Photo courtesy of the Iowa 4-H Foundation

National 4-H Week recognizes the positive lifelong impact the program can have from youth to volunteers and alumni, and one Guthrie County resident serves as a clear example.

Dr. Doug Frels, co-owner of Guthrie County Veterinary Services in Guthrie Center, was inducted into the Iowa 4-H Hall of Fame this year for his efforts in Guthrie County. The veterinarian, whose practice is just next door to the county fairgrounds, may call himself more of an Iowa captive than native, as he is originally from western Nebraska where his family farm is located. Frels didn’t expect to plant roots in Iowa when he and his wife Dr. Donna Paglialunga start practicing veterinary medicine in the 1980s, but he then became active in the community and 4-H in several ways, such as being a leader of the Wichita Wildcats 4-H Club and a member of the Extension Council for 12 years.

Frels shares what 4-H means to him, “I think that 4-H for me, and watching kids grow up around here and stuff, I think it’s a wonderful chance to develop maturity and responsibility. I gotta admit I’m more of an old traditional 4-H person in a sense that, you know it was livestock and home ec(onomics) type things, but now 4-H is so much more. I mean, kids that can’t be in livestock and things like that, there’s plenty of opportunities for them to do some wonderful things.”

Frels also gives special credit to the local Extension office for constantly evolving and expanding their offerings to youth. Besides helping keep animals healthy year round and during the county fair, he donates his time to the Guthrie County Community Foundation, Prairie Woodland Conservation Foundation, and the School Improvement Advisory Committee.