'Royals' at 2014 Canfield Fair pay tribute to 4-H

CANFIELD

Levi Smith couldn’t stop smiling.

Barely a half-hour before, the 17-year-old had been crowned as this year’s 4-H Club king on the Canfield Fair’s Concourse Stage during the annual Junior Fair Youth Day Program. He still couldn’t believe his luck.

“It’s so crazy,” said Smith, who lives in Berlin Center and is a senior at Western Reserve High School. Smith, who was on the 4-H Royal Court last year, also is taking classes at Youngstown State University.

Smith added that 4-H, with which he’s been involved for a dozen years, has taught him almost everything he knows. Thanks to 4-H, which gave him the opportunity to work with and care for animals, he learned responsibility, for one.

He said he’s repeatedly been surprised over the years by just how often the skills he developed and honed in 4-H have

applied to “the real world” as well.

Tears came to newly crowned 4-H Queen Tara Balsinger’s eyes as she attempted to describe what 4-H has meant to her over the past decade.

“Four-H has just done so much for me,” said Balsinger, 18, of Lake Milton, who is a freshman at Ohio State University. “I can finally give back to 4-H what it’s given to me.”

Read more about the outstanding 'royals' at this year's fair in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.