Progressive Agriculture Safety Days

After what has felt like the longest semester possible ever, it has all come to a bittersweet close. This week I finished my last day as an intern for Carle Center for Rural Health & Farm Safety. My last day happened to end on one of the Progessive Agriculture Safety Days. We have spent most of our time and effort this later half of the semester getting everything in order for these 3 days we put on. It was a really great experience for me to be able to attend one of these Safety Days, it really made me feel that all the work I have been putting forth all semester paid off and was worth all of the hours I put into it. The Safety Days take children in the surrounding areas about grade 5, and that tend to be in a rural community. At the Safety Days the children spend their day traveling from station to station learning about different situations that can arise on the farm that they wouldn't have thought about before and how to be safe in the things they do everyday. Each station contains a hands on activity for the kids that lets them put the information they just learned in motion.  Overall this semester and internship has been one that I will definitely take with me into my future endeavors. I have taken away with me new skills that I had never planned I would have encountered so early on in my career.

Has it really almost been a year?

Working with two members of the Kids Helping Kids 4-H Club.

      The saying "time flys when your having fun" holds true with my experience at the University of Illinois Extension. I can't believe that I have been an intern at Unit 13 for almost a year!

Working with Second Wind Running Club

     The past six months have flown by. In late November, the Champaign County Federation started the Kids Helping Kids 4-H club. This club was created to help the other youth in the Champaign County area. This club wanted to raise money to help children with financial restrictions participate in activities throughout the summer. They wanted to do 5K to raise funds for the youth. After this idea, I was known as "race coordinator".



     
   However, I was not the only one who coordinated this race. Ten members of Kids Helping Kids club created committees and served on these committees in order to complete tasks involving the 5K. Committees included: Course Logistics, Refreshments, Runner Logistics, Public Relations, and Giveaways. Each committee was responsible for certain items that were crucial to complete for this 5K to be successful.


The 4-H members and myself learned a lot about event planning and working with other organizations through this 5K. We were able to work with the Urbana Park District, the City of Urbana, Second Wind Running Club, Advantage Adverstising, and Awards Limited. Without the help from all of these businesses and organizations, our 5K would not have been possible. Through all of our interactions, the 4-Her's have improved on their leadership skills and their communication strategies. At the Decemeber meeting, I was able to teach the club members how to give a proper "elevator speech". This was a stragety that the kids would use for promoting the 5K, but they will be able to use it throughout the rest of their professional careers.

The first 4-H Kids Helping Kids 5K was held on April 13, 2013 at Crystal Lake Park in Urbana. We had 61 participants in the 5K with 47 of them finishing. Even though we did not get our goal of 100 participants, we still call the 5K a success. The club did raise money that will be used to help out many kids across the Champaign County area. I was and still am so proud of all of the hardwork the 4-Her's did to make this event a success. It was great for them to see how hardwork and determination can pay off.

The members of the Kids Helping Kids 4-H Club

 

Now that I am retiring the name "race coordinator", it is time to get ready for fair season. I am very excited to start working with all of the volunteers at the 4 county fairs. I am ready to make this fair season the best yet!


Well, the semester is drawing to a close and that means crunch time at the RHFS department at Carle. We have several Progressive Ag Safety Days coming up, for which I am organizing donations and other sponsorship materials.  It's so encouraging to see the different ways local businesses will support the youth in learning safety both on and off the farm.  I'm hoping the productive streak I've been on will continue through the final push towards summer. 

In other news, the curriculum I've been working on all school year is going to be finalized really soon, it is currently distributed among many ag teachers and other professionals in the agriculture field for review. I'm excited to get the constructive criticisms back so I can work towards creating even more effective lessons to teach the high school students how to be safe when working with grain bins, electricity, etc.  I'm happy to see it coming through the final stages or production and knowing it will soon be used in high schools in local communities. 

Creating Farm Emergency Directories

In my short time as a Carle Rural Health and Farm Safety Intern, I have  gained a lot of knowledge and have learned a lot about what goes into agriculture in the medical field. Prior to this internship I would have never even considered that agriculture played a role in the medical field. Part of my daily tasks at Carle reminds me of this importance every day. So far the most rewearding part of my internship has been working on my special project. I am in charge of creating farm emergency directories for Edgar, Coles, Douglas, Moultrie, Piatt, and Vermilion county, along with adding the finishing touches to the Champaign directory as well. There are many steps and different tasks that go along with putting these directories together. First, I had to review all of the progress done by the previous intern on this project, learn what she did and try to pick up from there. I had to find what companies still needed to be contacted. In each county I am responsible for contacting the grain elevators, fertilizer/chemical companies, machinery companies, and fire departments. Once I call them I have to get either their email or fax so I can send out the questionare for the directory. When I recieve the completed forms I then have to enter all of the data into the computer. These forms include information on contacts and tools the companies have in the event of a farm emergency so that the fire departments can best react to each situation. I then have to keep in contact with the companies that have not returned a form yet. From there I have created the rough draft of the directories which includes compiling all of the information from each company into a nice looking format. Now I have to send the rough drafts to each county for editing/corrections. Once those come back I can then finalize the directories and send them out to the fire departments for use. While this is a huge project I have thoroughly enjoyed putting my hard work into it and the the pay off for the completion of this project will be immense. I can't wait to see what else I get to work on after this.

The Wonderful World of 4-H

Judging Cloverbud projects at the Vermilion County Fair.

         When I was younger, I was a member of 4-H. I have many fond memories of showing my pigs, creating my sewing projects with my grandma, and winning Superior awards at the IL State Fair. After being in 4-H for 10 years, I thought I knew everything there was to know about 4-H, however, when I started my internship with the Unit 13 Extension I realized I was wrong. This summer I was able to work during the fair season, which I loved. How many people can say they get paid and go to the fair? I thought I was pretty lucky!



"Splashing" Gibson City

I thought the summer time (fair time) would always be the busy part of my work at Extension, but the off season is just as busy. Throughout the past 10 weeks, I have had the chance to see what happens at the Extension office when it is not fair season. One of the projects that I am working on is the Splash Campaign. This campaign is to promote 4-H through the 4 counties Unit 13 covers (Champaign, Ford, Iroquois, and Vermilion counties). We "splash" the towns with 4-H signs and posters to attract community members. Along with the publicity we host Find Out Parties. These parties allow parents and children come and see what 4-H is all about and meet the Extension staff. Tonight is one of the Find Out Parties for Iroquois county.

I truly have enjoyed my experience at the University of Illinois Extension. It has opened my eyes to another career path that I would love to take if I do not like teaching. The work environment is always positive and my co-workers are great. I would not trade my experience for the world.

Unit 13 4-H Staff at the Federation Retreat at 4-H Memorial Camp

It's hard to believe that this semester is already halfway over. It's totally flown by, and when I sit back and look at all the things I've done so far it's really encouraging. I'm most exicted to complete my special project in which I'll get the opportunity to create lessons on grain bin safety (one of the topics we push here in the  RHFS department) that will be used in high schools across the area. I'll have to make not just the plans, but figure out activities, handouts, etc as well as create in depth instructor guides to help the teachers better implement the lesson in their classrooms. It's almost like I'll be getting a behind the scenes look at teaching and where some of the resources I'll be using in my future classroom will come from.

Overall, I'm so happy to have this opportunity and to see what hte rest of the semester holds!

Illinois Ag Leadership Interns: Illinois Ag Leadership Interns: Illinois Ag Leader...

I also added many new signs/ logos to my sign box as well as a new door. Here is examples of my new box, i repainted, redecorated, and added the new door window. On my company truck that AgriGold issued me.