A year’s worth of volunteering, cleaning up and helping to make the Ames and ISU communities better places has paid off for the ISU Collegiate 4-H Club.

The club took top honors as National Club of the Year in a competition with six other schools. The award was received by 12 of the clubs’ students and their adviser at the end of February at a conference in Fort Worth, Texas.

The club was also awarded Regional Club of the Year in November.

Randy Dreher, past club president and senior in agricultural business, said the national award was given based on a written application from the club that included the previous year’s activities and involvement of the members of the club in the community.

“This club is a great way to help others through volunteer work,” he said. “We’re fortunate and blessed for what we have and we want to share those things with others.”

Haley Cook, the 2002 club vice president and sophomore in pre-journalism and mass communication, said community service efforts are what put Iowa State’s club over the top.

“We’re very active with community service,” she said. “We usually have at least one activity every month.”

Cook said some of the club’s recent activities included trick-or-treating for canned goods for local food pantries, helping to distribute Christmas gifts to needy children and hosting Story County Communication Days, in which members critique the public speaking skills of area youth in order to help them with communication skills.

“It’s all about bringing the kids outside of themselves,” she said.

Beth Mowrer, club president and junior in agricultural education, said the club’s unspoken rule is the importance of community service.

“You can’t beat a group of people who work as hard as you do to get things done,” she said. “Everyone just wants to help.”

Mowrer said the club consists of about 30 active members representing each of Iowa State’s seven colleges.

Alicia Clancy, club publicity co-chairwoman and freshman in journalism and mass communication, said she has positive feelings about the club that go beyond the recent award.

“What we’re doing is valuable to Ames and Iowa State,” she said. “We’re here to better the community.”

Iowa State will be hosting the regional conference in fall 2003. Dreher said these conferences and other 4-H activities are great chances to help others and to work on personal and team development.

“We’re doing things for a cause greater than our own,” he said. “We’re able to serve as role models.”