3 minute read
The Value of Helping
BY AMBER HENDERSON
There are a lot of lessons to be learned from putting on a successful Nationals show. I want to tell you about one clear lesson that was solidified for me leading up to and during our Jersey Wooly Nationals show this year. That lesson is the value of helping others succeed. I’ve struggled with my rabbits. I have always struggled in a good way and I know that most of you do, too. I love the challenge of dissecting our Standard of Perfection and piecing together a more perfect Wooly to fit the ideal by using the genetic materials I’ve gathered together and stored in my barn. It is a very fun, frustrating, yet satisfying kind of challenge that fuels my dedication to keep going. However, in the past three and a half years, I necessarily shifted my focus onto my health and family while I battled cancer. The rabbits had to be put on the back burner. I reduced my tiny herd even further to ease any burden on my family. I kept my most genetically important animals. And then, as it happens sometimes, lost my keystones. I lost my bucks.
Those whom I regularly show against, know what dire straits my breeding program has been in. The competition: what happens when your competition knows you’ve lost your aces? I’ll tell you what they do. They do everything they can to help you be successful in getting your breeding program going again with the best animals they can provide. This is what my fellow competitors do. We help others improve their herds. This is what has bonded our friendships and excelled the depth of quality of our herds locally and nationally.
It is that kind of selfless support of others that prompted me to share this short story in our JW Nationals exhibitor gift bags: There was a farmer who grew excellent quality corn. Every year, he won the award for the best grown corn. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. “How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?” the reporter asked. “Why sir,” said the farmer, “Didn’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbor grow good corn.” So it is with our beloved rabbit hobby. When we help others to improve their Jersey Woolies with good qualities that will eventually fill the gene pool, we wind up improving our own Jersey Woolies in the process. The truth is that when we support each other, we all win!.
As exhibitors; as competitors; as friends, we help each other succeed. The same can be said for planning and carrying out a successful Nationals show. I want to acknowledge that PCWRC’s inspiration was the Northwest Jersey Wooly Breeders club member’s diehard and can-do attitudes in pulling off the 2020 JW National show. PCWRC members are also grateful for the individuals who, having a selfless perspective and sense of community about the rabbit hobby, cheered us on in our work and wished us nothing less than great success! Some will support you and help you to rise to success even if it means the light might not shine on them for a moment. Listen to and surround yourself with those who will lift you up. They are not naive. They know what they’re doing. They have the interest of the whole hobby at heart. Those are the kind of exhibitors who you want to be able to call “neighbor”. They are the kind of exhibitor we should aspire to emulate because when we do, we all win.
