July? Where did it go? It flew by so fast!

 Counselor trainings, parent orientations, and First Year Camper Day! 4-H Camp is coming out my ears! We started off with 25 counselors at our first training for4-H Camp! Playing games, acting out skits and playing Family Feud Camp Edition to get our counselors ready and in gear for 4-H camp in just two weeks! We are so very lucky to have so many excited and 4-H Camp loving counselors come to camp to help make camp a blast!

After getting our counselors all geared up and ready for camp we then moved on to our First Year Campers and the parents, by have three successful parent orientations and an amazing First Year Camper Day! At First Year Camper Day we had a total of 150 for year campers attend! The campers learned a few camp dances, a few camp songs and then got to ask us and the counselors any questions they had about camp! It was awesome seeing the campers so excited for camp! 

During these busy weeks leading up to camp we also managed to squeeze in some day camps, workshops and a farm tour as well! 

I assisted in helping with the 21^st Century Summer Camp workshops about Archeology and Rockets with 1^nd-5^th grades. One day we talked with the students about different types of rocks and the students were able to dig through sand and dirt for fossils. It was great seeing the student’s reactions when they found a fossil and their excitement about rocks and fossils was such a joy to see! With the same group of students we also taught a lesson about rockets. The students were able to construct Aqua Rockets and launch them! The best part of that day was seeing the students excited to launch their rockets but at the same time nervous while pumping the water and the countdown to launch! Both of these workshops were so amazing seeing the students getting their minds thinking and experiencing a fun way to learn about Science! 

To continue these busy weeks I assisted with another Project Palooza Day, Fabric Fun! This was a day where 4-H’ers crafted baskets using fabric and tie dyed pillow cases! These Project Palooza Days we have had throughout the whole summer were great ways to teach 4-H’ers different projects they can submit in the State Fair and/or our County Fair! The 4-Her’s were very exited and also shocked that a simple craft can qualify for a fair project. I think that these Project Palooza Days were a great way to get the word out about different projects to hopefully lead to more projects submitted to the fairs! 

And now there’s always plenty of time to squeeze in sometime to be healthy! Another day camp we squeezed in was a Healthy Me Day Camp! At this day camp the 4-H’ers learned some fun ways to eat fruit by constructing fruit sculptures, they also had the chance to dance out their worries with some fun Zumba and lastly they got the chance participant in a game of Juice Fear Factor that consisted in organic fruit and veggie juices! It was great to see all the 4-H’ers excited about learning how to be healthy and excited for Juice Fear Factor and Zumba! We had a blast! 

The last event I squeezed in before making our way to camp was helping with our Backroads Farm Tour throughout our county, working with our Ag Agent Don. At this tour, we had 15 farms open up for the public to come learn about specific productions on their farm and enjoy some attractions at the farms as well! I was in charge of stops 1-6; these stops were wineries, horse farms that provided lessons and boarding, the Giving Fields and a two family ran farms. This was a great day, I got to be within the community meeting and working with our local producers. This was learning experience and was a great way for me to make connections with our local producers. I loved every minute!

 

 

All I can say is July was a busy month filled with great experiences; where I meet a lot of great individuals and learned a ton! July has been amazing and it’s still not over, the week we have been working towards and awaiting for is right around the corner…4-H Camp!!