Burmans receive St. Croix County 4-H award

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Darrell and Nancy Burman of the town of St. Joseph received the 4-H Living Memorial Award at the recent St. Croix County Fair for their involvement in the fair, Rolling Hills 4-H Club, 4-H in general and many other community organizations.

The couple became involved with the county fair when their daughter joined 4-H and entered an origami project in 1990. Since then, they have served as project leaders of their local club, Rolling Hills.

Darrell has been an assistant coach for the softball team, photography project leader and assisted with cleaning ditches. Nancy has been the project leader for Explorers, food preservation, cat, dog and rabbit projects.

Together the couple has twice served as chaperones for the National 4-H Congress held in Atlanta, Ga. Darrell can usually be found at the fair testing the honey sundaes and volunteering at the gate for the mud-bug and tractor pull.

At the fair, Nancy helps with dog, cat, rabbit and poultry shows. She is in charge of the county clothing project and, with Darrell, works as an adviser for the Ambassador and Jr. Ambassador programs. She enjoys helping with check-in of projects because then she gets to see everything and hear what the 4-H members have learned about their project areas.

Nancy also enters many things in open class - mostly in the foods and sewing areas. She is the director of the 4-H Showchoir, which performs at the county Fair, Farm City Day, the Wisconsin and Minnesota State Fairs and other county fairs.

When it’s not fair time she keeps busy with other 4-H related activities including chaperoning, the State to State Exchange (Texas), State Conference, Showcase Singers, Emerald Images, being a regional coordinator and host for the Japan/Korea summer exchange program. She has also served on the 4-H Leaders Council.

Darrell has been employed by 3M for over 35 years and Nancy has been a private voice and piano teacher for over 30 years. Both sing with the Phipps Festival Chorus and Oratorio Society. For many years Darrell was a member of the 3M Music Makers and Nancy directed a women’s only choir in River Falls called the Music Madams.

Nancy’s students compete in many competitions and she is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, Wisconsin Music Teachers Association, and is an active judge for solo/ensemble. Nancy also accompanies for Hudson, New Richmond, Baldwin, and St. Croix Central high school choirs and for 10 years was the accompanist of the St. Croix Valley Boy Choir. She also started and directed a children’s choir, called “The Mini Saints,” at Faith Community Church in Hudson for over 10 years.

In their free time, Darrell and Nancy enjoy ushering at the Phipps Center for the Arts, being a part of a monthly play-reading group, boating, camping, motorcycling and snowmobiling.

They have three children, Sarah, of Miami, Fla.; David, of Hudson; and John, currently serving in the Marine Corps in Afghanistan; plus many “extra” children, including several exchange students from around the globe.

Living Memorial Award

The Living Memorial Award that the Burmans received is a way to honor those individuals who put a lot of time and effort in the county fair to make it a success each year. Sometimes they are out front and very visible to all of us and sometimes they are people who work quietly behind the scenes.

The actual award is a bronze plaque that is permanently displayed on the monument near the flags at the fairgrounds. It is a surprise award that is presented during the county fair. Often the Living Memorial Award is presented to a 4-H leader, but it could also be presented to an individual who is not a leader.

Recipients of the Living Memorial Awards for the past five years have been: