It’s Valentine’s Day and that means love is in the air.  The grocery stores are filled with pink and red candies and chocolates, card stores are bursting at the seams with quirky and sentimental cards, and 4-H Ontario is celebrating by sharing a 4-H Love Story. Yup, you heard read that right, a 4-H Love Story. I will confess, ever since I started working for 4-H Ontario I’ve been waiting for the right moment to share a 4-H Hollywood like love story because there are so many of them! Call me a hopeless romantic but I just can’t help it. Nothing gets me going more than a real life romance. Today I’m going to share the story of Beth and Scott Wilson. Beth was gracious enough to chat with me and share their 4-H story so thank you Beth. Their story warms my heart, and I hope it brings you a little 4-H joy as well. Happy Valentine’s Day from all the staff at 4-H Ontario! _____________________________________________________________________________ Beth and Scott met at 4-H Ontario’s Provincial Leadership Camp in March of 1987. At this time, there was a waiting list for Provincial Leadership Camp so they had to pass through an interview process to be chosen to attend. Lucky for the two of them, they were both selected. Because Beth was from Carleton West and Scott was from Durham West, their paths definitely wouldn’t have crossed otherwise. Beth and Scott became great friends at Provincial Leadership Camp. “4-H was our common ground and it was the thing that brought us together,” Beth explained. Beth and Scott both made a bunch of other friends at camp that week and everyone promised to stay in touch after returning to their hometowns. And of course, that’s exactly what they did. So Beth and Scott returned to their respective homes and they wrote letters back and forth to keep their friendship going. Scott would occasionally be in Beth’s hometown for work (he bought Heifers) and when he was, Beth’s family graciously gave him a place to stay. Their friendship grew stronger and they continued writing to one another, occasionally seeing each other, for five years! How cute is that? Now, I would suspect from how the rest of this story unfolds that Scott had a secret crush on Beth. One day, after Beth recently broke up with her boyfriend, Scott asked her to accompany him to a cow auction in her area, Beth, happy to spend time with her friend, obliged. After spending a great day together, which included acquiring two Heifers, Scott turned to her on their drive home and asked her to go out with him.

“This totally caught me by surprise!” shared Beth. “Of course, I said no at first because we were good friends and I didn’t want to ruin our friendship.”

Scott, being the persistent fellow that he is, told Beth she had one week to think it over and he would ask her again at that point. This is where my secret crush theory comes in. His perfect timing and persistence totally leads one to think that he was pinning for her these past few years and was just waiting for the right moment. Anyways, a week later Scott was back in Carleton and Beth, after thinking long and hard about this situation, made a bold move of asking him out to dinner. Fast forward ten months later, and they’re married! Beth and Scott will be married for 20 years this year and they have three amazing children together.

“We’re very thankful that 4-H was able to bring us together. I just can’t imagine being married to anyone else other than my best friend,” Beth said.