RAPID CITY, S.D. – Campers gather around camp counselor Billy Kezena as he asks them, “Does anyone know what a credit union is?” When no one offers an answer, Kezena explained, “A credit union is a cooperative that serves as a bank. Which means, as the credit union, we are the camp bank.”
“What’s a cooperative?” a 10-year-old camper asks. “A co-op is a business, but instead of it being owned by just one person or a small group of people, it is owned by all the people, or members who shop or do their banking with that business.”
After the campers understood the role of their cooperative, Kezena guided the group through board elections. Clayton Hiles, a sixth-grader from Wolsey-Wessington was elected chair of Cattle Credit Union board of directors.
“I think cooperatives are a good idea because with so many owners there are more people to help,” said Hiles, who came to Farmers Union State Youth Camp with his sister, Haylee, who was elected to serve as board secretary.
Like Clayton and Haylee, Farmers Union Camp is where Kezena first learned about cooperatives. “I think the cooperative business model is such a cool concept.”
Camp counselor Cadence Konechne agreed. “I like teaching campers about cooperatives because I always had fun running a co-op when I attended Farmers Union Camp. Cooperatives are truly about their members and not just about one person or a small group of people making money.”
During camp, Konechne was responsible for guiding campers as they ran the camp store co-op the campers named Money Minuses.
Teaching youth about cooperatives by giving them the opportunity to run one has been a South Dakota Farmers Union Camp tradition for 90 years. And all these years later, cooperative education remains relevant, explained Samantha Bowman, Education Program Specialist for South Dakota Farmers Union.
“Cooperatives play an important role in many rural communities where these youth live. The younger kids are when they learn about how cooperatives work and the value of co-op membership, the more likely they are to be engaged members as adults and participate in opportunities cooperatives provide to teens, like scholarships,” Bowman said.
In addition to camp store and credit union cooperatives, the more than 60 campers also ran a camp newspaper, housing and insurance cooperatives with guidance from Junior Advisory Council members like Kezena and Konechne.
Kezena and Konechne are among a group of teens recently elected to serve on the Junior Advisory Council during the 2024 Farmers Union State Leadership Camp held in the Black Hills. Other Junior Advisory Council members who served as camp counselors are Brooke LaMont and Senior Advisory Council members Sean Thompson and Madi Raymond. SDFU Interns also involved are Aeriel Eitreim, Cally Faulhaber and Rachel Groth.
Several State Leadership Camp alumni also volunteered to serve as camp counselors for Farmers Union State Youth Camp including Coltyn Raymond, Avery McCloud, Mya McCloud and Lorelei Ruhnke.
“It was exciting to see these teens put the leadership skills they developed into action at Youth Camp,” Bowman said.
What makes a cow’s stomach different from ours?
In addition to hands-on cooperative training, camp programming also taught campers about the difference between single compartment stomachs like humans or pigs and animals with four compartment stomachs like cattle, sheep and goats.
Rotating through three stations, campers learned about ruminant animals by coloring, manipulating playdough to sculpt the stomach compartments and creating a four-compartment stomach with water, chips, a coffee filter and plastic bags.
Campers got to learn more about animal digestive systems when they toured a local veterinary clinic. “It was fun learning how a cow’s stomach works,” said Jack Stockwell, a camper from Parker. “I live on a farm and we have cows, so I always thought they were cool animals. But I did not know how their stomachs worked. And now I feel a bit bad that they have to puke up what they eat and eat it again.”
2024 is the second year that Jack and his 12-year-old brother, William, have attended the State Youth Camp. “As a farm kid, I like coming to Farmers Union Camp each year because I can make friends with people I can relate to because this is a camp run by a farm organization,” William said.
