Mickey Blum and her late husband, Bill Blum of Washington County, were officially inducted into the 2022 Iowa 4-H Hall of Fame during an induction ceremony at the Iowa State Fair. Individual counties select inductees for their dedication, encouragement, commitment, and guidance to Iowa’s 4-H’ers through the years.

The Blum’s were recognized at the Washington County Fair for their contributions to the rabbit program. Bill Blum was the superintendent of Washington County’s rabbit program, with Mickey helping 4-Hers prepare their projects for the fair. During his tenure, he upgraded the rabbit facilities at the fair, built new cages by hand, and helped significantly grow the number of participants in the rabbit program.

Washington 4-H and youth coordinator Amy Green spoke with KCII about how the Blum’s got their start in 4-H. “Bill and Mickey as a team got their own family into rabbits pretty intensely with hundreds of rabbits at a time, and their girls showed rabbits as well. Bill stepped in kind of blindly into the position when his daughters started to showcase rabbits because the position was needed, and just did so much to elevate the program from the facilities to the breeding standards.”

The Blum’s were one of 133 inductees in the 2022 class, and the entire class can be found online at the Iowa 4-H Foundation website underneath the Recognizing Service tab.