Horses, Camp, Teen Conference, and County Fair!

Since the day I started my 4-H internship in Henry County, every day has been jam-packed with stuff to do. I was thrown right in the middle of preparing for the district horse show, 4-H camp, as well as teen conference, all at the same time. That weekend was the district horse show, in which I posted show bills and worked gates for the competitors. This was the first time I’d ever been around horses like this since I grew up in the shooting sports program, so it was a new experience and I learned a lot about showing horses over the weekend.

The next task was getting ready for camp. The sheer amount of paperwork required for our kids to go to camp is overwhelming. I spent the entirety of my second week just organizing binders, copying medical information, and making sure everyone had all their required papers. The Tuesday of that week was teen training, in which the teens from Shelby County as well as the teens from Henry County all learned what they were supposed to do at 4-H Camp. Myself and Kierra, who is the intern in Shelby County, gave the teens a team building activity to ease them into the training. The Thursday night of that week was camper orientation. Many campers and their parents attended the orientation, as Cathy explained the schedule and gave them advice on what to bring and what not to bring to Jabez.

The next Tuesday, we left for Jabez to go to 4H camp. Three buses hauled 114 campers from Henry County down to Lake Cumberland for the best week of the summer. Our county attended camp along with Pulaski County and Shelby County, from Tuesday to Friday. It was the perfect weather for camp being the first session for the new staff members at Jabez, being in the 70’s all week and giving everyone a chance to do high ropes, go to the pool, and just be outside as much as possible. Being in charge of a cabin, I accompanied cabin 5 around to each class for each day. From low ropes to high ropes; and rifle to archery, and getting to go swimming every day, the campers were having fun in a jam packed day of activities. They were exhausted by dinner in the evening, but when it was time to sally, they were given a second wind and sallied until it was time to go back to the cabins. Overall, camp went really well and even though it was stressful for us adult leaders, I can’t wait to go back next year.

When we got back from camp that Friday afternoon, my head hit the pillow and I slept most of my day away, but teen conference was coming up on Monday. I was rushing to do laundry, get paperwork together, and communicate with Cathy as I prepared for the upcoming week. We left Monday morning with 5 delegates, myself, and Cathy, for Lexington for another great week. Teen conference was one of the events that I went to while I was still participating in 4-H, so I could help out a lot more than at camp or a horse show. During the day, I helped Cathy teach her track; which was called “Developing your personal leadership style.” The class was a lot of leadership development activities and team building exercises. There were personality surveys as well, that could decipher whether you were an introvert or extrovert, as well as many other personality traits that could help determine what style of leadership best suits you. Attending the assemblies is always fun, with the officers being excellent speakers, and a great schedule that didn’t have us sitting in one place for too long. At night, it was sort of weird for me to be at the dance, because I felt like I should be a chaperone, but just 2 years ago I was out there with everyone else. Overall, it was a great experience; I got to see a lot of my friends that I see once a year, and met many new people; and being in front of a class teaching leadership development for the first time was a great experience as well.

Since I grew up in Henry County with the shooting sports program, I’ve become a coach to the current members of the team. On Memorial Day weekend I went down to Jabez with the YHEC group from the county. What made us so successful when I was with the team was our outstanding teamwork, and being able to support one another. I see that sense developing in my younger group and the senior team that is currently shooting has a great sense of teamwork built up already. Both the Junior team and Senior team did very well, and the Junior team is developing an excellent team mentality. There have been a lot of 4-H shoots on the weekends that I coach at as well.

The week after teen conference was the first week that the entire office wasn’t scrambling around trying to get ready for something. It was also the first week that I went out with Steve, the Ag agent in the county. We went to KSU’s research farms to a program that taught a lot about poultry. Having never been around poultry, I took in a lot of information from the class.

Last week was the week before the county fair. The mad dash was back on as Cathy was gone to New York, I was the one responsible for entering 4-H exhibits into the fair. I entered photography, arts and crafts, and a myriad of different things that I never knew were at the fair in the first place. All the entering lead up to this week where the exhibit hall was full of entries from either 4-Hers or just people from the county. The room was full of art, photos, crops, square bales, flowers, quilts, and every single thing in there had a tag on it with a class number. By the end of the day, all the 4-H exhibits had a ribbon on it, while the open classes had 3 ribbons for each class. At nights, there is always at least one show going on, be it beef cattle, dairy cows, rabbits, chickens, goats, or lambs, there is always something for me to do at the fair at nights.

Overall, the experience has been valuable and I am learning a lot more than I thought I would have ever thought before I started this internship.