{"id":7499,"date":"2015-07-21T07:20:47","date_gmt":"2015-07-21T13:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=7499"},"modified":"2015-07-22T07:11:08","modified_gmt":"2015-07-22T13:11:08","slug":"colstrip-4-h-club-makes-sure-absent-friend-doesnt-miss-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2015\/07\/colstrip-4-h-club-makes-sure-absent-friend-doesnt-miss-fair\/","title":{"rendered":"4-H club makes sure absent friend doesn’t miss fair"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Steer\"<\/a>

Red Rock 4-H Club<\/p>

Phoebe Miller poses with Vinny, the miniature steer she showed for Sydney Hedges at the Rosebud-Treasure County Fair over the weekend. Holding the steer’s number is Kinslee Hage, another member of the Red Rock 4-H Club in Colstrip.<\/p><\/div>\n

Sydney Hedges was not able to attend the Rosebud-Treasure County Fair in Forsyth over the\u00a0weekend, but she was there\u2014and not just in spirit.<\/p>\n

While the 15-year-old was in Denver being treated for a recurrence of brain cancer, other members of her Red Rock 4-H Club in Colstrip were showing her miniature steer and lamb, which they had spent weeks feeding, bathing, grooming and clipping.<\/p>\n

During the steer judging, one friend set up a FaceTime session so Sydney could speak with the judge. And throughout fair weekend, 4-H members took \u201cflat Sydneys\u201d\u2014doll-size cutouts with a photo of Sydney\u2019s face mounted on them\u2014to virtually every corner of the fair, so that she could be with them, and they with her.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey pretty much had the crowd crying almost all the time,\u201d Cherish Dudley said. \u201cIt was pretty intense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Syd\"<\/a>

Angie Hedges<\/p>

Sydney Hedges, before her hospitalization in Denver, with one of her goats.<\/p><\/div>\n

Cherish\u2019s daughter, Emma, was the 4-H member who showed Sydney\u2019s lamb, and Cherish\u2019s sister-in-law, Lyndsey Dudley, is a co-leader of the Red Rock 4-H Club with Sydney\u2019s mother, Angie Hedges.<\/p>\n

Hedges, who is with her daughter in Denver, said the weekend was \u201ckind of bittersweet, because she wasn\u2019t there with her animals to show, but she was very loved and very involved, like she was there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sydney, who will be a sophomore at Colstrip High School this fall, was first diagnosed with brain cancer in 2011. She had two surgeries then, followed by extensive radiation and chemotherapy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t ever clear, but we were not progressing, as they call it,\u201d Hedges said. Then, in April, another tumor was discovered on Sydney\u2019s brain and she underwent surgery again in early June, which is now being followed up on by 12 weeks of radiation and chemotherapy.<\/p>\n

Hedges’ husband Dan, who works as a mechanic for Western Energy in Colstrip, goes down to Denver on weekends when he can. The Hedgeses have one other child, 19-year-old Nathan.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Lyndsey Dudley said that when Sydney was diagnosed with cancer in 2011 and had to miss the fair that year, too, the 4-Hers tended her animals and saw to it that her 50-some projects were submitted to the fair. She regularly sewed with her grandmother and did other crafts with her, which accounted for some of her fair entries. She was also involved in cooking and photography.<\/p>\n

In addition to raising sheep and miniature steers, she bred goats and sold them to other 4-H members and also raised dogs and cats she\u2019d show at the fair.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first year I went to the fair, she had this stack of projects,” Lyndsey Dudley said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s no joke: it would take two pages of entry forms for her to enter everything. She\u2019s so serious and prolific about it.<\/p>\n

\"Maddie\"<\/a>

Cherish Dudley<\/p>

Lyndsey Dudley’s daughter Maddie, heading into a stick horse race, displays her “flat Sydney.”<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s always been our poster child for someone who embraced everything 4-H can offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cherish Dudley said Sydney really threw herself into her animals and her fair projects after her illness forced her to give up volleyball and basketball. The other members of the 4-H club were amazed at all she did.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids feel like it was quite an honor to be able to represent her at the fair,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In addition to the FaceTime session, the 4-Hers sent Sydney text messages throughout the fair, and there were regular updates on the club\u2019s Facebook page, including numerous photos of various friends and family members with the \u201cflat Sydneys.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really a group effort,\u201d Cherish Dudley said. \u201cThey all jumped in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emma Dudley, who showed Sydney\u2019s market lamb, said it took first place out of 20 entrants. Sydney’s\u00a0steer won first place, too\u2014though he was the only one in his class. Her animals went for about $4,000, thanks to generous bidding, Lyndsey Dudley said, and donations were collected at the market stock sale, bringing in another $4,000.<\/p>\n

Angie Hedges, whose family has been in Colstrip for eight years, said she wasn\u2019t surprised by the kindness and generosity shown this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great community,\u201d she said. \u201cAnybody in need\u2014they all step up to help.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sydney Hedges was not able to attend the Rosebud-Treasure County Fair in Forsyth over the\u00a0weekend, but she was there\u2014and not just in spirit. While the 15-year-old was in Denver being treated for a recurrence of brain cancer, other members of her Red Rock 4-H Club in Colstrip were showing her miniature steer and lamb, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2828,2830,1356,2831,2826,2829,2824,2825,2827],"class_list":["post-7499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","tag-angie-and-dan-hedges","tag-cherish-dudley","tag-colstrip","tag-emma-dudley","tag-forysth","tag-lindsey-dudley","tag-red-rock-4-h-club","tag-rosebud-treasure-county-fair","tag-sydney-hedges","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}