4-H member gives over $4,000 to military assistance organizations
Nine-year-old donates auction proceeds to Operation Homefront, Wounded Warrior Project
PARIS, Texas – Taylor Bass, a 9-year-old from Paris, Texas, recently presented $3,220 to Operation Homefront from proceeds she received from the sale of two goats she raised as part of her 4-H activities.
The 4-H’er also donated another $1,000 of those proceeds to the Wounded Warrior Project.
The donation to Operation Homefront was presented at the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service office in Lamar County. Texas 4-H is administered through AgriLife Extension, an educational outreach agency of the Texas A&M University System.

Erica Howe, the Operation Homefront community liaison for the Dallas-Fort Worth area, came to the office to accept the donation and to thank Taylor and her parents.
“I wanted to help people like my dad because my dad is a wounded warrior,” Taylor said.
Benjamin Bass, Taylor’s father, an Army veteran who served one tour in Iraq and was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan, is on medical retirement and disability. During the past several years, the family has moved from Fort Riley, Kansas to Fort Hood, then to Paris to be close to family.
After waiting more than five years, Bass soon will be getting an operation he needs due to injuries he received from being hit by a car while on active duty.
“It was really difficult for a while, and Operation Homefront helped us keep things going, like keeping us from losing our car and putting food on the table,” said Krista Bass, Taylor’s mother.
A primary goal of Operation Homefront is to provide emergency financial assistance to military families in times of hardship through awarding grants, Howe explained.
It was through the sale of two goats she raised as part of her 4-H activities that Taylor was able to help her family give something back to the organization that had helped them.
“Taylor has only been in 4-H for a year, so we decided goats would be a good beginner project for her,” Krista said. “Then we could see if she was ready to care for larger animals.”
Taylor learned to care for the goats, along with the ins and outs of showing them in a livestock arena. As a result, she did well enough in this year’s Lamar County Junior Livestock Show for one of her goats to be put up for premium auction at a livestock sale that followed, said Mike Morrow, AgriLife Extension agriculture and natural resources agent for Lamar County.
“Krista contacted me and said Taylor wanted to donate the money she received from the sale of her goat at the junior livestock show premium auction to Operation Homefront and Wounded Warriors, and I told her that would be fine,” Morrow said. “I was impressed that someone as young as Taylor would want to do something that generous and thoughtful.”
At the premium auction, the bidding reached $1,700 for Taylor’s goat. Then once it was announced that she intended to donate her proceeds to these organizations, other attendees spoke up, contributing additional money for her to donate to these organizations. They also donated funds for Taylor so she could continue raising goats through 4-H.
The following day, another of Taylor’s goats was taken to Cattlemen’s Livestock Commission in Paris. Some of the participants there had attended the earlier auction and knew she intended to donate sale proceeds. As a result, the second goat was sold, returned to Taylor, and resold a total of six times, bringing in a total of $1,800.
“It was gratifying to see other folks in the community join in and not only make additional contributions for these worthwhile organizations, but also to see them provide some funds for Taylor herself,” Morrow said.
As the Operation Homefront representative receiving the donation, Howe said it was an honor to meet Taylor and the rest of the Bass family.
“It was admirable to see how Taylor was following the lead of her parents in making this sacrifice and to do what is right at such a young age,” she said.
Morrow, who has been an AgriLife Extension agent for more than 26 years, said Taylor’s generosity was one the most remarkable things he has seen in his time working with 4-H members.
“Even though Taylor is just in her first year of 4-H, she has the type of character and spirit we hope to find in all our 4-Hers,” he said.
Taylor said she intends to continue raising goats and participate in other 4-H activities and, according to her mother, plans to give proceeds from her next goat sale to a nonprofit benefiting children with cancer.