Month: August 2021

The pandemic has prompted Clemson Extension to look at alternative deliveries for future programming. One aspect is to make needed pesticide license training more accessible to stakeholders. Persons wishing to prepare to take the Commercial Pesticide Applicator Exam can now attend prep courses in an online and on-demand format. Before, this class was held in person twice a year in Spartanburg County. Horticulture Agents Drew Jeffers and Paul Thompson teamed up with Clemson Online to develop an exam preparation course that served our clients’ needs and be completely on-demand. The target audience is ornamental landscapers (Core and Category 3: Ornamental and Turf Pest Management).

The course itself is 20 modules comprised of video presentations as well as practice exams. The practice exam allows the users to answer similar questions to better prepare for the actual exam. Users have 60 days of access with the purchase. We have been able to evaluate user knowledge gain by comparing the pre-test scores versus practice exam scores. Since its launch in Spring 2021, a total of 43 persons have participated in the online course. This course has laid the foundation for developing future training courses for categories of the commercial pesticide applicator exams. For more information on this course, click here.

Drew Jeffers, Horticulture and Natural Resources Agent

During the pandemic, Clemson Extension and the Clemson Department of Pesticide Regulation modified operations and services. Social distancing guidelines limited delivery options for crucial programming such as Private Pesticide Applicator License Training and Exam. These classes allow farmers to become licensed to handle pesticides necessary to grow their crops and make their living. These classes were severely limited in offerings due to regulations on taking the exam.

Horticulture agent Drew Jeffers piloted an on-demand version of the Private Pesticide Applicator Training. The Department of Pesticide Regulation then developed into an online course offered every 1st and 3rd week of the month. This new program version serves as an opportunity when the in-person class is not available. Over 20 participants have completed the course since its launch in late spring 2021. The program continues to serve this   critical need to farmers throughout our state. For more information on this course, email Katie Moore at kcrouch@clemson.edu.

Drew Jeffers, Horticulture and Natural Resources Agent

This Summer, 4-H had a fantastic opportunity of working at six different Boys & Girls Club sites. Eva Earle taught several lesson topics to youth, ranging from cooking skills to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Every site well with each lesson, and the children were eager to participate. Several children told Earle they tried some of the cooking and craft lessons at home. 4-H also held the second Master Chef Cooking Camp. Although the attendee count was small, the impact success was immense! Earle covered three recipes each week in July, some plant-based others inspired by different cultures. Campers went home with several recipes and impressive skills to show their families on the last day. All outreach efforts were highly fulfilling for Earle, but more importantly for all campers and students!

Spartanburg County 4-H had to get creative this past year to reach youth in safe and engaging ways. 4-H included two new virtual clubs, seasonal 4-H activity kits, school embryology, gardening, Spartanburg Boys and Girls Club visits, and summer cooking workshops. We also had 4-H members participating in statewide projects, summer camp, and leadership programs throughout the year.

In September 2020, we launched two new virtual 4-H clubs focusing on Healthy Lifestyles and Sewing. Members in the Healthy Lifestyles Club cooked dinner for their families twice a month while learning new skills in the kitchen. They also participated in the State 4-H Healthy Lifestyles Monthly Video Contest and Skill-A-Thon. The Golden Needles Sewing Club started from the beginning learning how to thread a needle. It progressed to using a sewing machine and making stuffed animals for family, friends and donating to local children’s hospital patients. Members from both clubs learned life skills like public speaking, record keeping, community service, and mentorship of younger members.

Because of the limitations on meeting in person, Spartanburg 4-H offered activity kits for families to pick up and do at home. We allowed families to borrow incubators throughout the year, which resulted in 58 families hatching chickens at home to add to their backyard flocks. In November, we also offered a thankfulness kit to encourage youth to participate in family activities over the holidays by contributing a side dish at Thanksgiving dinner. We also provided a Winter Break, Exploring 4-H, Pollinators Kit, Gardening, and Butterfly Kits throughout 2021. Ninety-five families took advantage of these 4-H kits from September 2020-June 2021.

Although our regular school programs take place, year-round school visitation policies prevented typical classroom visits. However, our school partners still wanted to offer chicken embryology to their students. We were able to loan out incubators and provide fertile chicken eggs to 58 classes this spring, resulting in almost 500 chickens being hatched in classrooms and raised locally in Spartanburg County. Some birds being part of the State 4-H Laying Flock Project. We also had twelve school gardens participate in seasonal transplants and classroom gardening activities.

Each year, Spartanburg 4-H’s most significant outreach efforts are having recurring lessons at the Boys and Girls Club After School and Summer Sites. These programs focus on teaching youth in 2^nd -5^th grades about STEM and Healthy Lifestyles. 4-H provided nearly 170 hours of programming to youth at six school sites and four summer sites in Spartanburg County. This program also offered two college interns employment throughout the school year and summer. This school year, this program is looking to expand for the 4^th year, adding new after-school sites and reaching more youth throughout the county.

As COVID-19 number began to drop this summer, we offered a summer workshop series every Wednesday in July. Youth participants came to the Spartanburg Extension office. They learned new cooking skills while preparing lunch with Interns Eva and Taylor, part of the State Healthy Lifestyles Walmart Grant to teach youth about making healthy choices and preparing food for their families.

One final staple of 4-H involvement has always been individual projects, summer camp, and leadership activities. Although our numbers were slightly down from the previous year’s participation, members still took advantage of poultry, beef, swine, goat, bees, small garden, food plot, and healthy living projects. In June and July, we also had 4-H members attend both 4-H camps Bob Cooper and Camp Long, finishing out the year with two young leaders attending the Pinckney Leadership Camp Program.

We look forward to all the 4-H activities and projects 2021-2022 have to offer to the youth and families in Spartanburg County. At least two county clubs regularly meet this coming year, including a horse and home school 4-H group.

Laurens County 4-H Agent, Kendall Winn, has been very busy meeting and networking with the community of Laurens County. During this, she was able to connect with the staff of United Way Laurens County including Alesia Carter, Executive Director, and Aryele Redmond, Resources Manager. Kendall Winn and the United Way staff met together on multiple occasions to explore the opportunities of collaboration between United Way and Laurens County 4-H Program. After discussion, we realized this was an opportunity to not only collaborate on volunteer events, but to educate a broader, more diverse audience on Laurens County 4-H and engage youth of Laurens County in our joint mission of serving others. It was at this time United Way of Laurens County graciously offered Laurens County 4-H Agent, Kendall Winn, to become a Board member of United Way Laurens County.

United Way of Laurens County strives to create long-lasting community change by addressing the underlying causes of the most significant local issues. Common focus areas include helping children and youth achieve their potential, promoting financial stability and independence, and improving people’s health. To find more information on United Way of Laurens County, please visit https://www.uwlc-online.org/.

The Laurens County 4-H Program has slowly been getting back into full swing post pandemic and we couldn’t be more excited. After an extremely busy summer, we rounded it out with the Laurens County 4-H Livestock Clinic. This event offered clinics for project animals such as dog, rabbit, dairy, beef, and small ruminant. The aim for this clinic was to provide the participants with information on subjects such as showing, home care, nutrition, and others. Thanks to our phenomenal volunteers and clinicians, our eleven participants were able to gain valuable knowledge. Some added on to existing knowledge and others creating base knowledge for their new project animal. We had two brave participants exploring a brand-new project area this 4-H year that especially benefited from this event. We would like to thank the people and businesses that made this event possible: Annette Bodie, Alicia Grondski, Holly Jewell, Tina Horn, Mary Walker, Ingles of Laurens, and Save-a-lot of Laurens.

This clinic was in preparation for the Laurens County Youth Livestock Show taking place on October 2^nd and October 8^th-9^th. The breakdown of shows include art, poster, dog, rabbit, dairy, beef, market lamb, and meat goat. These shows will allow 4-H and FFA members to display the skills they have perfected throughout their project and compete against fellow youth.  For more information, please click here.

Hattie Grace Terry with her Dairy Heifer Project animal

Ila Kate Stone with her Market Lamb Project animal

In Fairfield County, Extension Agent Ryan Bean hosted the McCrary Tree Farm Tour on August 25, 2021. The tour had 24 people in attendance. This was supposed to be Part 2 of a tour from back in 2019 which got cancelled because Part 2 was scheduled for the Spring of 2020.  There were 31 in attendance for the tour in 2019 which registered for both tours.

This was a partnership with Forestry Association of SC and Tree Farm SC.  Dr. Cory Heaton, TJ Savereno, Emily Oakman (FASC), and I spoke to the participants about wildlife habitat management using prescribed fire and other forest management practices.

Contact Ryan Bean for additional details about his upcoming educational events.

Phone: 803-432-9071
Email: rbean@clemson.edu

Stephanie Eidt

4-H Youth Development Agent

seidt@clemson.edu

803-589-8977

Hello! My name is Miss Stephanie, and I am the new 4-H youth development agent for Fairfield County. As part of Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service, South Carolina 4-H supplements traditional K-12 classroom learning through hands-on demonstrations and projects in five major areas:

– Natural Resources

– STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math)

– Agriculture and Animals

– Healthy Lifestyles

– Civic Engagement and Leadership

My personal favorite subject area is natural resources. I grew up in Ohio, raising turkeys and collecting bugs in my backyard. I have a bachelor’s degree in Zoo and Wildlife Biology and recently acquired a Master of Science with an emphasis in environmental education and interpretation.

4-H serves youth through in-school demonstrations, full-family workshops, and clubs comprised of peers with similar interests. The direction within the five program areas is guided by the needs and interests of the community’s families. If you would like to share your opinions regarding future programs, please take our five-minute interest area survey. Share your thoughts through the survey link that matches your relationship to 4-H (student, parent, or community member) or stop by my office.

I look forward to serving the community as we learn together by doing. I am grateful for the citizens of Fairfield for their ongoing enthusiasm and support for these endeavors. If you are interested in sharing your passion and knowledge of topics such as sewing, gardening, or fishing with local youth, please contact me.

To stay in the loop on upcoming events and opportunities, like the Fairfield Co SC 4-H page on Facebook and sign up for the Fairfield 4-H email list. Thanks, and I hope to meet you soon!

Situation:
The onset of the COVID19 pandemic in March 2020 presented pragmatic and logistic challenges to conduct traditional face to face, hands-on and interactive Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) workforce training.   In order to reduce the spread of COVID19 and overcome the hinderance of social distance, the EFNEP management team developed a creative and strategic plan to transition face to face training to virtual learning to our EFNEP staff and EFNEP participants. Since 1969, EFNEP remains devoted to reaching low-income citizens where there are and embracing best practices for (virtual) learning. The Clemson University’s EFNEP team utilized the EFNEP National Guidelines for Social Media and best practices for effective online teaching to develop EFNEP virtual online learning workforce development training.

Educational Response:
From March to present, Marlyne Walker, Registered Dietitian and EFNEP Training Coordinator / State Specialist has conducted and facilitated 5 different virtual workforce development trainings. Some of the trainings consist of multiple days and totaling over 40 hours. The EFNEP workforce trainings are designed for EFNEP nutrition educators to teach EFNEP participants- youth and adults. All the EFNEP interactive trainings were held on ZOOM. The initial training consisted of Tips to Reach and Teach EFNEP Participants/ Classes Online. It was a collaborating effort conducted with the EFNEP management team and an EFNEP agent. Also, Walker trained 9 newly hired EFNEP nutrition educators on the adult curriculum and middle/ high school curriculum.  In addition, Walker planned quarterly EFNEP Check-In.  She has facilitated two EFNEP Check-In for all EFNEP team members. The purpose of the EFNEP Check- In is to promote team building, review nutrition concepts and/or demonstrate ways to engage and interact with EFNEP participants online.

Outcome/ Impact:
After attending the EFNEP training, 100% EFNEP nutrition educators reported to be able to use some, most or all the content/ strategies in their county program. EFNEP nutrition educators were able to reach 306 adults with 100% graduation (completing series of 9 lessons) and changes in decrease consumption of solid fat and added sugar (SoFAS) and 81% improvement in food resource management.  In addition, EFNEP nutrition educators reached 2326 youth (130 groups) with 82% graduation that is completing a series of 6 lessons. The end of year report revealed 82% of youth improved diet quality and 57% improved physical activity.

The Health Extension for Diabetes program is a free diabetes self-management and support group. The program has been recognized by the American Diabetes Association as a practice-tested diabetes self-management and support program. The main goal of this program is to help you to better manage your diabetes so that you prevent or delay complications. The program includes 7 education sessions and 7 support sessions designed to help you learn more about diabetes and provide you with the necessary skills and support that you need to successfully self-manage your diabetes.

The program is funded by the Greenville Health Authority. The classes are delivered by a Health Extension Agent with Clemson Extension in a partnership with Prisma Health-Upstate. Your health coach will provide you with bi-weekly materials, facilitate weekly group discussion, and provide weekly follow-up to help navigate resources and assist you in reaching your healthy lifestyle goals.

The program is available both online or in-person. Online groups are held by Zoom, and in-person groups are held at various locations. Choose an available class time that fits your schedule: 10-11am, 12-1pm, or 5-6pm.

Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service offers its programs to people of all ages, regardless of race, color, gender, religion, national origin, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or family status and is an equal opportunity employer.

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