- Author: Sophie Loeb
Sue Garcia's resume could be made into a small book. Garcia, the 2015 4-H Outstanding Lifetime Volunteer, has dedicated 25 years of service to the 4-H Program and has served diverse roles including: Project Leader, Community Leader, County Council Representative, Secretary, Vice President, Chairperson- the list goes on. When she is not developing livestock proficiency tests on an Agricultural Steering Committee, or conducting awareness campaigns for 4-H clubs, Garcia is busy with other volunteer service such as the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Light the Night campaign and the Second Harvest Food Bank. Garcia is a true community leader.
Garcia's commitment to 4-H service began when her daughter expressed interest in animal projects.
“My daughter wanted to get a rabbit… we thought, hmmm we don't know anything about rabbits, but my sister was in 4-H and she raised a lamb, so we figured there has got to be something about rabbits. Our daughter was in 4-H and my husband and I supported her...we eventually became leaders, too, because you see the positive effects it has on your own kids.”
Garcia initially volunteered to be a project leader for Beginning 4-H, a project introducing 5 - 8 year olds to the program and continued this program in conjunction with other leadership, foods, cavies, and goats. Within three years, Garcia assumed the role of the Club's Community Leader,during which she led a new outreach recruitment effort to attract families and children in the community.
It is more than Garcia's altruism and dedication to 4-H that merited her as a stand-out candidate for the Lifetime Service Award; Garcia's nominator, Marilyn Johns, Emeritus Director and Adviser for 4-H Youth Development, Nutrition, Family, and Consumer Sciences, described her as “always professional” with a “calm demeanor and eloquence that invites support and diffuses tense situations”. Johns added: “She is fair and patient, and always models a positive attitude. Sue is well-liked and respected, evidenced by her continued election to leadership positions. She is one of those rare volunteer leaders who gets along well with everyone.”
These twenty-five years of service have provided Garcia with constant gems of impact. As a trustee on the scholarship fund for continuing college 4-H students, Garcia is able to see how 4-H has supported young people in their higher education endeavors.
Garcia highlighted the importance of these scholarships for both the students and in her personal community building: “The scholarships are a way to say we value you. The group of trustees have been on the board since ‘93- all of those years of dedication, supporting the kids...there are a lot of dedicated adults, and the friendships with people in the county: that is what has kept me involved.”
It is Garcia's resilience and strength in navigating challenges that have proven her a key to the success of the 4-H problem. Many of the inter-organizational obstacles of 4-H arise from the lack of consistent staffing. For Garcia, it is a matter of ensuring that whoever is involved is upkeeping the values of the program amidst changes and/or cuts to staffing.
“Ultimately what you want to get out of it is benefit the kids,” elaborated Garcia.
Ingenuity, too, is what makes Garcia an outstanding leader. In the later 90's, early 2000's, San Mateo 4-H was threatened with the loss of funding. In response, Garcia led a grassroots campaign to support individuals in speaking at supervisor's meetings, writing letters, and sending postcards to all alumni and parents about the importance of funding the organization. Young 4-H members, clad in their uniforms, impressed audiences at meetings with their public-speaking skills cultivated from 4-H presentation training.
Garcia attributes her success in anchoring the program to “being a consistent leader, someone who can step back and take a broader look at things, and look at the long term”.
For other volunteers interested in wholeheartedly serving their communities as Garcia has done, Garcia offers this advice: “Take a deep breath and be adaptable to change because in any organization there is change. Look for the long term goals and see the value of the organization and always keep that in the center of your mind.