Cape High student earns prestigious 4-H Diamond Clover Award

Sussex County 4-H announced Declan West of Milton was among those students honored with the coveted Delaware 4-H Diamond Clover Award, acknowledging excellence in extraordinary, sustained and focused service learning. West is a junior at Cape Henlopen High School. 

Earning a Diamond Clover Award is a multi-year journey which requires extensive documentation of a major community service project with lasting impact. The award is similar in significance to the Eagle Scout award.

Because agriculture is Delaware’s largest economic driver, West wanted to connect a wide variety of agriculture-related people with younger students in elementary and middle schools so students could “Meet the Farmer,” the name West anointed as his service project.

The idea came from attending two separate National 4-H Ag Summits with his sister, Ainsley, a previous Diamond Clover honoree. Together they formed the idea of Meet the Farmer talks. The visits ranged from a shepherd taking a sheep to an elementary school to students meeting a grain farmer and hearing how that farmer plans, grows, cultivates and stores the grain. West soon discovered a menu of opportunities to feature guest speakers and their topics. He developed a marketing brochure to promote his program in schools as well as local libraries. 

Though he found getting into schools was very challenging, West was able to take his animals to one school multiple times. He also visited his local library for community events. A few other libraries have caught on and contacted West for future presentations. Word is getting out about this program and an increasing number of children and adults are becoming more familiar about the importance of agriculture in Delaware.

Delaware 4-H is coordinated and administered through University of Delaware Cooperative Extension.