ORANGE PARK – Taylor Thigpen is not your average high school senior. The successful entrepreneur has a licensed small business, PlantKingUSA, where he ships aroids, foliage, succulents and carnivores from Clay County to all 50 states.

Thigpen recently stepped onto the world stage in October, where he served as a Youth Delegate for the United States at the World Food Forum to address global food insecurity, which was streamed virtually on Zoom.

But his passion for food security and other vital issues began locally nine years ago in the 4-H program. Those community values run deep, and they helped him get elected as the Florida 4-H State Council president.

There are more than 230,000 4-H members. In addition to his duties as the president of the youth organization, he stays busy running his online plant service, PlantKingUSA, writing grants for nonprofits, serving as a National Hunger Ambassador, and applying for scholarships and college admission.

Thigpen said his role with 4-H was “super exciting.”

What drives his passion for the role?

“Just being able to give that leadership back to those youth and help grow them into being leaders. Just doing something positive for the community. I was honored to be elected by my fellow peers,” he said. “We’ve been doing a lot this year.”

One of his biggest accomplishments is a $3.5 million campaign for Camp Cherry Lake, which has been closed for facility repairs since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The camp, located on the central northern border of the state, is a critical recreational and learning space for the youth of 27 Florida counties.

Thigpen said he has worked closely with Rep. Allison Tant (D-District 9) and Sen. Keith Perry (R-District 9). They filed a bill to allocate $900,000 in funding for the camp.

Youth from the southern portion of the state attend Camp Cloverleaf in Highlands County, and children in the western part of the state go to Camp Timpoochee in Okaloosa County. When those camps are full, members from the north have nowhere to go.

“I’m super excited and hopeful this will pass, so we can get these youth, including right here in Clay County, back to camp,” Thigpen said.

Thigpen is also working to redesign 4-H executive board committees. Made up of 80 to 100 youth, the committees design curriculum and organize events statewide. To reimagine the committees, one of the things Thigpen wants to focus on is partnerships between youth and adults.

“Youth and adults work in conjunction with each other, not over one another. We’ve actually redefined what that looks like and given youth an increased voice. (Children) aren’t just picking things like T-shirt colors. We’re designing the full program, which will serve youth and adults across Florida,” he said.

When he was young, he attended the 4-H camp at Camp Cherry Lake. Now, he’s a confident teen entrepreneur competing in the 4-H Gator Pit, an entrepreneur funding competition akin to Shark Tank. The program serves 6.5 million around the country.

“I always loved going to camp down at Cherry Lake, just meeting a lot of new friends and being able to (have) opportunities to (pursue) educational opportunities in the outdoors,” he said.

His work in the past two years as the president of the county’s 4-H Teen Leadership Council, where he mentored other children and led community service projects, proved to be a springboard for his presidency.

“Clay County is my home, and I do a lot here. It’s an honor to be able to bring that knowledge from a state level back to the county to give our youth something more, and we just want to continue working to build our county to have the best 4-H organization in the state. That is important to me,” Thigpen said.