ROME TOWNSHIP — Jim and Kathy Gore spent last week as they’ve spent a week out of every summer for the past several years: helping out at the Lawrence County Junior Fair.

Jim Gore is on the fair board and he and Kathy — Kitts Hill residents — have been 4-H advisers for more than a half a dozen years.

Like many advisers, 4-H is a family thing, they said. They got involved as a family and appreciate the family values that are the bedrock of the fair and the 4-H program.

“Our son (J.D. Gore) was in 4-H and some friends a while ago had the Willing Workers 4-H Club, but it had been disbanded,” Jim said.

“Some friends wanted to start it back up again and we got involved. And we’ve just kept going.”

The more some things change, the more they also stay the same. The Gores said they now have in their club the children of some of the Willing Workers club members of yesteryear, the younger ones carrying on the tradition that mom and dad upheld so many years ago.

For Jim Gore, being a 4-H adviser and fair board member is chapter 2 of the 4-H story. He was a 4-H child when he was growing up.

“I showed rabbits and horses and had electric projects,” he said with a smile.

It is this love of learning and accomplishment that they try to instill in their 4-H members.

“I just like seeing the kids win,” Kathy said. I especially liked seeing Shelby (Haas) win in the rabbit judging — and (her sister) Kaylyn. They’re both fine girls. The kids earn what they get.”

Laura Jane Murphy, Lawrence County 4-H extension agent, said people such as the Gores are the reason 4-H is possible each year for the hundreds of students who take part in it.

“The way we run our 4-H program, we could not do what we do without volunteers,” Murphy said. “They are the foundation of what 4-H is.”