By MEGGIE. I. FOSTER
Assistant Editor

KNIGHTSTOWN, Ind. — A few short weeks ago, a group of Rush County, Ind. farmers decided to give a second chance to a group of students from the recently closed Indiana Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Children’s Home to finish their 4-H projects.

When the Children’s Home was summoned to a close by Gov. Mitch Daniels on Tuesday, May 19, a phone call from the superintendent’s office came to Farm Foreman Jeff Hamm’s office at 2:30 p.m. asking him to sell all the Home’s 30-head of cattle including four registered Angus 4-H heifers.

Hamm managed the Home’s 4-H program and registered Angus cattle farm for the past 14 years and in just one day found out the Home was closing, he’d lost his job and all of the cattle were to be sold at the Knightstown Sale Barn on Saturday, May 23. That Saturday coincidentally was the same day as the Home’s graduation program and fell just two days before the Memorial Day holiday.

When Wayne Marlett, a farmer from Rush County found out that in this process four students were going to lose their 4-H heifers along with any opportunity to complete their projects at the fair, he decided to take action.

“I really think that 4-H is a good program, and I personally could just not see these kids not being able to finish their projects,” said Marlett, who met with three other farmers in the area and together developed a plan to purchase the heifers for the students. “I just felt so bad for the kids, they’ve got difficult family situations at home, and then their 4-H projects were taken away from them. We just wanted to find a way to help them out.”

Marlett said the original intent of the group was for the calves to be sold (either at the fair auction or private sale) and the money to be given to the students for college expenses.

“We’re still working on a way for the kids to earn some money for college,” he said, adding that normally these heifers would not go through the livestock auction at the fair. “But hopefully we can work something out.”

The group of four, Marlett, Larry Cloud, Paul Richardson and Brad Apple attended the Knightstown auction on May 23 with hopes of purchasing the calves at a low sale price of somewhere between $900-$1000 per animal.

“We were real disappointed in the sale results,” he explained. “A local business owner ... decided he wanted the calves and bid them up to $1,400, which was really more than we wanted to pay. Our intent was to sell the calves and give the kids the money, now we’re not going to be able to give them as much as we’d hoped.”
And according to Hamm, he visited with several of the bidders at the auction that day explaining the situation.

“I spoke with the cattle buyers that day and asked them politely not to bid on these four show calves,” Hamm said. “And I also made an announcement just before the heifers were led into the ring. It was a heartbreaking moment for me. And it was especially upsetting to me as we had a local business man bidding up the calves making it more difficult on the farmers that were trying to help out.”

Following the sale, the calves were transported to the home of another Rush County cattle producer, whose named was asked to be omitted. This producer and his family volunteered to feed and care for the four heifers, as well as prepare them for the show at the Rush County Fair.

“My kids showed with these kids through the years, and they wanted to help out as well,” said the producer. “I’m paying for the feed, and since then, two other farmers have offered to help pay for the feed.”

Modestly, the producer offered, “I’m not doing this to get my name in the paper, this is for the kids and I’m happy to help out.”

Registered Angus since ’95

While the Home, a residential and educational facility was opened nearly 140 years ago to house children of military families and later “at-risk” children (ages 3 to 18) in need of help and support, the cattle program was started in 1995 when then Superintendent Bob Mulnor decided there would be therapeutic value for the kids to be involved with livestock. Mulnor’s interest was focused squarely on the Angus breed, so when he hired on long-time maintenance worker Jeff Hamm, Hamm sought out donations from local Angus breeders.

Through the years, the cattle program was built on strong donations from the American Legion, the McClarnon family, the Snepps, Darrell Haines, P&J Angus (now J&J Angus), Sinnamon Show Supply and many more individual donations, Hamm said.
The most difficult moment for Hamm was saying goodbye to the kids who had become part of his family and the cattle he’d cared for the past 14 years.

“I was close with a lot of these kids, and the cattle were my babies too,” he said. “I cried at both places (sale barn and graduation hall) that day. It was one of the toughest days of my life.”
As for the kids, they will return to their family homes and if they’re able, their heifers will be ready for them on show day of the Rush County Fair on Friday, June 26, said Hamm.

“The kids were really worried about what was going to happen to their heifers,” he said. “They wanted me to go to the sale barn instead of graduation.”

As for Hamm’s plans, he has somewhat reluctantly taken a job with the highway department, but at age 56, a few short years before qualifying for retirement, has said he is taking a huge pay cut and will do something he doesn’t love.

“I have given the Home 24 years of service, I loved working here, and I’m not really ready to leave. As you can see I’m still digesting all of this,” he said as we sat together in an empty, quiet office in what used to be filled with sounds of young 4-Hers surrounded by banners that they had won over the past 14 years.

According to Hamm, 187 workers lost their jobs at the Home on May 19, including his wife, who was the band instructor.
“My main gripe in all this is that they had the cattle sale and graduation on the same day, it ruffled a lot of people’s feathers around here, it just goes to show how poorly this has all been handled,” he said.

On the brink of tears and having a difficult time, Hamm closed with “I’m just so pleased that this group of guys from Rushville did this for the kids. It’s just so special. I mean really special. It really says a lot for the farming community.”

Marlett added, “Jeff is a great guy, it’s really unbelievable what he’s done with help from the American Legion for this program and the kids. We’re just helping out a little here at the end of it all.”