Camp, Camp, Camp!

Coming into this internship, I thought I knew most of what went into being an extension agent. I soon realized that what I saw only skimmed the surface. When I started my internship my agent was just returning from her 12 week maternity leave. This allowed both of us to get into the groove of things together. These past few weeks have gone by so fast & have been a blast!

My first day I worked with the county FCS agent to teach 2nd graders about what a healthy breakfast consists of & how to make easy things that are still healthy! For the remainder of my first week, I prepared a lesson plan for the class I was instructing at 4-H camp. They let me choose the topic but had told me that water games seemed to be a popular class in previous years. We already had a lot of supplies so I chose to add on to last years lesson. After completing my lesson I went and bought the remainder of supplies and finished buying the things we needed for camp.

The next week we had camp orientation to explain to campers and parents on what was expected from each camper & went over the schedule. We also went over what to pack in order to be prepared for camp. The rest of the week was spent preparing and packing for camp. We were also preparing for the grand opening of the Tractor Supply in Jackson, KY. Since they are such a big sponsor of 4-H, they asked if we could have a booth and hand out blue books at their grand opening. 

This week has by far been the craziest! We left for camp at 8am this past Monday. We arrived at J.M. Feltner that afternoon where we were thrown into a whirlwind of activities. By Monday night my campers were exhausted. The rest of the week we had a packed schedule! The weather was cooler than usual so I had to make a few adjustments to my water games class to keep kids a little drier so that they wouldn't get sick. 

While we were there, we only had a few small issues that were resolved relatively fast. Just as a word of warning to other interns, if a child tells you something make sure you get them to explain in detail what they mean. A camper came up to me at Sally down the Alley one night & told me he would like to talk to an agent because a camper had been touching his "junk". After talking to the agents they went to resolve the problem, & he then clarified that another camper had been touching the "stuff" on his bed. Lesson learned, there is a difference between stuff and junk so make sure you clarify first. 

Overall, I have already learned so much in my short time here at the extension office & I can't wait to see what the rest of the summer has in store!