Behind every 4-H’er

A mom

The high light of our year and maybe the longest week of the year as well. THE FAIR. Our kids work all year long, going to club meetings, volunteering, raising money for club projects, working on fair projects, taking care of their livestock/ pets. It all comes together (sometimes the morning of) but none the less it’s done. The kids work so hard all year and it’s about to all pay off.
4-H has always been in my families blood. My grandpa and grandma on both sides were in 4-H. My father and mother were in 4-H and my siblings and I were in 4-H at a young age. Unfortunately one year I decided to take on a different summer activity which meant I wouldn’t be able to make it to the fair any more.

So at the end of that week, we packed up all of the ropes, the shovels, hoses, buckets, and brushes. We went home unloaded everything into the barn and walked away. Well the years passed and the dust on my show box got thicker and thicker until I had forgot about all of the stuff that was behind the main Show barn at the Gage County Fair.
Now as an adult I go to the fair and I walk threw the livestock barns and for some reason I don’t remember all the long hot days of doing chores and washing cows but I remember the year I feel asleep on one of the biggest cows in our club while doing barn duty, the fun we had playing with the other kids in the club down at the campers, and the famous water fight on the last day when we were cleaning up!

This year will be my sons 2nd year in 4-H. He is the Vice President of the Blue River 4-H club and watching him take care of his animals and the love he has for them fills my heart with joy. Its not all fun and games, it’s hard work, dirty work, you sweat a lot and there are many late nights. Sometimes tempers get short (his and mine) Which now I know why it was so easy for my parents to say “it’s ok to be done” because now as a parent I see how much work it is to be a 4-H’ers parent. But that is why it is all worth it.

It’s not always about the ribbon that he takes home but one day I hope he is able to look back and see what a impact all his hard work has taught him. Threw his club he is learning life skills that will stick with him for a life time. In his short 2 years I have seen his leadership skills grow, his love for others and wanting to help others, and with time and practice he will learn the ins and outs of livestock and agriculture and with the knowledge..........O the places he will go.

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Way back in the 60's my father Don Trimm ran a photography studio out of our house. I was a little kid and I don't remember any of it except we had a room in our house called the "Dark Room," which was a pantry by the time I knew it but was where my father had previously developed negatives and prints. Hence it was a photography dark room at one time.

I remember seeing stacks of his photos and many of them were from the Miss Fairbury contest which must have been a big thing back in the day. On the back of all his photograph proofs was stamped, "Don Trimm Photo." I don't know if because of the size of the stamp they couldn't fit "Photograpy" but that stuck with me for years. I started photography back before high school and had a working dark room as well, (way before digital) where I processed negatives and made proofs.

Currently we have been working with the Miss Jefferson County contest which just goes to show that some things never change. 50 years later we are carrying on my fathers legacy. I wish I had some of those proofs but they were destroyed years ago. He was fond of black and white portraits with dramatic lighting.

When we decided to start Trimm Photo I wanted to honor my father by using "Photo" instead of "Photography" and also decided to make it a media site instead of a photography studio because I had planned to  be a journalist back in college. I am a Registered Nurse by profession and me and my wife Cheryl run Trimm Photo as a hobby on steroids.

In the modern age of the internet, anyone can be a journalist and we jumped on the opportunity. We have covered many high school sporting and special events in Southeast Nebraska  and have got to know many coaches and students as well as visited many schools. We have a child who is a freshman at FHS and one that just graduated who are very active in sports. We have covered many sporting events (most of them actually) where our sons were not participating.

As a media site we do not sell prints. Some do, we chose not to and ask for sponsorship instead. That has worked well for us as we'd prefer to give our work away instead of trying to sell it. You can download prints and print at home or take them to Wal Mart in Fairbury or Beatrice to print. We have permission slips at both.

 We also produce a lot of video content and were the first in Fairbury to do so. We provided video for the Fairbury Journal News website before they created their version and have over 800 local content videos on our YouTube channel.

We seem to have found our niche and have created a good following, heading towards 3000 as of the writing of this article. We hope to gain many more as we have at least 4 more years to do this before our son graduates. I don't want to give away all our secrets but the motto I often use is that everyone has a mom and that Trimm Photo was built on the support of mothers.

Thanks moms for making us what we are.

Keith and Cheryl Trimm.