Donna MacNeir, Former Camp Director, Inducted into the 4-H Hall of Fame!

One of our own has made the big time!!!

Yes, we are so proud of Donna MacNeir, a long-time member of our 4-H Camp community, who on October 11th was inducted into the National 4-H Hall Of Fame at a ceremony in Washington, DC.

During her time at 4-H Camp, Donna was in charge of rental group recruitment, facility maintenance, recruitment and training of summer camp staff, and more. Notable accomplishments during her time in this position included a financial gift for infrastructure upgrades at the NJ 4-H Camp from the Dean of Cook College and another award to establish a fishing program. (As fishing is one of our campers' favorite methods to while away a Camp morning or afternoon, we're still grateful for that!)

Here's Donna on her multitude of roles at 4-H Camp:

"I’m not at all good talking about myself, but here I go: I started to attend 4-H Camp when I was 11. It was just something our 4-H Club, in Camden County did. Camp back then had a different delivery model; each County had an assigned week and 4-H leaders and teens served as counselors. I made lifelong friendships and keep in touch with many through my camp experience. 

So I attended county camp as a camper, counselor, one year as a camp staff member, then again as a counselor for winter camp weekends, organized County Camps for Camden County; volunteer at “work weekends” to get camp ready for summer and then in 1983 was hired as Assistant Director at Lindley G. Cook. I held that role, until I became Interim Director. I retired from Rutgers in 1999 to move to Iowa, to become the State 4-H Camp Manager. And I have met Lindley G. Cook. What a man!"

Appropriately for autumn, Donna also shared one of her favorite photographs of the drive down Struble road toward 4-H Camp:

Donna continues to be a wonderful support of L.G. Cook 4-H Camp, as a donor, a long-distance support, and an active member of our Camp community.

Or as Donna put it:

"Most importantly, I am humbled on how many former camp staff are my friends on social media. I was their boss and now they are friends."

We know this honor is well deserved, and we're thrilled Donna received the recognition. Congrats from your 4-H Camp family!