"4-H is Tops" – the photo on the left, from the Aug/Sept 1979 National 4-H News – shows a 4-H promotion sign on a railroad bridge in Bridgewater Township, New Jersey from over 35 years ago. Barbara O'Neill, Somerset County 4-H Agent, says she drove under the bridge for three years, thinking how great a 4-H sign would look up there... until one day she got on the phone and the project began. It was the first of many phone calls. In fact, it took one-and-a-half years to attain permission and have the sign finished. The main problem was that the ConRail Company wouldn't give permission until the community did, and the community wouldn't give permission until the railroad did. But they finally got the ball rolling when 4-H leaders attended a town council meeting and applied for a "town variance" (required for an unusual activity). The council not only voted to allow the 4-H sign, but wrote a resolution stating that 4-H is very important to their community, and has national recognition, so they would be very proud to have the sign.

When the railroad received the council's enthusiastic response, they gave a contract to 4-H – for $1 per year rental on the bridge. A first in New Jersey. The county 4-H association designed and paid for the sign, raising $1,400. The railroad hired the painters who applied the five-by-fifty-foot signs, one on each side of the bridge.

For two years Stearns County, Minnesota 4-H Club Agent Monroe E. Stenerson had been looking for a better way to publicize National 4-H Club Week. Then sometime before the date of the week he made up his mind to ask the secretary of the St. Cloud Chamber of Commerce for the use of the billboard which they loan organizations for announcements. Of course, the request was granted, for St. Cloud is all for 4-H work. Next step was to draw up "copy" for the sign, and have it painted. The board is eight feet high and 18 feet wide, and the 4-H announcement stood from March 2 through the 15th. Cost of painting was $12.

The sign naturally attracted a lot of attention from people of St. Cloud and surrounding country, and State 4-H Leader Leonard L. Harkness had to look twice when he passed by one morning on one of his trips. Some folks told Stenerson there ought to be signs like it all over the state. One definite result of the sign was a full page feature in the St. Cloud Daily Times carrying scenes of 4-H folks around the county made by the newspaper's photographer. And, now, a second result – the front cover of 4-H's national leader magazine!