THEDFORD – Nine Thomas County Achievers 4-H club members used their heads, hands, and hearts last week to improve the spiritual and mental health of one of their ailing own: 12-year-old Oakes Miller of Hooker County.
“We have been doing a lot of trips to Omaha, trying to find answers to Oakes’s health issues,” Tami Miller, Oakes’ mother said. She added that she’d given up her place on the Hooker County 4-H Council and other groups to concentrate on getting answers while her son has given up some of the activities typical to 12-year-old boys.
With the encouragement of Central Sandhills Area 4-H Youth Development Assistant Shaniya Albertus, who dreamed up the idea for the Community Service Project along with leaders Angie Pettit and Jacey Anderson, the Thomas County kids researched the interests of the Mullen 4-Her.
They learned he liked patriotic colors. The 4-Hers then convened in the basement of the Assembly of God church during the week to sew a quilt for Oakes using those colors.
Pettit, a master seamstress, guided the group through the quilting process, even having them hand sew at times. “We were so thankful for the church allowing us to use their basement. We would clean up every Saturday or when it was needed for other activities, then we would roll out the project on Monday.”
The Thomas County Achievers who worked on the project were Haxton, Kennedy and Hayden Hoffman, Chandler and Emerson Pettit, Ariata and Rydell Scott, Piper Hanson, and Shania Rinestine. Rydell was the lone Clover Kid, who can’t wait to be a “real” 4-Her in a couple of years.
Oakes and his family came to the Thomas County Fair BBQ on Saturday, July 29 where the transfer of the quilt from its makers to its new owner took place. Tami Miller, in a word, was stunned.
“It’s amazing to have other kids in another county, who don’t know him, do this for him.”
Oakes added that the gift will certainly be a fixture on the road to recovery. “I’m taking this to Omaha next time to show my doctors.”
