Doing More than Just Talking About It

 

  It's hard to believe today was our last day of 4-H Bio-tech Day Camp.  Unlike previous last days we did something a little different this year.  Our youth traveled to Cumberland County and worked on their multi-tasking abilities as they helped make lunch, worked on a community service project and  shot their own videos.
  As we rotated groups different youth would head to the kitchen to help prepare our lunch for not just ourselves but also our special guests.  Our youth prepared freshly baked cookies and got ready to serve our guests who would be coming from different counties.
  While that was going on another group was working on fleece blankets.  Working in teams they used fleece to make blankets that had hand knotted fringe.  The blankets will be given to military youth whose parents are deployed as part of Operation Military Kids.  Its a great program that lets kids reach out and support kids whose parents are serving our country.
  If our youth weren't busy doing that they were busy making videos about their trips and travels this week.  Our groups split up into groups representing Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  Each group talked about what they did, their favorite parts of the trip and what they learned.
  We played the videos at the luncheon for our special guests.  Our guests included parents, representatives of County Government, the County Extension Director, Lisa Childers, and many more.  We had a good time at lunch and enjoyed not only the video but a photo slide show of our exploits.  As part of lunch Angela Shaver recognized youth who have parents who are deployed and honored them with a fleece blanket and hero packs.
  After lunch we loaded up and headed to Fort Bragg.  After we made it through the checkpoints we headed to Tolsen Youth Center on post.  There were met a mother and her two children.  Their father (the mother's husband) had been deployed (on and off over the years) for a total of about 5 years.  Our youth offered them their choice of blankets, letting them know how much they appreciate the sacrfice they are making as a family while their father protects us all.  It was a tearful moment for the mother and very touching for our youth.  Everyone spent some time together playing, and enjoying just being kids, before we loaded back up and headed back to the Cumberland County Extension Office.  After saying goodbye to our new friends we loaded up and headed back to good old Robeson County.
  We had a great week, learned lots of new things, and best of all had fun discovering the science in us.  Stay tuned for next year when we offer the fifth edition of this ever popular day camp program.