Every so often on WGLT, we feature community servants and unsung heroes working to make Bloomington-Normal a better place to live. It's a series we call More of That, Please! In this edition, we focus on a man from rural Normal who has been lighting up children’s lives for close to six decades.
Ray Ropp is a model of patience and constancy. His is a story of nurturing and nudging. And one of rare longevity. Ropp has headed the near century-old Linden Lead-em 4-H chapter for 58 years, and counting.
Sitting at the kitchen table in his house west of Normal, Ropp talked about how he has that long — from the time he came back from military service until now, when time and a life as a dairy farmer has brought him to use a walker.
“I love kids and I have a desire to make them better citizens and to develop their skills and talents to their fullest potential,” said Ropp.
From a largely agricultural club makeup originally, Linden Lead-em members are now mostly city children. But they haven’t changed a whole lot.
“Kids are still kids," said Ropp. "They like to have fun. They like to feel appreciated. I think they even like to be challenged and we try to do that.”
One of those kids was Brady Veal.
“Ray has really just been a staple of my life ever since I joined 4H when I was 8,” said Veal, a former member of the club and now a college senior in computer science and software engineering.
Veal, 22, said Ropp was a mentor through many experiences — going to the dairy, seeing cows, taking projects to the McLean County Fair, talking U of I football — all the while quietly teaching him how to be a better person. Veal eventually became county fair king. Looking back on it, Veal said the environment Ropp created is not something a kid would notice, even though it was great fun.
“Even as a young person seeing him with such passion and dedication to lead our club that was an amazing thing,” said Veal, who is the second generation of his family to go through the Linden Lead-em club.
Randy Mohr is 67. He was in Ropp's first group of kids 58 years ago. Mohr and his brothers and sister all went through Linden Lead-em. Mohr said his family members all agree Ropp is really good at three things — the most important is helping kids learn about public speaking.
“I can’t tell you the number of people that will say Ray made me learn how to speak in front of people. It’s an asset all of us use to this day. And it’s something Ray forced us to do,” said Mohr.
That first speech in front of the club may be just 10 to 12 words. Dan Kelly was an assistant leader with Ropp for 23 years. Kelley said he remembers the first project talk he gave about the pig that he was raising.
“And I was trembling, probably. Nervous. Dry throat. And yet over the period of 10 years it became easy to do,” said Kelley.
Little by little, children become accomplished and assured.
Another thing Ropp does is ask the kids to run the meetings, all according to Roberts Rules of Order. Mohr said he’s still active in several county groups and gets asked all the time how he knows so much about the rules. It was Ray Ropp.
“Most 15-year-olds that were members of the Linden Lead-em 4-H club probably knew how to run a meeting with parliamentary procedure better than most city councils do to this day,” said Mohr.
Ropp also insisted people keep records, including expenses for projects and still does. That’s a chore, especially if you take a lot of projects to the county fair. It’s also a quiet way to force you to be organized and structured. Mohr said it pays off big in later years.
A quiet something
The structure of the club hasn’t varied much over the decades. Meetings, parliamentary procedure, projects, the county fair, potlucks and softball, putting together meticulous records, and of course giving a speech.
But former club member Mass Bussan, whose daughter Trinity is now in the club, said there is a quiet something that ties it all together and makes it far more than the formula of an annual cycle.
“I think having an interest for the kids and caring for the kids. And people just want someone to care about them. And that gets that buy-in, more than if they were just doing it as another checklist to do versus, I love this club. He’s a special individual,” said Bussan.
Another trait of Ray Ropp that former club members said they didn’t learn to appreciate until later in life is that he shows interest in every single project. And every single kid. Randy Mohr recalled a club trip to a kid’s home and a basement collection of insects for a project talk.
“Ray must have spent a half hour asking this kid about his project and about these certain bugs and how he collected them and how he mounted them and how he did all this. That kid was probably getting as much attention as Ray gave us for having the large animals and having the big stuff,” said Mohr.
He makes kids feel seen.
“He’s always got a big heart. He always has a smile, always has a joke, just a hardworking caring guy,” said Bussan.
OK jokes. A lot of former club members, Bussan included, said Ropp is impish…a tease accompanied by a quiet smile.
“I don’t know if Ray will ever fully grow up. He has a good sense of humor and always has a smile or a joke and doesn’t take things too seriously when it doesn’t need to be taken seriously,” said Bussan.
Dan Kelley said Ropp has the kids play games, the same ones seen nearly a century ago when the club began.
“You know, there’s part of Ray that’s still a kid. He enjoys games like Kabati. He enjoys Treasure Hunt. He enjoys softball, but he really enjoys motivating young people,” said Kelley.
OK Kabati?
“Kabati is where you tag someone. You have to say Kabati, Kabati, Kabati as long as you can. And the first one to not say Kabati because they’ve run out of air, loses,” said Kelley.
The games serve a purpose in addition to letting kids run around and blow off steam, playing duck duck goose the way their great grandparents did. They get families to play together — parents and children. And they get kids comfortable with each other in a way that Eric Veal said has changed over the decades.
What was a shared affirmation of rural culture a long time gone is now a chance for young people of very different backgrounds — town kids, rural children, and home-schooled kids alike — to bond.
“The younger generations don’t even know what the games are, so he’s imparting some history to them as well as imparting a standard of communication and getting to know each other. It’s just funny as I’ve grown older to watch some things that stay the same are received differently by different generations and in a positive light,” said Veal.
Share the fun
One thing Ropp really loves each year is called "Share the Fun." Dan Kelley said that’s a funny original play contest performed at the county fair, put on by each 4-H club.
“Ray believed when he prepared this skit for the Share the Fun activity was you should not over rehearse. And many times, the kids went to the fair having went through the program one time. And maybe one time was a stretch in some instances. Ray’s belief was that Share the Fun should be fun,” said Kelley.
Again, the event involves more than one generation. Bussan had a surprise role to play one year.
“I didn’t know exactly how the end was going to go. And they had all the kids go up to try to pretend to start a lawn mower and it wasn’t starting, wasn’t starting. And they called me up on stage and I pretended to start the mower and it started right up. They said we just needed one big ‘jerk’ to get it started [laughs]. I was the big jerk, but you know the kids loved it and it didn’t bother me at all,” said Bussan.
Ropp’s answer to the question of why he wants the kids to play the same games children did a century ago can apply to the way he does things in the rest of the club as well.
“They’re fun. I don’t think you have to have a change in all the things you do if what is effective and good and fun, why change it? If the results are what you are desiring why should you change it?” said Ropp.
Ray’s method includes making sure kids of different ages get to know each other instead of just the ones in the same class at school. Leadership development includes organizational hierarchy through offices in the club. He encourages officers to talk with younger or newer 4-H members two or three times per meeting.
“To make those kids feel welcome into the club. I think it’s important that younger kids learn the feeling of being accepted,” said Ropp, adding one of the aspects of making a successful organization is keeping a strong membership, and it’s also important for the officers to learn how to do that by being inclusive.
Ropp also encourages parents to help their kids do their best. He paraphrases a saying by legendary Green Bay Packers football coach Vince Lombardi.
“I think all of us have certain abilities and unless we utilize those abilities to our fullest potential, we’re cheating not only our community and our family, but we’re cheating our god as well,” said Ropp.
Former club members like Matt Bussan said Ropp is the guy who makes the mythic salt of the earth yeoman farmer real.
“Ray is the type of guy that embodies Americana, embodies small town values, embodies love for country, love for others,” said Bussan.
And those values all point to building community so that planting the seeds in children’s activities will yield, decades from now, a bountiful harvest of social capital.
“In this day and age, people don’t want to commit to things. People don’t want to volunteer for things. People don’t want to necessarily be part of big groups. And 4-H allows all of that to happen,” said Bussan.
All that is very well and good as a big societal theme. Dan Kelley said you shouldn’t lose sight of each child who feels seen by Ropp and who will carry that experience into their own life.
“Sometimes it’s these things that you just said offhand that can influence a person’s life,” said Kelley.
Ropp modestly said leadership involves showing passion for the organization, its goals, its methods, and knowing the details of the organization is important in showing that passion.
“I’d often say I don’t know how to inspire, but I know when I have been inspired. And I’m sure I’m not a great motivator, but I know definitely when I have been motivated and I try to do what I can in that area as well,” said Ropp.
Former Linden Lead-Em 4-Her Randy Mohr said Ropp's ability to adjust to today’s children who are far different than the farm kids prevalent when Mohr was a member is a rare talent.
And we need more of that please.
