PEKIN, Illinois USA — Rockets are a family affair at the Tazewell County 4-H Show and Junior Fair.

As he set up the launch pads for Tuesday's rocket launch, William Anderson, 19, said he has been an aerospace judge for two years and helped with the rocket launching display for four.

“I started helping with the launch because I was around anyway, since my cousins show pigs here every year,” he said.

Anderson, who now attends Blackhawk College in Kewanee, is a 4-H member with a Bureau County club and started building rockets about 11 years ago, he said.

He now belongs to the Tripoli Quad Cities Rocketry Society, and makes high-powered rockets that he launches once a month with the club.

“And we have a big launch once a year,” he said. “We have to get FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) clearance first.”

His rockets can fly 8,000 feet into the air, he said.

“It actually started as a 4-H project,” Anderson said of his hobby. “And I've been doing it ever since.”

Anderson's cousins, Jacob and Ryan Heavilin from Green Valley, participated in the rocket launch as well. Jacob, 14, had just won aerospace championship with the rocket he built, although he was not launching that one at the Tazewell's fair.

“It's too big,” Heavilin said. “It needs more room. I'll launch it at State Fair.”

“He's learned a lot by watching William, because they're first cousins,” said Jacob and Ryan's mother, Jody. “And he's very good at science. William and Jacob think a lot alike.”

“He helped me get started,” said Jacob of his cousin. “I've worked with him a lot.”

It will be Jacob's fourth rocket to go to the state fair, Jody said, and the sixth year he's been involved in aerospace.

Jacob's “Binder Design Aspire Rocket,” 47 inches long and 2.6 inches in diameter, used a H128W single use motor on its first flight and flew to about 2,500 feet. It won two blue ribbons, a purple ribbon, and the green trophy ribbon.

“The most important thing you learn when making rockets is patience,” said Jacob. “Patience is what gets you what you want in your rocket.”

Old-timer Stephen Hopkins of Delavan, 86, was also around for Tuesday's rocket launching adventure. His grandchildren Andrew, Evan and Maddie all entered rockets this year, although Maddie couldn't be there because she was trying out for a softball team in Green Valley, he said. So her brother entered it for her.

“One of 'em got stuck in a tree and one of 'em went too far. But they always have fun,” said Hopkins of his grandchildren's rocket launches.

Hopkins himself is no stranger to the 4-H fair. “I've been up here for years,” he said. “I used to bring calves up here when I was in 4-H.”

His own children, of which he has four, all participated in 4-H, he said, although that was a while ago now.

“All of my kids graduated from college,” Hopkins said proudly.

“I was broke, we were strapped before we got the last one through,” Hopkins laughed. “But we got that job done.”

“They kinda make a family for the kids,” Hopkins said of the 4-H organization. “Instead of the kids running here and there, they make a family. I think that helps a lot.”

Hopkins' wife, Helen, was a judge this year for clothing construction, which she said she has done for years.

They drive back and forth from Delavan for the week of the fair, she said.

“We're farmers,” Helen said.

“We're used to driving.”

Copyright © 2007, Pekin Daily Times.