A Week Away Makes the Busiest Days

I'm writing this post from the comfort of my desk chair here in the Boone County Extension Office, however, I've only recently returned to the familiar fluorescent light bulbs and methodical phone calls. This is my first day back in the office after having been gone for a week and a half- but the time out of the office made for the busiest time of my internship. It started last Saturday at the Boone County Farm Tour, which is a self-guided tour of several farms in the county. The public can drive to whichever they wish to visit and then learn about the products and production of the operation. I spent the day driving all over the county putting up and taking down signs and also visiting the farms and checking in on them.


The following Monday was the real test. 4-H camp began. I attended 4-H camp with the three agents and approximately 170 campers. While I was there, I was placed as an adult counselor in a cabin of twelve boys, whose ages were around 10-11. Watching the campers and keeping our junior counselor in check was a task in and of itself, but I also was in charge of taking photos and creating the camp slideshow for the last evening of camp. This was a small project for my internship, but it was still a big responsibility. There were over two hundred slides and photos, and getting it prepared at camp on the final day was a lot of work. The campers loved it though, and the finished presentation was a success.

When I was a counselor/dean at my camp back home, the junior counselors were always in charge of performing skits and teaching songs or games, as opposed to summer staff members. I wanted to get the junior counselors involved a little more with the skit aspect, so I taught them a skit to perform on the last evening during the slideshow. The agents had no idea that I had taught it to them or that we were planning to perform it, and it turned out to be hilarious. I could tell that they were proud of what their junior counselors had accomplished, and I'm hoping they keep it a tradition from now on and have their counselors perform the same skit every year. Camp was exhausting and a lot of work, but it was also the most fun I've had here in Boone County- and it provided one of the most educational and enriching experiences of my internship.