There was a celebration of the Dream Team Tuesday evening at the Randall County 4H Livestock Barn. They're getting ready for a big show next week, but for many of these kids and their families, it's just another step toward something much bigger.
Dr. J.D. Ragland, of the Randall County Extension Service, has been involved with the Dream Team from the start in 2011.
His office and the County Commissioners Court wanted to find a way to help middle school kids identified as at-risk develop responsibility and hard work ethics.
They developed this program to bear the costs associated with a livestock project, while putting the task of raising and showing a pig on the kids and their families.
"We are just here to provide a life-changing opportunity, not only for the youngster but for the family as well," Ragland said. “Everybody can get involved in the exercising the daily grooming, the watching, but ultimately when it comes to showtime, the exhibitor, the participant, the youngster, obviously will have to exhibit the animal at that point in time, but up until then, everyone can be involved in it."
While the parents might not be thrilled at the idea of getting the kids up early every day to go to the barn, Louise Williams says she sees her son Henry maturing through the process.
"There are mornings when he'll say, ‘Mom, I don't want to get up,’ and I tell him, ‘You have to feed him. He's hungry.’ And, sure enough, when we come and he's screaming at us because he's hungry. It's part of that responsibility that he has to care for an animal that's dependent upon him," Williams said.
Bryson Myers, a student at Westover Junior High, said it was a challenge at first getting his pig to cooperate.
"It was very crazy. It wouldn't let you touch it, you would feed it and it would just move you out of the way and you kinda have to shove it out of the way just to get the food into the trough," Myers said.
He said his parents have been very supportive throughout, despite some pushback when he decided on his pig's name, Jimmy Dean.
"My mom said, ‘You are not naming your pig Jimmy Dean.’ I said, ‘It’s Jimmy Dean.’ And she said, ‘Okay, if that’s what you want.’"
As of this year, 61 kids have benefited from the Dream Team.
This year’s class will show their animals January 18, at the Happy State Bank Event Center.