Audrey Bannon is a 4-H Leader in it for the love of the kids. If she’s said it once … . she’s lived it nearly 30 years! “This is the greatest experience of my life – right behind having my own children,” Audrey explained. “I’ve been doing this for 29 years and my goal is to get to 30, but I’ve been thinking lately, ‘Well, what am I going to do after that?’,” she laughed.
This is a light-hearted, happy woman who is serious about the work she does out in the Poultry Barn. “I started in 1976 by accident. A friend and I started a neighborhood club called the Bear Creek Bunch. All of the girls had poultry, rabbits and maybe some cavies, so we took them to the Spring Fair that year. The people running the show said they wanted to quit. I had been in 4-H for four months, so I didn’t think about volunteering until our agent Vince Rice encouraged us to do it. I couldn’t believe it … the only thing I knew for sure about chickens is that they lay eggs!” Audrey giggled.
That trip to the Fair changed Audrey’s life as she has been a dedicated Superintendent ever since. “Vince stayed on as our support, but Judy Schwanke and I headed up the Poultry and Rabbit program. The funny thing is Judy’s daughter showed poultry and my daughter Stacy, showed rabbits – so, we just swapped!” Judy left the program a few years ago to pursue her interests in theatre. Today, Don Ballard serves as the Superintendent of the 4-H Rabbits.
Another constant in the program has been Stan Depner who oversees the Waterfowl. “For the past 15-20 years, Stan has been like a right hand man. He’s been a tremendous asset to the program!” Audrey boasted.
Unlike many of her counterparts, Audrey wasn’t raised in 4-H nor on a family farm. She moved to many places within the state with her parents working farms, picking produce. “We picked apples, pears, peaches and cherries”, she said. “I went to 10 different schools in 12 years!” Audrey graduated from Bellevue High School in 1953. Afterward, she and her father, Roy Nichols had a small riding academy, teaching horse back riding. “My goal at that time was to be a Missionary and I attended Bible College, but it didn’t work out that way. I met my husband George at Kenny’s Barn Dance in Snohomish. He was enlisted in the service, but was stationed at Cougar Mountain and we were married on September 2nd. Matter of fact, it’ll be 50 years this September!”
“My faith is very big in my life and now, doing this work and being with the kids, I’ve come to realize that these children were and are my mission”, Audrey reflected. “She and George raised three of their own children – two sons and a daughter and “now we have two grandsons and a great-granddaughter!” As for her 4-H kids, of which she has scores, “I love these kids. I’ve never met a kid I didn’t like – I’ve known a couple I wanted to strangle, but none I didn’t like!”
Besides touching the lives of so many, Audrey has another legacy. In 1998, there was a new breed of chicken admitted to the Book of Standards – a Barnevelder. It was sponsored by The Merrill Family and the Snohomish County 4-H in honor of Audrey Bannon.
“In 1980, the first year of leading the program it was because I was the only one willing to,” recalled Greg Hordyk, Superintendent of the Open Class Sheep Department. “At first, we [wife, Eileen] were involved through 4-H. It was only natural because both of us grew up on farms. Eileen had been in 4-H since grade school. When we married, it seemed that having livestock was a given, but we couldn’t afford the acreage for large animals. A friend sold us a ewe lamb in 1969 and by the time we went to the fair in 1970, our lamb was fatter than all of his because we only had the one!” Greg laughed.
After that, the Hordyks managed to get a few acres; their daughter Lynette was born in 1967; son, Doug in ‘75; and the 4-H became a family project. “Lynn inherited the interest in 4-H sheep, while Doug went from 4-H to FFA in the 9th grade.” Matter of fact, “Doug was in Audrey Bannon’s department one year. He had a pigeon project. The bird got out of its cage at the fair and was gone. When we went home – there she was in her cage![at their home in Arlington] We took her back to the fair the next day and word spread. Ned Carrick did a story on it in the newspaper.”
In 1990 Greg and Eileen resigned from the department. Yet, they didn’t go away forever, as they returned in 1999, answering an invitation to come back as the Superintendent (s). Both Eileen and Greg make it happen as partners, although the titles say “Superintendent” and “Assistant,” “We’ve always done this together,” said Greg. “I struggle with the phone calling and hiring, so Eileen takes care of that. I like to do the computer work and go to the meetings and we work the fair together. Neither of us would do it without the other.”
Why sheep? (considering his Dad raiser Herefords in Silvana). “I don’t know,” Greg said quickly, “they’re just about the hardest animal – they require quite a bit of work. It’s fun to shepherd them, I suppose,” he joked. “The lamb is good, but the wool is a tough market when we have to compete with the Australian and New Zealand imports. Our wool used to go just south of here near the Columbia River, now it’s shipped to Texas. Our expenses keep going up.”
“At the Youth shows the kids are learning all of these things – how to raise them; how to shear; all of the costs; they keep a workbook on the economics of it. Then, they sell them and cry.” Greg and Eileen approach the connection with their animals differently from one another, too. “We don’t name our sheep, we number them – we both love them, but Eileen knows each one of them and their personality.”
Today, the Hordyks are still heading up O/C Sheep. Greg worked at Scott Paper and with the merger, Kimberly Clark until last year, retiring after 37 years. Today he works on his farm “making up for 15-20 years of neglect” and is involved the sports programs as an Umpire. He is very proud of a program for which he volunteers through his church. Every year for the past fourteen, Greg travels with a group to Haiti where, for two weeks, they build Schools and develop food programs for kids “where that might be their only meal of the day.”
Greg … Eileen … . thank you for all of your generosity and giving spirit.
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