Wayne, Jan Robinson Honored as 'Friend of Extension' in Indiana
Published: Friday, January 4, 2019
For the Elkhart County 4-H program, Wayne and Jan Robinson are some of the best leaders you could ever have. The Goshen residents have contributed to the 4-H program in many ways over the years, and each has left their unique imprint on a countless number of 4-H'ers, and even the 4-H fairgrounds itself.
Four-H leaders for over 40 years, they have served on the county Extension board, 4-H Club Corp., were 4-H building superintendents, and they co-founded the Goshen Go-Getters 4-H club 35 years ago. Wayne has been a 4-H leader for 47 years; Jan, 45 years.
Individually, Wayne often works behind the scenes to help the fair with technology issues, and Jan is the driving force behind the Elkhart County 4-H Fair's "Green Day" activities.
For these and other reasons, the Robinsons were recently honored as the statewide winners of the "Friend of Extension" award presented by the Indiana Extension Educators Assn.
Wayne is retired after serving 15 years on the 4-H Club Corp. but is still involved as assistant treasurer. Most notably, he helped the group modernize its bookkeeping procedures.
Jan currently serves on both the 4-H Club Corp., the county Extension board and the fair board. With the latter group, she chairs the "green" committee that collects plastic water bottles and bottle caps for recycling. She also works as a substitute teacher at Heritage Middle School in the Northridge district, and it was through her service there that she learned about a company in southern Indiana that converts the bottle caps into park benches.
Four years ago, the fair board gave its approval to the effort, and, to date, 10.7 tons of bottle caps have been recycled and converted into 60 benches at the fairgrounds.
During the second Friday of fair week, Jan leads the "Green Day" activities that involves 22 exhibitors and seven sponsors. The exhibits emphasize the importance of recycling and helping the environment.
Both Wayne and Jan were 4-H members in St. Joseph County (Ind.). They met through 4-H and moved to Goshen after getting married. Wayne said his boss at GTE believed in community service and allowed Wayne to take time off work to set up for fair week. Since then, the Robinsons' summer schedule has always involved setting up for fair week.
Their first assignment as 4-H leaders was running the Junior Farm Home Builders 4-H club. They supervised that club for seven years, but then Wayne was transferred to a job in Fort Wayne and they lived there for two years. When they returned to Elkhart County, they led the Jefferson Trail Blazers for one year.
At that point, the 4-H program was expanding and there was a need for more clubs. So, 35 years ago, Wayne and Jan were asked to start a new club, which became the Goshen Go-Getters. Wayne said there were only 15 members in the club's first year; now there are 80. One of the club's former members, Josh Culp, is serving as the 2019 fair president.
This year, Wayne has stepped aside and is serving as assistant leader while younger people move up the ladder and gain experience as 4-H leaders. Wayne says this plan allows new leaders to take over and gain valuable experience while benefitting from the knowledge of the current leader who is serving in a lesser capacity.
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