In this episode we head out to the fair and talk with the fair Shelly Steury president about the importance of 4-H in families lives, and we also talk with Allison Schrock Pletcher from Everence about everything they are doing at the fair.

You're listening to the Dudes and Dads Podcast, a show dedicated to helping men be better

dudes and dads by building community through meaningful conversation and storytelling.

And now, here are your hosts, Joel DeMott and Andy Lehman.

Joel, we're at the fair.

We're at the fair.

At the fair.

Live at the fair.

Fantastic.

Right across from the illustrious goat and we have sheep across us, right Andy?

Is that right?

The goat and the sheep.

The goat and the sheep.

But more importantly, Andy, under the Everence Financial tent, our dear friends and partners

that have made this day possible.

So we want to say thank you, Everence.

Yes.

Appreciate you.

As always, here's what Everence brings to this fair.

They bring sunglasses.

If you have not gotten your Everence sunglasses yet, I'm just going to be honest with you,

I've got about 15 pairs in my car right now because my kids love them.

But Everence Financial is so grateful to be here as they have invited us to just have

a conversation about the 4-H Fair, what it means to us, talk to our guests here about

the leadership of the fair, the vision of the fair, and why it matters to our community.

So we want to welcome Shelly Stury with us.

You are the president of the fair this year.

So welcome.

You have a busy job.

It is a busy job.

Beyond my role as the fair board president, I'm also the general manager of the fairgrounds.

So I'm here year round.

Year round resident.

If I were you, I would just set up a camper year round.

My camper is here actually.

It came in a week early too, and I think we're going to keep it here a week after the fair.

So Shelly, Andy and I and our families, longtime 4-H participants love the fair, love what

it means.

This year celebrating 151 years here, which I think is an amazing milestone.

The one statistic I do want to get correct is there's a long discussion around this fair

and where it ranks in size nationally because we need to know where we stack up.

So what are the appropriate words to use for the size of our fairs?

So I don't know that exact statistic, but I will tell you a little bit about it.

So our fair is definitely one of the largest 4-H fairs.

That's the distinction in what people talk about.

So when we're labeling it, we can say nationally, one of the largest 4-H fairs in the United

States.

So some other fairs have 4-H, but they don't have 4-H in their name.

And so the other thing that I do know is that the Elkhart County Fair is the third largest

ticketed event in the state of Indiana.

So we are right behind the Indianapolis 500 and the Indiana State Fair.

Yeah, yeah.

Two heavy hitters in our state and good old Goshen, Indiana, we feel we're stacking up

pretty well.

Yeah.

So we have over 200,000 people through our gates most of the time.

Yes.

Wonderful.

Let's talk a little bit about 4-H.

So it's important for families.

Can you tell us about why that's important for families?

So the Purdue Extension Office actually runs the 4-H program here on the fairgrounds and

then the fair board kind of runs the fair.

The easiest way, I explained this earlier today, it's kind of like going to Martin's

and there's a Starbucks in there.

So the fair is kind of Martin's and 4-H is kind of Starbucks.

And we work together.

We have a commitment to work together, a partnership to provide a showcase area for the 4-H'ers

on our fairgrounds.

And we couldn't do it without them and they couldn't do it without us.

And we agreed to that and put on the best nine days of summer here.

I agree.

It's like a whole holiday for the Alcarve County.

It shuts down.

I like to refer to it as our local national holiday.

Yes, I would agree to that.

Yeah, lots of people taking vacation this week and staying the week out here with us.

Traffic patterns have changed and thankfully I've been able to, we have railroad work going

on in town right now too.

So that's been fun.

Yeah, I give daily emails about that actually.

I'm sure.

Yes, I do.

How can I get from here to there?

We're not sure on any given day.

Shelly, talk to us about, Andy and I, the Dudes and Dads podcast is all about conversation

with families, developing community.

But really we talk so frequently about investing in our kids.

Meaningful experiences, meaningful both educational and family based experiences that really set

our kids for a course of success.

And I know just being part of 4-H, that is what the 4-H Fair and what 4-H is all about.

What does it mean to you specifically?

When you think about the youth that are involved in programming here, what your hope and your

dream for them is?

Well, the one thing, spending this time on the fairgrounds is as I go in and out of the

4-H barns is you don't see the phones, you don't see the technology as much.

And you see them interacting with other people face to face.

I think the kids, I know my daughter, I'll say, "Why aren't you seeing your friends tonight?"

Oh, well, we text message or whatever.

And so when they're here, they're really engaging and be more present in what's going on around

them.

So that's really been my favorite thing to really experience with the kids this year.

I have to just, I know that's true for definitely for Andy's kids and for mine as well.

There is a different, it's almost like a retreat here, so to speak.

There's a different interaction with kids and I just think so much in terms of, Andy and

I talk about all the time about national statistics of mental health well-being amongst our youth.

And the biggest thing is the sense of loneliness and disconnection, right?

And yet it seems that here something else is going on.

Absolutely.

So I say all along, this is where the community gathers.

The whole entire Elkhart County, outside of Elkhart County.

We have people driving from Michigan and Ohio just to come to the Elkhart Fair.

And that's exactly what you need is just that human interaction with each other.

And you just, you see it everywhere.

We're sitting here, we're watching all these people go by and their families walking by

this booth.

Yes.

Yes.

And I think too, 4-H helps build endurance and stick to it, and some life skills that

kids are going to need forever.

I've seen, I've got a tenure member this year and to see him go from beginner 4-H to tenure

has been amazing.

So somebody put it best.

So earlier this week I got to present, I got to shake hands with 150 4-H'ers that had completed

the 4-H program.

They were 10 year commitment.

And somebody said, "Have you ever thought about it?

They're 20 years old.

Half of their life has been committed to the 4-H program."

And that was like, that really like hit me.

I was like, wow, that's, I've been on the fair board for 10 years and I feel like it's

been a long time and I'm older than 20 years old.

I can tell you that.

So by a year, maybe.

Yeah, just a couple of years.

But it was like that.

I mean, and I told the kids, I said, that's, that's a big commitment to commit to something

for 10 years.

But when you think of it in terms is it's literally half of their life already.

That's incredible.

Yeah.

And we just really want to, for those of our listening audience, if you're not connected

with a 4-H program, we have a lot of local listeners here in this community and all across

our region and even the country.

And there's, I mean, there are 4-H programs all over this country.

There's 4-H programs that can be engaged in.

And really, I think Andy said it best.

There is this sense of following through with the projects and right now we've been club

people.

I have a child right now that is hitting me heavy for animals.

And I've said, let's consider what's involved in that.

Mostly because I've seen what Andy and the Lehman family does.

We have dairy feeder steers.

And I'm not exactly set up for dairy feeder steers at my home, but maybe something smaller.

We'll see.

But what I think is really, really cool is even my kid's interest in even presenting

an animal and doing some of the clubs was really fostered by our friendships with other

4-H families.

And our kids see what that experience is like.

Absolutely.

And it's attractive to them.

Yeah.

And I think it's almost counterintuitive now where you mentioned kids overly engaged in

whether it's social media, technology, things like that.

The idea that this is something that is different, that is meaningful and is attractive to them,

I think might surprise some families.

I think maybe some families haven't considered that their kid would be interested.

Well, I think here at the Elkhart County 4-H Fair, our livestock clubs have a huge presence.

And sitting right behind us is a humongous 4-H exhibit building.

And so here, as soon as fair is over, we're going to do a remodel project on this facility.

And so the Fair Board has committed to pouring into these fairgrounds and providing this

space for the kids to do those projects.

But I think, don't hold me to it, I think there are 70 different clubs that the kids

can join.

And so there is something for everybody.

And I'm sure our guests would say, "Oh, the beef club or the swine club or the dairy feeder

calves, that's your biggest club."

And we have ATV club, we have cake decorating.

There's, I can't, I mean, the list goes on and on about what, I am sure that whatever

your kids' interests are, there is a club.

There is a clown club.

You can learn how to be a clown.

Even bicycles.

I mean, I've seen the kids out here on lawnmowers learning how to drive lawnmowers.

I mean, it is just amazing the opportunities they have out here.

Yeah.

Shelly, if you could just talk to us for a second of, obviously you are part of a Fair

Board team that invests so much time and energy and intentionality into the fair every single

year.

And again, it's not just this particular fair, but all the other things that these fairgrounds

are involved in.

Talk to me about the dynamic importance of teamwork and collaboration and being together.

Because the people that are on your team, I know in this community are so involved and

so passionate about it.

What has been the secret, you would say, to just how you all work so well together?

Because I think we see it here as it plays out.

I think, I know in the office and the Fair Board I can speak for, we are a family.

And we function as a family, good and bad.

I mean that in the best way, you know what I mean?

Absolutely.

By when I say that.

We just, we love each other and we work from our hearts at all times.

And sometimes that is good and bad.

You get a little excited and really intent on something.

It's kind of like brothers and sisters, you know?

And that's how we function.

And we work every day.

I get text messages or phone calls every day of the week and we're just always trying to

pour into this place.

We absolutely do want to say thank you to the whole team.

New addition to the team, our friend Nick Kiefer as well.

As you mentioned, a lot of Northridge graduates, of which I am one as well, we will hold it

against Nick.

And I will tell you also, our Fair Queen this year is actually a Northridge grad too.

So I'm like, we are representing for sure.

Good representation.

Good representation.

But such a great Fair Board.

We just want to say, we want to say obviously thank you to them and the great work that

they've done.

Jason, Randy, yourself, Shelley and Nick, thank you for the investment that you guys

are making in this event and our kids.

And just, we can't say enough about it.

Well, we certainly don't do it alone.

You know, Everence plays a big part in what we do and we have tremendous community involvement

with this fair.

It's everywhere you look.

You can see the Everence stamp behind us.

We've got banners and like you mentioned, sunglasses.

And there are lots of Everence sunglasses, that's for sure.

I think that is brilliant.

We all know when we see somebody walk in that they've been by the Everence tent.

That's right.

That's right.

Well, Shelley, we appreciate your time.

We know you've got to get going here, but thank you so much for coming out and chatting

with us.

Thank you for having me.

Yeah.

We appreciate you making your rounds and all the other duties that you do.

And yeah, what a great time here at the Elkhart County 4-H Fair.

Shelley, congratulations on your role and what you've accomplished.

And just hope you have a great rest of the week.

All right.

Thank you.

You too.

Thanks.

All right, Joel.

And next up we have Allison.

Allison is going to be chatting with us.

Allison is from the Everence marketing team.

I'm going to give her a second to step in here as we change this out here.

But Allison, welcome.

Allison.

Welcome to the show.

Welcome.

Welcome.

So we wanted to talk with you a little bit about, well, first off, we wanted to thank

you guys for sponsoring this episode and letting us come out here to the show.

So good.

And they gave us the best weather day, in my opinion, the slight overcast.

There's a wonderful breeze right now.

When do we get this?

Never.

Never.

Never.

So now that I've said it, something, okay, I shouldn't have mentioned it.

It is Wednesday.

It's going to storm.

Joel did it though.

For the record, Joel did it.

What a great day to be out here.

And yeah, as Andy said, just our partnership with Everence from the bottom of our heart.

We have to say, we tell people all the time, Andy and I, when we started this podcast six

seasons ago, over five years ago, our goal was, and really our wives' goal for us was

that we would have a free hobby.

And Everence has made that possible with your guys' financial support and just offering

opportunities like this.

So yeah, just a big, big time.

Big, big thank you.

We cannot say it enough.

Just glad to be a part of an organization that is engaged in these events and events

throughout our Michiana community.

It means a lot.

So thanks.

Yeah.

We love supporting you guys.

It's been great.

Andy obviously is on the Everence team and then we work with you through some of our

business services too.

So it's just a great collaboration and dude, it's great to see you guys grow and expand

and do some of this new stuff too.

Like be here.

That's right.

All these, you know, we've been told that there's tens of thousands of fairgoers here.

So Andy, I think we, our listenership picks up by at least 10,000 by the end of this week.

Absolutely.

That's my goal.

Let's get you there.

Let's try it.

Let's do it.

Well, Alison, you, you sat down with us and talked about earlier in this year and we,

when we discussed this episode and you were telling us about some of the cool things that

you guys are doing this year.

Can you talk about, especially the hydration station?

Let's start there.

Oh yes.

Yes.

Hydration stations.

So we came with the fair board the other, a few months ago, actually probably last year

after the fair was over and said, you know, Everence loves the fair.

We love being involved.

We also love supporting sustainability.

That is huge for us.

As you know, working with us, how can we help do that on the fairgrounds?

And so through a bunch of brainstorming and looking at other fairs and other things that

are the large outdoor venues were like, the thing that's really missing is some water

bottle filling station.

Oh yeah.

It's missing.

And you know, I'm out here every week, whether that be through dairy responsibilities or

through working our booths and there's red face people walking around everywhere.

They're so hot and toasty.

And so it's great to be able to offer the opportunity for somebody to come fill up their

water bottle at the new Everence hydration stations.

There's three of them across campus.

And I think there's some plans to fill up some more between this year and next year.

So it's just been a great ad.

People have really been in line playing in the midst, some of the kids and some of the

adults too.

I would be one of them.

So that's been, it's been a really great ad.

I'm glad that we were able to help be a small part of that and bringing that to the fair.

Well, that's a great thing too.

You know, there's always been a water bottle and the water's affordable here.

It's not super expensive, but it's nice if you have that or an empty container just to

be able to go back and fill that up and to have that.

So I know that I've heard lots of good things about that.

So thank you guys for doing that.

Absolutely.

We're very excited.

Like I said, to be part of that, kind of the ground level and getting going.

So Alison, as you mentioned, just with your guys's community engagement and what you're

doing here at the fair, I just want to talk about some of the other things that Everence

does out in the, I guess, out in the community, things that we want to make in terms of our

families that are connecting with us, things that Everence is doing to invest in our local

community opportunities for people to engage with the work that Everence is doing.

Sure.

So we do a lot throughout the year to try and stay invested in our communities.

While we do have two locations here in Goshen, we are a national company.

We have over 30 offices and that's always been a super important focus for us in all

of those places is to invest back into the communities that we're serving.

So a number of ways that we have coming up that's dealing with this is we are sponsoring

the global leadership summit, which maybe you're familiar with.

I'll be there.

I'm fantastic.

I love that.

It's based in Chicago and then they do simulcasts across the country and we're partnering with

Restore Church to host that, bring it back to Elkhart County where there hasn't been

one in quite a while.

So we're excited to bring that back to the area.

You can learn more on our website at Everence.com/michiana.

There's a lot more information there and if you want to register, we'd love to have you

there.

Our promo starts on Friday, so maybe wait to register until Friday.

Special promo on Friday.

Special promo price on Friday.

Also looking forward, we have coming up what we call our youth savings celebration.

So this is a huge week for us.

We invite kids to come in, we teach them some basic budgeting tools.

We have snacks, we have activities and we also have our high yield interest rate for

youth accounts.

We have information about that here at the booths if you'd like to learn more as well

as some special incentives.

If you come see us before.

Yes.

So come get some extra $5 for all of your kids or your grandkids.

But Youth Savings Week is coming up July 7th through 9th.

We're really excited.

We'll be open late in the evening on Thursday night to accommodate.

August 7th, right?

Yes.

The month is important.

August 7th through 9th.

So coming up in just two weeks from tomorrow actually.

And we'll be out there and we'll be doing some stuff.

We'll be talking.

Andy and I will be fresh back from the Grand Tetons.

We'll have all of our high elevation hikes in and then we're going to come back to the

lowlands here and we're going to help our kids get financially squared away.

My kids have been talking about, I got one of them over there, been talking about getting

themselves a bank account and then we're like, boy do we have the opportunity.

Boy do I know the right place to take you.

August 7th through 9th.

Two weeks from today.

August 7th through 9th.

Yes, yes.

Wonderful.

Looking forward to that.

Yeah.

And friends, I would just say, you know, we really value this partnership.

We see it throughout the year.

We value it because, uh, Everence values investments in families and we really know that financial

health and financial literacy and beginning to have those kinds of conversations as a

family and with our kids and just in terms of just what does financial health look like.

The sooner you can have that conversation with a young person, the better.

And it's something that, you know, gosh, it's been a real light bulb for me in the recent

past of, okay, we need to, we need to really be thinking about, so just some practical

steps.

And I just love how you guys provide that.

Just kind of a easy onboard, great resources for a family to know how to talk about money.

Especially if you've been part of a family that didn't have those conversations.

I know, I know I as an adult, I was always like, or as a kid, I was always like, yeah,

my mom and dad, they did things financially.

They seem to do just fine for themselves, but never really had the conversation with

me.

And so it's like, okay, what, what are smart steps to take?

What are basic steps to take?

And that's obviously part of a conversation that we have ongoing on this show as we bring

in everyone's people occasionally with our, with our shows, but, but also youth savings

event is a really great onboarding opportunity.

So looking forward to that.

Yeah.

I think a lot of us that grew up with boomer parents or people kind of around that generation,

we didn't talk about money.

That was, that was a hush hush topic that you didn't talk about.

So now you know, those of us millennials and me around that age, we're trying to figure

out how do we talk to our kids about that?

And without that model, it gets to be difficult.

So that's where everyone's likes to help come in and provide some talking points, help you

get the conversation started so that you're talking and not just talking about safe, safe,

safe, which is really important.

But what else can you do with my money?

How can I give back to causes and organizations I'm passionate about?

How do I plan for the future?

Whether that's college, trade school, buying your first house, buying a car so you can

get to all of those things to pay for other things.

So being able to have that holistic conversation is so important.

And that's really where our financial consultants and our credit union staff just get so excited.

So excited of helping people start that talk with their kids.

Every time we go in there, it really does feel like number one, we are members of a

bigger community family, always welcomed in there.

Because sometimes I think for families, if they're trying to figure that out, it can

be an intimidating process.

One thing I love about Everence is that when you step in there, there is such a warm welcome

and a such a, I would just say a helpful atmosphere, which is something I know you guys work at

so hard to foster and maintain.

And that's why we love partnering because that is the sense that we get.

So Alison, one more time, if people have questions, if they're wondering how they can connect

both here this week and on the web and other places, let us know how they can do that.

Yes.

So if you're out at the fair this week and want to come talk to us, we are over at the

Everence Family Entertainment Center, which is located near the land barn.

If you're familiar with the animal barns or near the ECCCC building.

So many C's.

All the C's.

I think there's three of them.

We're over by that area.

Feel free to come over.

We'd love to talk to you about anything related to Everence, any financial questions you may

have, or we can connect you with the Dudes and Dads podcast people as well.

We know where they hang out during the week.

Or if you want to find out more online, Everence.com is the place for all kinds of information.

Starting those financial conversations we started, we've talked about and also Everence.com/michiana

has all the information you need about Youth Savings Week, Global Leadership Summit and

other upcoming educational events and activities that we have.

Wonderful.

Wonderful.

So we're going to say thanks right over our way to our friends over at 107.3 WRSW, who

turned down their music.

W, R, S, W.

W, R, S, W.

W, R, S, W.

There you go.

Got to read that correctly.

Thanks our friends over at Classic Hits who turned down their music for a little bit for

us so we could do this podcast.

You never know what sounds are going to be emerging from between the barns, the interior

trolley, other tents.

So grateful for them.

And man, what a great day.

What a great experience.

Allison, thanks again.

Yes.

Thank you for having me and thanks for being here and love working with you guys.

I hope you have a great rest of the fair and you survive with your dairy feeders.

I'm hoping so.

The dairy feeders will survive.

Well, yeah, the dairy feeders will survive a little while longer.

We hope the family definitely survives.

So that's a dark turn.

I'm sorry, Andy.

I apologize.

But hey, friends, as always, we're so grateful for each and every listener.

Just want to invite you to head over to Dudesanddads.com.

If you got any questions about previous shows, you can check those out there.

Get in touch with us.

Listen to this episode again.

We do our episodes every two weeks.

Yeah.

So you'll be out there.

And as always, we want to say a big thanks.

If you got any ideas for future shows, things you want to connect with us on, you can email

us at Dudesanddadspodcast@gmail.com.

I got that right.

We ran out of time.

Okay.

We ran out of time.

We ran out of music.

I couldn't hear.

Okay.

Well, hey, until next time, everybody, we wish you grace.