No, the Extension Office is Not a Nursing Home

It has been slow in the office this week, which has probably been accentuated by how busy camp was last week. The random phone calls and clients coming in for help have kept the week interesting though. I had to laugh the other day when a woman called asking if she had reached the Bland Nursing Home (I did not laugh while on the phone with her). Apparently she called 411 information services and was given our office’s number. I found the home’s phone number on Google for her. The other two calls I received were more extension related. One farmer was having trouble with beetles eating his grape leaves and wanted a solution that would kill the beetles but not the bees that visit. Another caller had discovered a pile of old shingles in an unused building on her property which she feared contained asbestos. She was hoping we would find someone to properly dispose of them. In both cases I had to take names and numbers and reassure the customers that though I did not know the answer, I would either find it or refer them to someone. Both times I got help from agents in the Wytheville extension office. The woman with (possibly) asbestos shingles was referred to Wytheville because she was actually a Wytheville resident. As for the beetles, I was told there are beetle traps readily available at Lowe’s. After  looking up the price and exact product name, I called the farmer back and he was pleased with the solution.

Another farmer came into the office twice throughout the week needing help filling out soil testing forms. It was my first time looking at soil testing forms too, but after a few phone calls and reading through the instructions I was able to help him out. Soil testing is one service provided by the Virginia Cooperative Extension. Farmers are given little cardboard boxes to fill with soil samples from a field and a sheet to fill out with information on what they have grown and want to grow there. The boxes are sent to a testing center at Virginia Tech, which tests pH and other chemical levels. The results are sent back along with any recommendations for fertilizer of lime treatment.

Other than answering phone calls and visitor’s questions, I have been putting together displays for the upcoming county fair. I have finished camp and photo contest displays and am working on a soil display. I will also have a topsoil runoff activity to go along with the it. My co-workers are almost ready for the 4-H Interstate trip to Hawaii. Lucky me, I get to hold the fort by myself next week. As jealous as I am that they get to go spend some fun in the sun, I am glad for a chance to be at the office on my own. I will get to see what it would be like to be an actual agent fielding questions on my own. Of course, I have numbers to neighboring extension offices for any help I will need.

Flying By the Seat of My Pants

Two days ago I came back from our Superhero week of 4-H camp. I had a BLAST! It was my first experience with 4-H camp, lasting from Monday through Friday. Growing up I attended a similar horseback riding camp, Triple R Ranch. The chanting, singing, campfires, and relay races were not new to me, however being a adult leader was. God bless staff members of 4-H camps, I do not know how they keep up their enthusiasm all summer! They give up their time for low pay, terrible food, and being energetic for kids who may or may not be into the camp experience. Each day consisted of flag raising/lowering, meals and snack times, recreation and swimming time, three classes, a dance or movie, and campfire. There were four cabin colors (yellow, blue, green, and red) with boys and girls cabins on either side of the camp. I stayed in the yellow cabin with 27 middle school girls, adult leader Amy, and two teen leaders. At night the leaders had to make sure the campers got showers and went to bed at a 11pm, and in the mornings we would get up around 6:30am to wake up girls who wanted showers before breakfast at 7:45am. We also had the girls clean the cabin in the morning, which the staff would score during breakfast. By the end of the third day I was so burned out. The last two days I kept my energy up by relaxing a little bit and sitting around watching the kids rather than running around with them. 

Over all, the campers were great. I did have a couple incidents with girls in my cabin, but they weren’t too bad. At the last dance I had to break up a fight with the help of fellow adult leader Cora. They were not fist fighting, but yelling over some boy, typical. We split them up and didn’t have any other problems. On the third night one of our girls showed us her sheets, which had cuts in them. Pretty scary. Since it was so late, we decided to take care of it in the morning. Me and the other three counselors in the cabin gathered the girls and Amy, the other adult leader, showed them the sheet. She asked that anyone who knew about it or performed the act to step forward. She explained how inappropriate the action was. Of course, no one stepped forward. After that we didn’t have any other issues. The problem with the situation was that we did not see the act happen, and could not conclude that it actually happened at camp. The cuts looked frayed and the campers do not generally have anything to cut with. So unfortunately in some situations we cannot come to a solid conclusion.

I was pretty proud of the yellow cabin campers. Before each meal all campers were gathered in an outdoor hall to sing some songs and say grace, then each cabin color took turns going to the dining hall. The staff had us perform little contests to determine the order in which each cabin went. And our yellow cabin, boys and girls together, definitely won most of those competitions. We also were the first cabin to win the spirit stick, which is a large stick that is passed around to each cabin throughout the week to all the cabins to encourage good behavior and enthusiasm. The spirit stick would be painted the color of whatever cabin it was given to in sections, and subsequently was given to the most outstanding teen leader at the end of the week. I also had quite a few girls who were so helpful, always helping out when we needed to clean the cabin in the morning.

I had a lot of fun interacting with the kids. During recreation time it was so funny to watch the girls play tether ball, they are so short they can barely reach the ball! They got so into it and would react every time the ball switched direction. While in the pool the kids would go crazy over splash fights and one girl could’ve spent all day with me throwing a dive stick. Wednesday and Thursday were very hot, so the staff brought out water guns and a misting tent. The water gun fight was great, the kids, staff, and counselors got into it. When I saw campers sitting by themselves I would sit with them and talk or invite them to play a game. In most cases the camper was tired and resting. I felt so sad for one camper. When I asked if she was enjoying camp and would come again next year she said yes she liked camp, but she probably would not be back. She continued to explain that her parents do not support her in extracurricular activities and had told her this would be her only chance to go to camp. Camp is such a wonderful experience for the kids, so hearing this was hard. Camp gives them a chance to be more independent, make new friends, and it fosters leadership, learning, and respect. I also found that it is a place where kids who are generally not accepted in school get the chance to enjoy themselves without being so taunted. It is also a place where shy kids build confidence in themselves, which is truly special.

Another reason why camp was enjoyable is that all the staff and leaders got along so well. We would split up tasks and worked together. At some points the teens would gather, having social time when they should have been watching the kids, but the adult leaders would send them back to their campers. Along with adult and teen leaders, there were counselors in training (CITs). When a child is too old to be a camper, just starting high school, they come to camp as a CIT to learn how to be a teen leader. One CIT was having a lot of trouble making the distinction between leading and being a camper. Because of the way he acted, trying to participate in some things the way a camper would, the campers did not view him as a leader and did not listen to him. He was getting a little flirty with the girls as well, a HUGE no no. At one point I found his name tag around one girls neck and his schedule with another. Needless to say, I gave them to a staff member who gave him a talking to. Leaders must always have their name tag, schedule, and walkie talkie at all times. Generally, when any of those objects is found and given to staff they are made to do something embarrassing in front of the kids to get it back. I left my name tag at the pool one day, and they had me act out meiosis, so funny.

I played a few roles during camp as counselor, teacher, and carnie. I say carnie because I helped make the nighttime snacks, and can now run a carnival stand. I worked cotton candy, sno cone, and popcorn machines. My favorite was the cotton candy, it was like a race trying to keep up with the spinning sugar. Popcorn was the worst, it was so messy. During class time I helped out with Outdoor Treasures, a class that taught appreciation for the natural world, which is right up my ally. One of the staff members led the course. We dissected owl pellets, caught frogs, crawdads, and tadpoles at a creek, caught bugs in the woods, and worked GPSs to find a geocache. On the last night we took the kids on a night hike as well. On the second day I got to give my acid rain lesson. Of course, I ended up forgetting my notes at home but luckily I remembered enough to do the activity. I had the kids drop water, and then vinegar on the chalk and afterwards allowed them to play around with the materials. I asked a couple of the campers at the end of the week what they enjoyed the most about Outdoor Treasures, and one said her favorite activity was my acid rain lesson!

Along with the kids, I learned a lot last week. It was hard to keep up with the schedule with so much going on. I noticed that at times the staff members were just as confused. And if they weren’t confused, they had to be flexible in the activities they ran. For example, at the talent show Thursday night the staff member running the show had to gauge when to end a kids talent, because some of them probably could have kept dancing all night if we let them. Also, the relay races Tuesday night did not all happen because we ran out of time and they did not follow the original plan given by the schedule. When teaching and running a program we sometimes fly by the seat of our pants, altering things by the second. I’ve discovered that 70% of what makes a presentation good is being confident and acting like you know what you’re doing even if you don’t. We’ve got to be flexible and display an air of certainty to be good leaders and educators. It seems to go that way with almost any job we’ll ever perform.

 

I Bleed 4-H

This internship has been unexpectedly physically demanding! I spent Tuesday sweating outside making t-shirts for camp with fellow camp counselors and Wednesday I noticed a trickle of red on my finger- blood from a paper cut. So, I can now say I have bled and sweat for this job!! I do not want this to be taken as complaining though, I actually enjoy constantly being on the go and doing different things besides sitting at a desk all day.

At Tuesday’s training session I finished up interviewing our teen leaders and counselors in training. An interview is required in order to be a counselor at camp. And if you are confused about the difference between teen leader and counselor in training, I was right there with you! But they are just technical terms for the differing levels of age and responsibility in those looking after the campers. Each cabin will have one/two adult leaders, a couple teen leaders, and one/two counselors in training. It was interesting to interview the teens; getting insight on their motives for attending camp, how well they know their strengths and weaknesses, and just their personalities in general. It was my first time interviewing anyone and for some it was their first interview. I stressed to them the importance of the interview experience, because many of the questions I asked them were similar to, if not the same as, questions that have been asked of me in job interviews.

I spent Wednesday preparing for camp. It is going to be 5 days of relay games, dancing, singing, and other fun activities. Each person will receive a folder containing the camp schedule. We will all have name tags as well. I put together all of our schedule folders and decorated each name tag with superhero stickers, to go along with the camp theme. I also gathered materials for and practiced the acid rain activity I have put together. 

Thank goodness I practiced!!!! There are so many little details that go into making an effective presentation and lesson. The plan is to give each camper a piece of chalk and observe the effects of water versus vinegar on the chalk, this will demonstrate the effects of acid rain over time on buildings and statues. How much chalk should each kid get? How many pieces do I need? How many cups do I need? Should one be used with the vinegar? A different one for water? Will they have to share droppers? Luckily we had everything in the office needed except there was not enough vinegar for camp, but there was enough to practice with. A run to the store and we will have plenty of vinegar.

When I first tried pouring vinegar on the chalk. NOTHING. happened. Dang it! What do I do now? Well, after looking up other acidic liquids to try and coming up with other options I tried the vinegar again. This time letting the chalk sit in the bowl. Finally, I hear fizzing. Phew! It will work out after all. It just goes to show that you always need a backup plan just in case your original plan doesn’t work out. Reminds me of the research I did in college. When an experiment doesn’t yield results you must come up with ways to solve the problem, which many times involves tweaking your original idea.

Can’t wait to work with the kids at camp!

Note to Self…

Before moving out of a blog post Copy it! Or just type it first in a word document!!!! I was just about to publish a sizable post, thought that the “Pop-out” option would give me more space to look over it, and it was not transferred to the popped out window. Time to retype it… grrrrrr.

My Hands Hurt

With 4-H Camp swiftly approaching we are finishing up our preparations, which means paperwork, planning, digging through bags and stacks of stuff to gather materials, and collecting any last minute camper payments. Each year has a theme, and this year’s is superhero.

Tomorrow is camp counselor training for junior leaders, counselors in training, and adult leaders for both Bland and Wythe counties. We will be decorating t-shirts for the first day of camp, and one of my tasks today was to cut out cardboard superman and batman symbols. These will be used as stencils so we can have superhero shirts. After cutting out about 50 of them my hands were so sore!

Throughout camp the kids get to take three classes, chosen from a list of activities ranging from cosmetology to zip-lining. I signed up today to help with the Outdoor Adventure course and Fishing. In Outdoor Adventure I will be assisting in leaf and plant recognition. I am hoping that as a side note in this course I will also be able to teach a little about acid rain. I have put together a short presentation where each camper gets to observe the effect of vinegar on chalk (it dissolves). In doing my research for the presentation I was surprised to see that Virginia is having its own problems with acid rain. While it may not be making noticeable effects yet, our average precipitation pH is 4.3 whereas unpolluted rain varies between 5.0-5.6. It is said that the soil is buffering our water from the acids, but once the soil has reached its capacity to hold the acids it will leach out into surrounding waters.

Soon I will be putting together a newspaper article about last week’s Day Camp. I’ve never had a published article before, so I’m excited to write it!

 

 

 

 

 

Exciting Bland

Ears popping

Cows grazing

Hay baling

Butterflies flitting

Roads winding

Mountains rolling

Over rivers and through a mountain I traveled to Bland County, VA, from my home in Newport News, VA, last weekend. I just started interning with the Bland County site of the Virginia Cooperative Extension on Monday. Bland is probably one of the farthest counties from  home I could’ve landed with! And I could not be happier that I made it here to be in a new place, meet new people, and have a new experience. My main role for the next 10 weeks is to assist Elizabeth, the 4-H Extension Agent, in running 4-H programming in Bland along with Kathryn the Unit Administrative Assistant.

The drive out here was gorgeous and at times I had trouble focusing on the road because all I wanted was to admire the mountains. Even before my first day I felt the warm southern hospitality from my co-workers Elizabeth and Kathryn. The two along with Elizabeth’s husband met me the day I arrived, helped me unload my things, and gave me a tour of Bland. “Don’t blink or you’ll miss it!,” Elizabeth says. Then, when I walked into the office Monday morning a basket of 4-H goodies and a card were sitting on my desk- yes my very own giant desk!

That whole day was spent doing paper work for my employment and putting together letters to 4-H campers. The copier and I already have a great rapport. I was surprised at how much paperwork and red tape goes into 4-H programming! The next two days were dedicated to preparing for the day camp we hosted in the 4-H building Thursday. This came as another surprise- the amount of time and details required to put camp programs together. The plan was for us to teach the kids, about 20 4th-7th graders, how to make suckers and chocolate candies while Soil and Water Conservation District representatives presented on composting. The 4-H agent from nearby Wythe County presented as well, teaching how to put together a kitchen compost bin.

It’s a good thing we practiced sucker making before Thursday, because our original thermometer did not accurately report temperature and our first batch ended up being burned into what looked like molasses. Thankfully we were able to salvage the pot. So, sucker making went well at the day camp, displayed by Kathryn. I got to teach chocolate candy making, which I really enjoyed! Part of why I wanted this internship was to get experience teaching and see if outreach and education is a route I want to go with my career.

Along with day camp, we spent some time attending meetings and running to the Bland school. The first meeting was for County Fair preparation. 4-H plays a big role running the famous loaded baked potato stand as well as displaying 4-H activities from the year. The second was the Big Walker Soil and Water Conservation District monthly meeting. Since 4-H works closely with Soil and Water, who supplied the representatives who described composting at camp, we come to meetings to keep both partners updated. When visiting the school Elizabeth was picking up any extra forms that kids had left in the classroom. School ended last week, so we were able to chat with some of the teachers. During the school year Elizabeth will periodically do presentations in the classrooms. I love this aspect of the Cooperative Extension, collaborating with people from different organizations. It makes the job much more dynamic and interesting.

Each day this week has been different and I’ve enjoyed everything so far. Elizabeth and Kathryn kindly found housing for me and I am staying in the parsonage for Elizabeth’s church. I feel so taken care of, which has made the transition to a place where I know no-one nice. All in all I am so happy to be on my own and living by myself in a new place. Being out here is an adventure and is giving me time to learn more about myself and what I want now that I’ve graduated from college.