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REEDSVILLE -- After several years of having no live birds at the Mifflin County Youth Fair due to Avian influenza, the Department of Agriculture finally allowed live market birds with the stipulation that these birds would not be sold and had to be slaughtered within 72 hours for safety purposes.
In order to make the most of this, Mifflin County's poultry leader, Macie Wolfley, along with fair board members and other volunteers, orchestrated a plan in which the live market birds would be slaughtered and donated to the Calvary Bible Church food pantry.
"Our 4-H motto is 'hand to larger service' and this was a huge success for ensuring our kids got to showcase that motto by raising birds knowing they wouldn't get to sell them as normal," Wolfley said.
"It makes me happy that I can raise birds and give back to families that are less fortunate in our community," 4-H'er Ava Kratzer said.
In making this possible, Bobbie Sheaffer played a huge role as she had the idea to raise the birds as donations, "She is always bouncing ideas with me and Anna (co club leader) and is an incredible volunteer and leader to work with,"
Wolfley said.
Sheaffer, along with her husband, Hunter, and Amy Spickler were able to get everything coordinated with having the birds processed and donated to the Calvary Bible Church. Other helpers included Todd Shade and Noah Loht who took the birds to be proceeded and they also will help with the delivery to the food pantry located at the church.
FFA student Olivia Fisher said, "I'm excited to see something I raised given back to people who need it."
The Mifflin County Youth Fair provides buyers with the choice of sending the animals they purchase to the food bank so in the future, when they are permitted to sell birds again, they plan to continue selling and encouraging buyers to send them to the food banks/local pantries.
"A lot of our kids have people and local businesses who come to support them individually and I wouldn't want to take that connection away from the kids and businesses," Wolfley explained .
This year, kids who are too young to be 4-H'ers, referred to as "mini 4-H'ers," were able to participate if they chose, three of the five decided they too wanted to be involved.
"Anna Mackneer and I are so proud of our 4-H and FFA kids," Wolfley said. "They've taken all the showing restrictions and the new and ever-changing guidelines with stride, so to see them be able to bring their birds out and be excited to have them and give them back to our community is such a special thing. We have a lot of volunteers behind the scenes who help make this happen for the kids and we're so grateful to our fair and 4-H village."