H Center, he does everything he can to tell the 4-H story, he said. In fact, McComb believes in that story so much that he almost always asks potential employees during interviews if they were a 4-H member. McComb said he continues to give in any capacity that he can to help the program that has been so good to him. "Honestly, I feel like I haven't done enough. I urge others to take an interest in this wonderful opportunity for people of all ages to get involved. We're well on our way, but we still have a ways to go. I want more and more people to be exposed to what 4-H can do.” He added, "A new 4-H center will benefit all 4-H'ers. The center will perpetuate the 4-H concept of learning by doing. It's not only classroom teaching, but hands-on projects, too. What the organization gives you is experience and that's the best teacher." For more information on the new center, visit http://www.ohio4-h.org or http://www.ohio4-hcenter.org, call (614) 247-6904 or write to the Ohio 4-H Office, 2120 Fyffe Road, Columbus, Ohio 43210.

Author(s): 
Karen Daniels
Source(s): 
Bill McCleery