Montana 4-H Foundation celebrates Don Greytak Calendar Project

From Montana 4-H

The Montana 4-H Foundation recently raffled off a collection of 4-H calendars by Havre artist Don Greytak to celebrate 28 consecutive years of a very successful 4-H calendar project.

People who purchased a 2019 calendar were able to enter their name into a drawing. The complete 1992-2019 Greytak Montana 4-H calendar collection was won by Scott Burnett and Courtney Nagle of Saint Paul, Minnesota, with the winning ticket sold by Stanford 4-H'er Parker Hughes.

The mint calendar collection was presented in a birch and walnut box built by Jim Potter of Havre.

The top of the box has a tooled leather piece completed by leatherworker Ray Besel of Lewistown.

The calendar collection was donated by Thomas Welch, an agricultural educator at Montana State University-Northern, who originally came up with the Greytak calendar and 4-H association idea.

The early calendars were titled "Montana Agriculture Calendar," which later changed to "Greytak 4-H Calendar."

"Truly, the Montana 4-H Foundation is extremely grateful for Don Greytak's contribution to this project and his talent and generous spirit needs to be noted," Montana 4-H Foundation Executive Director Sandra Germann said.

The calendar artwork within this 28-year collection represents an astounding 364 unique Greytak pencil drawings. Sales from these calendars have benefited more than a generation of local 4-H members throughout Montana and have provided several hundred thousand dollars used for Montana 4-H member activities and youth development.

"This is one of the most pleasing and rewarding projects I have ever been involved with," Welch said. "I am extremely appreciative of the many supporters of this project including Don Greytak, past Montana 4-H Foundation Executive Director Terry Wolfe, current Executive Director Sandra Germann, and early members of the Montana Aggies including Clint Peck, Hayden Ferguson, Fred Traeger and others that supported the project."

The Montana 4-H Foundation also thanks the many people throughout Montana who have supported 4-H members through the years by purchasing Montana 4-H calendars and helped make this unique and ongoing project so successful.