Thank You

Our 4-H Summer Fun program is officially in the history pages, but I feel like there is something missing, hence this post.  Robeson County 4-H Summer Fun is a collection of day camps, and overnight opportunities for youth between the ages of 5-19.  Each week is a little different and involves a lot of planning, coordinating, and often last minute plan B's to make it all come together.  That being said it often takes lots of folks to make that happen, and all of their contributions need to be recognized.  First and foremost to our parents and families that register their youth for our programs, gift a week of camp to them, and make sure they get there and get picked up, thank you.  We appreciate that you trust us with your child.  We try to offer them an experience that will  entertain and hopefully expand their learning experiences and life experiences.  We know you have lots of choices out there and we want to say thank you for choosing and supporting our 4-H program.  We hope you also know that Summer Fun is just one part of our program.  We offer opportunities year round that your child is more than welcome to take part in.  We would be happy to expand this experience to year round.
To our N.C. Cooperative Extension Staff members in and outside of Robeson County...our hats off with thanks.  You take time out of your schedules to work with our 4-H members and get them excited about things we hope adults will care about.  We have found that often our children are the key to changing adult behaviors when it comes to new things.  It takes talented folks to engage youth and help them capture big ideas and y'all do it well everyday.  You also put up with a lot of extra noise with summer camp being held in the office each year.  Even though we try to keep the noise down, it's tough when you are having so much fun.  We know you appreciate the Quiet Game as much as we do, we just wish sometimes the campers could last a little longer.
Of course to our 4-H staff that dedicates themselves to educating youth in fun ways so they "accidentally" learn things a big pat on the back with your thank you.  Our ,Summer program is often thankless, with the hours, behavior management, stress of plans coming together.  However I would challenge this and also say it is the most rewarding because we see the smiles on the faces, get to see them learn, and get some feedback from parents on if we are hitting our mark, and they feel like they are getting a good value for their child.
I would be remiss if I did not say thank you to our interns this year.  Thanks to State Employees Credit Union and UNCP we had two summer interns.  Sarah and Paige did not know what to expect and often found themselves travelling to strange places or doing unusual things, and loving it.  When asked what they would tell folks Extension does they had the same problem we do in summing it up in one word.  Essentially we do a little of everything and we all have the best, and sometimes the hardest jobs.  We hope it was an experience they will look back on fondly, and maybe even come and visit us.
Last and certainly not least are our volunteers.  We have 4-H youth volunteers who have aged out of our Summer program but want to come back and help.  This opportunity often gives them a different perspective on programming and allows them to develop leadership skills as well as an appreciation for all the things that go on behind the scenes that the adults have to think about.  It also gives them the opportunity to learn and pass on some of the things they learned as part of the summer program.
 Our adult volunteers help in so many ways.  Some spend a week with us, helping us with programming and child supervision.  Some come in and help us cook lunch so our youth get a hot lunch everyday.  Others help us with recruiting campers, funding, making calls to make field trips happen.  Each and every action is not small but big, becuase without you we couldn't make this happen.
  For anyone who feels left out we hope you don't.  Each and every person who has touched the lives of our youth have enhanced them in some way shape our form.  Thank you does not seem like enough for the support you give our program and talents you share with our youth, and we hope that you will know how much we truly appreciate you, your talents, and time.