4-H is a family thing for Rubios

For many, many years, 4-H has been a family thing for Christine Rubio of rural Greenfield. That theme continues now as her children’s generation are involved in the organization.

Between she and Robert, as well as Robert’s brother Javier and his wife Jennifer, there are eight Rubios in 4-H right now, all in the NV Champions 4-H Club. All told, Robert and Christine will have had all seven of their children in 4-H when it’s finished. All four of the other Rubios have also participated at one time or another.

This year at the Adair County Fair, the two families were entered in a combined 16 differnet project areas. That includes five livestock species, four static exhibit categories as well as horticulture, food and nutrition, a working exhibit and a citizenship project.

What do busy families like these at the fair need? A lot of coordination, communication and support for one another. The Rubios feel they have that.

Ask the 4-Hers themselves and they have a lot of projects they’ve enjoyed preparing and finishing. CJ’s was winning the on-site garden contest while Annie will always remember her cinnamon banana muffins that did really well.

Elojiyo looks forward to being a full fledged 4-Her in 2026 and compete for ribbons of all colors, not just green participation ribbons Clover Kids receive.

Selena, 24, will never forget winning the best opposite sex division in the rabbit show at the Iowa State Fair. Isabella, 22, loved working exhibits because she got to do them with her friends.

“We make a lot of lists,” said Christine, who was a 4-Her herself and is club leader for the NV Champions. “We get our lists all done. Everyone gets everything entered, even if it’s a quesiton mark. We adults enter it online. When we get to fair week, it’s a lot of chaos.”

A few days before the fair starts, the club gets together and decorates their static exhibit booth in the 4-H/FFA Center. One that’s complete, the Rubios go home and start packing for the upcoming week. Tuesday is static exhibit judging day and the first animal shows are rabbits and the dog show Wednesday.

Livestock are checked in Wednesday and each day there are various livestock shows many of the cousins are involved in.

“We try to get to each other’s activities, so we try to communicate about who’s showing what and when,” Christine said. “Everybody helps everybody else out. They’re all helping each other with chores and wandering the fair together.”

The Rubio families each have a camper, so they try to have snacks available as well as a change of clothes and at least one hot meal a day there. One of the families slept at the fair this year while the other used the camper as a home base during the daytime.

“The last couple of years have been different because they’re putting the premiium money that kids get with the ribbons on the ribbons,” Christine said. “We didn’t eat nearly as much in teh camper because we let the kids keep the ribbon money and they spent almost all their money at the fairgrounds. That was different, but fun.”

While not all of the cousins show large livestock, they were all together, pitching in to help clean barns and pens at the end of the fair. It’s these type of supportive relationships that Christine experienced when she was in 4-H that she’s glad her children, neices, nephews and the other 4-Hers in her club get to experience, too.

“We hope they’re learning you get to have fun together but you also have to work together,” Christine said. “I think the kids really benefit the most because they’re learning to support and give back to others.”

The club put giving back to others into action this year when they planned and carried out a project that brought new sand diggers to the Fontanelle City Park, in part thanks to grant funding from the Empowering Adair County Foundation. They also adopt a family each year at Christmastime.

From the time when she was a child until now, Christine believes there has only been one where she didn’t have a family member involved in the Adair County Fair.

In 2021, Christine reached 10 years of service as a 4-H volunteer. She said her 4-H story has begun to run together.

“We’ve tried really hard, and we continue to try to figure out how we are going to teach our kids and our 4-H club kids to support and give back to the people who are volunteering and providing all these things for us,” Christine said. “We are very lucky because between our fairgrounds, fair board, volunteers and Extension staff, that’s something that’s super important. We’re trying to teach these kids that you can do this in multiple ways. It doesn’t have to be a one and done thing, it’s ongoing.”