Nori Pearce has spent the better part of 50 years deeply ingrained in the world of 4-H, a journey that began with her as a young member and eventually evolved into a career.

Pearce was only 9 when a neighbor, Emmy, invited her to a 4-H gathering. An only child to two working parents, Pete and Dolores, Pearce said she figured Emmy extended the offer so she wouldn’t be alone while her parents were away at work.

“That’s just how 4-H works in communities. People are often just invited to a get-together, then they are plugged into a group and they become part of a family,” said Pearce, Extension agent for 4-H Youth Development in Flathead County. “That’s how it started with me. I just had a really wonderful neighbor.”

Her family lived in Durango, Colorado, at the time on a small plot of land that Pearce, now in her 60s, described as being not quite urban or rural, just “on the edge of town.”

There was enough property for her to own a horse named Lucky, who was not only a close companion, but also a means for Pearce to join the local 4-H horsemanship program. And Pearce would eventually latch onto other offerings within her local community network, including projects centered around cooking and crafting clothes.

From the onset, Pearce said she knew she had discovered something special with 4-H, and as she grew older, she knew she wanted the program to remain a pivotal part of her life. So when she enrolled in Colorado State University she began studying family and consumer sciences — a choice she believed would further develop the skills 4-H had already awarded her.

While in college, she met and married Hal, and when the two moved to his hometown of Meaker, Colorado, population 2,500, Pearce was again in search of a way to get plugged into the local 4-H community — an opportunity that arose when the local extension agent went on a sabbatical and Pearce stepped into that position.

“That was really the basis for me starting my career in this field,” said Pearce, who in that moment moved closer to being a 4-H leader.

She remained a program figurehead in that community for about 20 years, and helped develop different programs and projects, and learned more about how broad 4-H really is.

The program offers children the opportunity to forge projects in science, healthy living and civic engagement. These range from the more the commonly-known market animals projects to ones that focus on aeronautics, robotics and leadership building skills. And while some suggest 4-H might be a bit of a “dying art,” as Pearce described it, she has witnessed programs remain stable and even flourish over the years. In Montana alone, there are over 200 projects members can pursue.

“A lot of people think of the fair when they think of 4-H. They picture kids with their cattle and their sheep and figure that’s most of what this is all about,” Pearce said. “But there are so many other aspects that really teach children valuable life lessons and skills.”

AT THE same time Pearce was developing youth programs in her community, she also spent those two decades raising three sons, all of whom she made sure were involved in 4-H from the time they were young.

“I believe it takes a village to raise a child, and one thing 4-H definitely offers is caring adults. Based on my experience growing up with my neighbor Emmy, I knew the more of those people they had in their lives, the better people they would become,” Pearce said.

Just like what happened with Pearce, 4-H became a part of her boys’ lives, too. They all pursued their own projects and remained largely attached to the program until they were grown. Pearce said by association, the programs they chose became projects of her own.

“It’s like they went their own ways and did their own things, but we all learned from each other,” said Pearce, who went on to describe the time one of her sons took up shooting, so she did as well, and eventually became nationally certified so she could teach others how to properly handle and use firearms.

IT WASN’T until the early 2000s, after her children were mostly grown, that Pearce would start to look for new opportunities outside the close-knit Colorado town where she had spent so much of her life.

After 30 years together, Pearce said her and Hal had reached a tipping point in their marriage. As she saw it, her happiness was dependent on whether she chose to stay married and settle or separate and seek fulfillment elsewhere.

“That’s when I moved from Northwest Colorado to Northwest Montana. I immediately fell in love with the lakes and the mountains,” said Pearce, who took a job as an extension agent in Lake County in 2008.

She remained in that position until about two years ago, when she moved across Flathead Lake from Polson to Bigfork to accept her current role as Flathead County’s Extension Agent for 4-H Youth Development.

The position is offered through Montana State University, as is the case with every network in every state. Nationally, 4-H is made possible via a community of more than 100 public universities across the nation that provides experiences to youth. Pearce said when land grant universities were founded, 4-H was developed as a means to “bring education to the people so they didn’t have to travel to a university.”

AT HER current job, Pearce said no two days are the same.

Much of her time is spent enhancing the already robust 4-H program in Flathead County, while finding qualified adults to develop and lead new ones. For example, Pearce said in Flathead County, one of the most robust 4-H facets is shooting sports. And while these programs are never short on members or leaders, she said some areas that could use more attention are technology programs such as robotics and aeronautics.

One of her primary goals in the coming years is to build a “very active and engaged ambassador program” and “get more leaders involved at the ground level.”

Mark Campbell, Flathead County fairgrounds manager, has worked extensively with Pearce and said her role is not an easy one as it entails juggling multiple tasks while being compassionate, a great listener and above all, having a passion for educating youth.

“They [Extension agents] will be judged against those who’ve held the role in the past while doing their best to move the programs forward. Nori entered her service in Flathead County with Extension experience and a strong background in collaboration. This has served her well as Flathead County has always been one of the largest programs in the state. She’s adapted well during a challenging time,” Campbell said.

That challenging time included helping organize the 4-H portions of the 2020 Northwest Montana Fair and Rodeo during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pearce, who helped organize the wildly successful online livestock auction, said the event has been one of her most challenging tasks to date.

But just as 4-H has taught her time and time again, no task is too big if it is tackled head-on and with the help from the local community.

“This [4-H] has given me a lifetime of learning and love and it continues to do so,” Pearce said. “I can’t imagine what I would be without it.”

Reporter Kianna Gardner can be reached at 758-4407 or kgardner@dailyinterlake.com