Outstanding 4-H members who receive this honor must have completed their junior year in high school and be currently active in the Somerset County 4-H program. Recipients must demonstrate leadership, participation, community service, personal growth, and contribution to the program.
Outstanding 4-H Alum who receive this honor are former members who stay connected in a meaningful way to the program as mentors, leaders, and volunteers.
Outstanding 4-H Volunteers who receive this honor give their valuable time and skills to the 4-H program at workshops, programs, and events.
Hillsborough residents honored as Outstanding 4-H volunteers are Jim Gaudet and Steve Miholics.
As with most volunteers, Gaudet became involved in 4-H because of his children. When they attended the Fair more than eight years ago, they ran into a former student of his wife who was in the dog club and got everyone excited about training their new puppy in 4-H. The family joined the Little Woofers and Woof Dog Club. When he took his family to the Fair the next year, the kids saw the alpacas and learned about the Lend an Animal program. Soon after Gaudet approached the Alpaca club leaders to see if they needed another volunteer.
He is now a leader of Woof, a dog division co-superintendent, an Alpaca leader, a leader for On Target Archery, Dungeons & Dragons, and the 4-H Association president. As the Association president, Jim’s focus is on helping people to “disagree better”. He encourages people to listen to other’s points of view and offer suggestions on how to improve the 4-H program.
In addition to regular club meetings, Gaudet helps to run Woofminster Dog Show, oversees Dog Bingo at Carnival, makes games for 4-H Family Night, supervises archery at 4-H Family Camp, judges food for 4-H Master Chef challenges and Cupcake Wars, cooks at Patriot’s baseball game fundraisers, judges public presentations, and serves as the “Apron Guy” and tech support for the 4-H Tricky Tray. He helps at every Association event and offers to mentor others he can be counted on to help whenever and wherever he is needed.
Miholics started in 1993 as a 4-H volunteer when his son Kyle joined the Green Kids Prep Club and wife Kim became a club leader. He has been volunteering ever since. Over the years he has been involved with Fair setup and take-down for various clubs like Prep, Small Animals, Clover Theater, and Cotton Candy. He also volunteers for fundraising activities such as the Rummage Sale, Tricky Tray, and the Holiday Craft Festival. The Miholics family participated in the NJ State 4-H International Exchange Program with Labo of Japan from 1997-99 hosting a Japanese youth for a month each summer.
Miholic is often called upon for his carpentry skills. He built a giant "75" for the display of pictures in 2023 for Somerset County 4-H’s 75th Fair Anniversary. He can be counted on in a pinch as he built stands for the TVs in the Fair Info tent at the last minute when it was discovered they had been accidentally disposed of the year before.
Miholic is a member of the Family Night, Rummage Sale, Tricky-Tray, and Building & Grounds committees; 4-H Fair Cotton Candy Tent Manager, and a member of the Somerset County 4-H Association.
Honored as Outstanding 4-H members are Genevieve Benbow, Veronica Dryl and Tatiana Hlinka. Honored as Outstanding 4-H Alum are Cary Brochinsky and James Meier.
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