The Beginning; First Two Weeks

I’ve had a great first two weeks working at the Breckinridge County office, I could not ask for a better place to be working. The office support staff and agents have been very welcoming and helpful as I learn the ropes. I had a very busy first day, after the office staff meeting I went right to work. First, I settled into my office and signed all of our teens and I up for 4-H Teen Conference and participated in the orientation. Then I created all of the coaches shooting sports binders. This is where I met my worst enemy, the copier. Thankfully, the support staff was very patient these first few days of our feud. Later that Day we had our scholarship committee meeting where we chose two outstanding seniors, Elizabeth Hinton and Olivia Hall. Then we ended the night with our 4-H Council meeting.

          

          

          During that week we had our home school club meeting where we talked about the food guide and importance of exercise. At the end of the meeting Alex, our 4-H Agent and I created an obstacles course to promote exercise and healthy living. We met with our high school teen club to discuss community service projects to do over the summer. Lastly, we met with the middle school SPIN club during school, and taught a lesson during their science class for all the eighth graders. The lesson incorporated the Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches that they have had in their class room all school year. They used a lab manual to decide “Who stole Carl Cockroaches peanut butter.” The lesson included carbon dating, speed, distance, and strength formulas to find out who the main suspect was. The kids and teachers really enjoyed working on this project. After the school year ended the cockroaches became my new office pets.

Most of my week was spent dealing with camp. I created the cabin sheets for our county, luggage tags, name tags, and t-shirt tags. We also had our camp planning meeting with all of our camping counties. Alex and I also worked “tag in” at the Breckinridge County fair ground on Saturday.

Later in the week I worked with the Agriculture and Natural Recourse Agent, Carol Hinton. One of our local farmers Eddie Dyer hosted the tobacco field day at his farm. Dr. Kenneth Seebold, University of Kentucky’s Tobacco Disease Specialist came and discussed disease control in float beds and in the fields. We also had representatives from Checci & Magi to introduce their new setter that a few members of our community are using this season. We also went out and did farm visits and check on tobacco plants and informed farmers that were not able to make it to the meeting on local diseases. Later were called to look at a few trees that were dying in the area and took samples and photographs. 

   I worked with Lynnette Allen, our Family & Consumer Science Agent on the LEAP Program. I choose the book I.Q. gets fit, to read at the Hardinsburg preschool classes. The book highlights the importance of stretching, exercise, healthy eating, drinking plenty or water and to get lots of sleep. After I read the book we all got to our feet, stretched and did a few simple exercises. Then we handed out a healthy snack of mixed cereals, and dried fruit. We sent a newsletter home to their parents about the LEAP program to inform them of healthy habits. I also help Lynnette with her adult wellness group; it is a great program that introduces adult in our community ways to stay fit and healthy. This month’s focus was on sugars. We talked about types of sugars and sweeteners and enjoyed healthy snacks made with different types of sweeteners.  

I was very lucky to have had the opportunity to work with every agent in the office during my first two weeks and I can’t wait to see what the weeks ahead have in store for me.

-Tammy Curry