Haven Blackwell 4-H Youth Development Agent Cherokee County
Haven Blackwell, Cherokee County 4-H Agent
I am Haven Blackwell. I began my career with Cherokee County Clemson Extension just a short time ago in June of 2023 as the 4-H Youth Development Agent. I was born and raised in Gaffney and after graduating from Gaffney High School, I went on to earn my bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Limestone University. I then served as a third-grade teacher and have greatly enjoyed building relationships with students and their families over the last four years. I have also served as the Cherokee County 4-H Program Assistant for the last two years. In doing so, I have had the pleasure of teaching the youth in our county about agriculture, STEM, healthy living, etc. I am excited to step in as Cherokee County’s 4-H agent and take the program even further for the youth in this community.
Ms. Haven at Kids Club
Beginning September 1st, youth ages 5-18 may sign up for the 2023-2024 4-H year online. We will offer our Cloverbud Club (ages 5-8), Bits and Pieces Horse Club (ages 9-18), Clovers in the Kitchen Club (ages 9-18), and Teen Council (ages 14-18). We will also be in our local schools for school enrichment and our partnership with Kids Club of the Upstate. In addition, we will hold our first poultry show on October 5th and our Peach Country Livestock show March 22nd and 23rd. We are looking forward to all of these and the many more events planned for this year.
We are always looking for volunteers to work with our youth in Cherokee County. If you are interested in volunteering or want to hear more about these exciting activities, please contact me.
Drew Jeffers Horticulture and Natural Resources Agent Spartanburg County
6th Annual IPM Symposium Keeps Growing!
Master Gardeners in the field.Master Gardeners
Horticulture agent Drew Jeffers has some exciting programs and projects coming up! The 6th Annual Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Symposium in Greer, SC, is sold out. It is now a hybrid event where satellite locations around the state can view the event held in Greer via live stream. This popular annual program provides five pesticide recertification credits for commercial landscapers and growers who rely on pesticide license compliance to maintain their livelihood. Participants will learn about emerging invasive species, chemical and non-chemical control methods for turf and landscape pests. Professionals who follow IPM practices, benefit from long-term, cost-efficient pest management, as well as reduce environmental risks such as impact to water quality. The program is scheduled for October 26th, 2023, and is estimated to reach over 250 stakeholders.
Clemson Extension Training Master Gardener Community Volunteers!
Master Gardeners
Our Master Gardener Volunteer training course is off to an excellent start. The Master Gardener program trains citizens who want to give back to their community by delivering horticultural education outreach and service to residents through various locally-offered programs. There are approximately 284,307 residents in Spartanburg County spread across 819 square miles in the Upstate of South Carolina. Due to county size and population, Clemson University Cooperative Extension in Spartanburg County relies on knowledgeable Master Gardeners to help meet the consumer horticulture needs of our residents. Students learn about soil conditioning, soil fertility, plant identification, weed management, storm-water runoff pollution, drainage mitigation, integrated pest management, and pesticide safety.
Master Gardeners in the Spartanburg Extension Office.
The Spartanburg Master Gardeners are involved in multiple projects around the county. Some include work with Habitat for Humanity, Hatcher Gardens, Spartanburg Community College, Spartanburg Farmers Market, The Landrum Farmers Market, and many others. The Spartanburg Master Gardener association, known as the Master Gardener Association of the Piedmont (MGAP), also runs a one-acre Plant-A-Row Garden, which provides over 15,000 lbs of quality produce to local soup kitchens and food pantries annually. To learn more about SC Master Gardeners, please click here. To learn more about the local association activities, please click here.
Laura Haddon 4-H Youth Development Agent Spartanburg County
Kids Club member enjoying a healthy snack.A healthy snack!
Spartanburg County 4-H has partnered with the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Upstate, now called Kids Club of the Upstate, for many years. Through 21st Century grant funding the Kids Club contracts with Spartanburg 4-H to provide Healthy Lifestyles, STEM, and Ag in the Classroom lessons.
During the school year the 4-H Agent offered Healthy Lifestyles lessons to fourth and fifth graders using the Choose Health: Food, Fun, and Fitness curriculum developed by Cornell University. Youth learned about the importance of eating the recommended servings of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. They also read nutrition labels and practiced choosing snacks that were lower in fat and sugar.
Kids Club participants used the engineering process to build tall index card towers.
One of their favorite lessons was about “Go, Slow, and Stop Drinks”. They were very surprised by some of the drinks that ended up in the “Stop” category. After each lesson the youth made a healthy snack. Everyone’s favorite was the fruit and yogurt parfait!
Kids Club members enjoying smoothies.
During the summer months 4-H was able to provide STEM activities to the older students and Ag in the Classroom activities to the first and second graders. STEM offered students the opportunity to solve problems using the Engineering Design Process. They created “Pom-Pom Poppers”, “Index Card Towers”, and “LEGO Mazes”. In addition to problem solving skills, they developed their communication skills and practiced working together as a team.
Ag in the Classroom lessons provided youth hands-on opportunities to learn about popular South Carolina commodities through read-alouds of the Accurate Ag Book of the Month from South Carolina Farm Bureau Federation. The books were accompanied by an activity. The June lesson was all about strawberries.
Kids Club kiddos dissecting eggs.
The first and second graders enjoyed the book, I Love Strawberries, by Shannon Anderson. Then they made a strawberry plant life cycle craft and mixed up a strawberry smoothie.
July’s lesson focused on chickens and eggs. The classes read Hatching Chicks in RoomSix by Caroline Arnold, dissected unfertilized chicken eggs, and petted real, live baby chicks.
Spartanburg 4-H looks forward to continuing to partner with the Kids Clubs of the Upstate as the 2023-2024 school year begins. Together we will continue to “make the best better”!
The Laurens County Extension Office is currently hosting a hybrid Master Gardener course. The Master Gardener course began on August 15, 2023 and will meet each Tuesday through December 5. This year’s course has 13 students.
Students in the course will complete 16 three-hour classes on subjects including lawn care, vegetable gardening, urban tree care, soils and plant nutrition, tree fruits and small fruits, and many more. Each class is presented by an Extension Agent or a Master Gardener graduate that has experience in the subject matter, which allows them to provide practical experience along with research-based information.
This year’s course is a hybrid model, which includes 8 in-person presentations and 12 presentations by video (20 presentations in total will be presented over the 16 week course). The hybrid model is an attempt to provide the same training to Master Gardener students across the State so they will all have the same base knowledge in the “Core” subjects. The in-person classes allow coordinators to tailor the course for each county’s needs by offering local topics most useful to their students.
After completing the course the students will provide 40 hours of community service over the next 12 months to become Certified Master Gardeners.
Water withdrawal intake on Lake Greenwood. Image Credit: Heather Nix
Water is often taken for granted, but we depend on it for nearly everything, such as drinking water, growing food, producing electricity, recreating, and for industrial purposes. Several state agencies are working hard behind the scenes to help ensure we continue to have clean, plentiful water for future generations. If you’re interested in learning more about water withdrawal regulations or water use, please see Clemson’s recently published series of articles:
Being a 4-H agent is
the most rewarding, frustrating, difficult, and easiest job I have ever
had. 4-H agents do everything at once
while everyone thinks you are doing nothing, or just playing with kids.
As a blacksmith, I have
a desire to pass the love of this trade on to a younger generation. The
blacksmithing “tools of the trade” are always two things, heavy and
expensive. With that in mind, I piloted
a blacksmithing program with a homeschool group with “makeshift” equipment and
some of my own personal tools to see what would happen. The enthusiasm was
overwhelming! At this point I realized
that with a dedicated set of equipment their learning curve would steepen, and
the love of this trade would deepen. After receiving the Extension Innovation
Award, I was able to leverage the City of Union to give some more money to buy
the proper equipment. This equipment has
allowed me to accelerate the home school, club, and day camp students’ knowledge
and technique. We even gave the program
a name, “Forged In 4-H”.
“Forged In 4-H” is designed to teach metallurgy and blacksmithing skills, as well as provide school enrichment through demonstrations, in a safe manner, with the use of chemistry, geometry, physics, math, and hands on projects. This program and equipment are being used to teach 4-H youth of all ages and any student through school enrichment, including homeschool groups. The equipment is housed in Union County, where the principal teaching location is. The equipment is kept mobile so that it can be moved to any county in the state to conduct short term projects, demonstrations, day camps, and school enrichment.
The use of hands-on learning
techniques allows students to experience and learn the trade of blacksmithing.
With a resurgence of interest in blacksmithing, this is a need that begs to be
met. This program is unique for several reasons. First, we are leading the way
in offering blacksmithing in 4-H in the southeast. Only a few counties in the
nation offer a 4-H program similar to this one. This may be due to lack of
agents and volunteers who do not have the knowledge or funding. The interest in
just my county has been overwhelming. Second, blacksmithing is an ancient art,
but we will be teaching it in a new, modern, and exciting way. We will be
teaching the life skills of blacksmithing to the younger generation, instilling
an appreciation for an ancient art form, and preserving skills that we do not
need to lose as a society. Third, we will be providing hands-on knowledge and
skills in a field that may become a career for some 4-H’ers. Forging, welding,
metal working, and fabricating are not going away any time soon. In a world
filled with technology, all too often we do not teach youth how to make
something real and tangible. With young people spending an exorbitant amount of
time on computers and cell phones, real world skills fall to the wayside.
Putting simple math and geometry skills to work, seeing chemistry and physics
in action, and developing simple hand eye coordination can easily be
overlooked.
As youth development agents, it
is our job to help young people choose a life path. If we can help these
4-H’ers become productive citizens, then we have done our job.
With help from the Greenwood Soil and Water Conservation District and the Upper Savannah Land Trust, our program titled “The Future of Your Farm” was held on April 20th, 2023, at the Connie Maxwell Oasis Farm in Greenwood, SC. This program was developed due to the current issues the agricultural community in South Carolina is facing. The number of farms has been decreasing and the average age of the farmer has been increasing for years. However, due to the current economic climate, housing developments and land prices have been increasing at a rapid pace in certain rural areas of the Piedmont Region consuming farmland in the process as heirs sell inherited land and assets from relatives who have passed on. The Future Of Your Farm had these goals in mind: informing farmers and landowners of the current climate in the real estate market, about land easements and other conservation programs, and about agricultural taxes and how to transition the land from one owner to the next. Our speakers Lonnie Gillespie (Greenwood Soil and Water Conservation District), Wade Harrison (Upper Savannah Land Trust), and Adam Kantrovich (Clemson Cooperative Extension) did a great job informing the audience of the current issues and how to protect their land and resources for future generations. We had a great turnout at our first meeting with twenty-eight people attending from five counties in South Carolina. Be on the lookout for the next meeting of this series coming later this year.
Lucas Clay with Clemson Extension presenting to the Laurens Forest Landowners Association on Carbon Markets.
The last few months have been a busy time in Extension. I have offered numerous programs, field days, and visited with many landowners. Our programs have ranged from timber taxes, carbon credits, field tours, and many other current issues concerning natural resources. Office visits and landowner visits have ranged from vegetable garden problems, pine beetles, nuisance wildlife, and ponds. I always enjoy this time of year since there are more one on one landowner visits to discuss better ways to manage our natural resources.
The Laurens Forest Landowners Association has hosted three meetings this year. Our first meeting was held Tuesday, February 28, 2023, at the Laurens County Farm Bureau Office. At this meeting David Jenkins from the South Carolina Forestry Commission spoke on Insects and Diseases of the South Carolina Forest. We had 29 people in attendance at this meeting. Our second meeting was held on Tuesday, May 23, 2023, at the Laurens County Farm Bureau Office. Todd Mahan from AgSouth spoke on programs available to forest landowners through AgSouth. We had 31 people in attendance at this meeting. Our third meeting of 2023 was held on August 22, 2023, at the Laurens County Farm Bureau Office. We had 28 people in attendance to hear Lucas Clay with Clemson University speak on carbon markets. We also recognized Matt Stewart, with Quail Pines Tree Farm LLC, with the Woodland Owner of the Year Award at the Spotlight on Ag.
Mr. Bennie Hallman showing the Newberry Forestry Association how he grafts buds on root stock to grow desirable trees.
The Newberry Forestry Association has hosted two meeting and one field tour this year. Our first meeting was held at the Stoney Hill Community Center on Tuesday February 14, 2023. Dr. Adam Kantrovich presented a program on timber taxes, we had 28 people in attendance. Our second meeting was held on May 9, 2023, at the Pomaria Community Center, where Lucas Clay from Clemson University presented information on Carbon Markets. We had 30 people in attendance for the meeting. We hosted a field tour on Tuesday, August 8, 2023, at Hallman Farms Wildlife Nursery. We had 18 people in attendance to learn about how Mr. Benny Hallman grafts trees such as persimmon, apple, and pear. These trees are then grown and sold to landowners interested in providing quality fruit trees for better wildlife habitat. At this meeting, we also presented William Folk with the Newberry Forestry Association Scholarship of $500 to continue his education.
Cam Crawford with the Forestry Association of South Carolina speaking at the 2023 Newberry Forestry Focus Program.
This year I was also able to offer Forestry Focus again after taking 2021 off due to covid. The program was hosted on March 4, 2023, and had 63 people attend the program. Topics at this program included SC Landowner Issues, Hardwood Management, Local Market Impacts, Wildlife Food Plots, and Herbicides in Pine Management. There were 39 evaluations completed which showed that 15,789 acres owned, and 43,399 acres managed could be potentially impacted by this program.
The Forestry and Wildlife Team hosted another hybrid Master Tree Farmer program this spring. After completion of the virtual part of the program we hosted several field days across the state. On April 21, 2023, we held a field day at Mike Meetze’s tree farm to visit various sites and see numerous timber practices being put into place. We had a good turnout at this field day with 17 in attendance.
Mike Meetze presenting at the Master Tree Farmer Field Tour.
The Indian Creek Quail Restoration Committee held a field day on Friday June 16, 2023. This field day allowed participants to see what private landowners and the US Forest Service has done to improve quail habitat management. We visited old agricultural fields converted over to pollinator habitat, completed prescribed burns, and timber stands where herbicides had been used to control invasive weeds. We had 23 people in attendance for this field day.
I also had the opportunity to take the 4-H Shooting Sports trailer to the Newberry Camp Conservation. Campers had the opportunity to learn about gun safety while learning how to shoot air rifles. There were 30 plus campers in attendance at the camp.
Jake McClain, the South Carolina Quail Focus Area Coordinator, leading a field tour for Indian Creek Quail Restoration Committee.
As summer turns into fall, festivals and fairs will pick up along with site visits. The Union Extension Office had the opportunity to set up a booth and demonstration at the Environmental Art and Music Festival at the Piedmont Physics Garden on April 25, 2023. Participants were able to see the Forged in 4H program, Home and Garden Information, Natural Resource Information, and Rural Health Information. You will also be able to find us some of the upcoming events like the Union County Antique Farm Show and the Union County Agricultural Fair. Make sure to check out the upcoming events in our newsletter to see what is coming this fall and winter.
Champion continental calf from the 2023 Laurens County Youth Livestock Show shown by Dacey Abruzzino of Enoree, SC.
The Laurens County 4-H Program in conjunction with the Laurens County Cattlemen’s Association hosted the annual Youth Livestock Show on August 24-26. The show is traditionally held at the Exchange Club Building on Fairgrounds Rd, but due to renovations, this year’s event was held at the Laurens County Park.
The show began on Thursday evening with a youth dog show, featuring a costume class, showmanship, obedience, agility, confirmation, and rally. Maureen McKowen of the Greenville Kennel Club served as judge.
Friday night was the Junior Beef Show, judged by Greg Anderson of Marion, NC. Besides showmanship classes, there were bucket calf, steer classes. There were also breed classes for British, Continental, and Crossbred heifers.
In addition to the beef show, Friday was the night of our youth rabbit show. Due to the heat, this was held at the Joe R. Adair Outdoor Education Center in Laurens. Showmanship and breed classes were judged by Alicia Grondski and Tina Reif.
Our Junior Dairy Show was held on Saturday morning, including a costume class, showmanship, and breed classes featuring Holstein, Jersey, and Brown Swiss. Our dairy judge was Glen Easter of Laurens.
Saturday afternoon saw our Junior Meat Goat Show closing out the day. Noah Henson of Canton, NC served as judge and following costume and showmanship classes, we had SC4ME, open SC Meat Goat Project, and open market wether classes. The show concluded with our market doe classes.
The Laurens County 4-H program thanks all sponsors, volunteers, and parents for their support and assistance with making this a successful opportunity for our 4-H youth. We are especially grateful for the cooperation with the Laurens County Parks and Recreation Department that helped make the show possible. We would also like to congratulate all participants and winners on a job well done.
Beyond offering independently run camps and projects, Fairfield 4-H
partners with community organizations to plan and implement activities
for students. Check out 4-H’s summer collaborations:
If your organization works with children and is looking for educational engagement, consider reaching out to host 4-H programming: seidt@clemson.edu | 803-589-8977
The Fairfield County Library’s summer reading program theme was We’re All in This Together, celebrating connection and comradery. Miss Stephanie co-hosted two programs within this premise, exploring the countries of Japan and France (voted by visitors to the world tasting booth at the Library Summer Kick-Off). Students made themed crafts like origami bookmarks and sampled local cuisine to discover how these countries were both similar and unique as compared to their own community.
4-H also visited the Chameleon Inspirations Learning Center’s summer school. Students combined science and art by designing catapults, playing electronic music with Snap Circuits, and more. By encouraging students to make mistakes and get messy, they practiced problem-solving and persistence. Sometimes kids need a space where they can tinker!
