There’s a reason Tammy Walker wakes up every morning as  Flathead County’s biggest advocate of the 4-H youth organization.

“I’ve seen what the other side looks like,” she said. “I know what it’s like to be lost and confused, and what it’s like to be found.

“And I know what it looks like for kids who have hope and ethics and a sense of the world being bigger than themselves,” she added. “4-H infuses a sense of leadership and community into children.”

Walker became the 4-H extension agent for Flathead County two years ago, bringing with her a resume stacked with work experience as an educator and leader in the areas of child development, family and community relations and leadership development.

With more than 600 members and 200 active volunteer adult leaders, Flathead County has one of the largest 4-H programs in Montana.

“The volunteers are what make it,” she said. “My job is to help them be successful.”

Flathead already had a well-honed 4-H program when Walker arrived on the job in January 2012, but she sees the potential for the program to be much larger. She has noticed more and more volunteers with non-4-H background wanting to get involved because they see the value of the program. And Walker’s phone rings an average of 15 times a week with inquiries from families interested in getting involved with 4-H.

Much has changed since America’s first corn and tomato clubs — forerunners of 4-H — began in 1902. The program took off when early-day agricultural extension agents decided to teach new farming techniques to children because their pioneer parents were too busy to spare the time.

The extension agents' plan worked. Once farmers saw their children's corn and tomatoes outperforming their crops, they began taking the agents seriously. The youth movement reached Montana in 1907 and was established in Flathead County in 1919.

While 4-H still teaches youths about growing crops and raising livestock and other animals, these days 4-H members are just as apt to tap into robotics or aeronautics projects.

“Science and technology is a big component,” Walker said. “4-H is like a big restaurant menu. You start with what you love and then pick and choose” what you want to learn about.

There has long been an entrepreneurial spirit in the development of 4-H projects. Flathead County, for example, has the largest shooting sports program in the state because “somebody thought, let’s use this tool with youth leadership development,” Walker said.

The template for extension agents is much like that of a missionary, she explained. Agents are sent into rural areas to advocate for people’s needs.

Walker, 45, had no idea what 4-H was when she was growing up in a rural desert community in Southern California. It was a hardscrabble life, without much hope or future.

“There was a lot of poverty ... it was along the lines of survival. Mom was a single parent, my grandmother helped raise me,” Walker said. “I remember eating a lot of block cheese and peanut butter” from government commodity programs.

Undeterred by her disadvantaged childhood, Walker knew she wanted to go to college, but got married and had two daughters before that plan materialized several years after high school.

“I took the kids with to college,” she said.

Walker eventually earned a degree in psychology, with an emphasis in child development and family relations, from East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., then got her master’s in family and consumer sciences from the University of Idaho.

She began her career as a county extension agent in Arkansas, and after several years left to challenge herself with a seven-month stint as a training coordinator for the Arizona Child Development and Health Board.

Before moving to the Flathead, Walker was clinic director for Ascent Children’s Health Services in Little Rock for several years, a job that entailed overseeing a day-treatment center with 150 youths and a staff of 60.

“It’s unlike anything we have here,” she said. “There were preemies (premature babies), crack babies; I regularly dealt with gang violence to the point where I lined up escorts to get the kids home.

“I saw young mothers who dealt with a lot of violence and a lack of hope,” Walker continued. “It was very inner city.”

After divorcing her first husband of 20 years, Walker later married again and told her new husband one day that she had applied for a job in Montana. Her extensive experience in youth development made her a shoo-in for the 4-H extension agent job.

“We sold everything and moved here. I took a pay cut and I’ve loved every minute of it,” Walker said.

Her work with young people goes beyond her job. For the past couple of years the Walkers have been host parents to foreign exchange students. This year they’re hosting a girl from Korea and a girl from Denmark. Next year students from Denmark and Germany are coming.

“I collect teenagers,” she said with a laugh. “I have a heart for young people.”

Walker is a soon-to-be grandmother. Her oldest daughter, Alycia, 24, is expecting a baby. Her other daughter, Valerie, is 21.

When she married Derrick Walker they blended their families; he has three children ages 18, 16 and 9, and his 9-year-old daughter lives with them. He’s pastor of Kila Country Church and also is a FedEx driver.

Walker doesn’t profess to have much spare time, but she’s in this year’s Leadership Flathead class.

“I’m excited about who I’m becoming,” she said. “If you open yourself up you can become someone even better. The Flathead is fertile ground for becoming someone amazing.”

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.