vfcatvce2019-blog

[vfcatvce2019-blog]

✨final reflection✨

It’s hard to believe that my final week at VCE is coming to a close- it feels like just yesterday that summer was beginning and I was excited to see what was in store for me here. I definitely could not have predicted all of the challenges and the fun that I had! Not only did I get to really and learn more about cover crops and native plants in the Teaching Gardens, but I remembered something I had forgotten about myself in that I really enjoy working with the teen counselors and kids of 4-H. Before this summer I could not have told you what 4-H as an organization did besides showing animals at state competitions, but I saw firsthand that they cover a whole wealth of topics that clearly enrich and shape young minds.

When I graduated from VCU in May I thought I knew what I was most interested in and what I wanted to do (namely, urban forestry and invasive species management at the local community level). All of that remains true, but this internship has made me realize that there are so many more subjects I want to explore that fall under the environmental studies umbrella that bring me the same sense of fulfillment. I am not 100% certain what the future holds for me beyond this fall, and I couldn’t be more excited about that 💚

[vfcatvce2019-blog]

week 11👍🎊📈

Compared to how hectic the last few weeks have been, I feel like I have so little to report now in comparison. Here is a very brief summary of my week:

monday- Had a meeting about the Best Lawns survey analysis and put away the carnival stuff from Fair Camp.

tuesday- Took the day off for my birthday! 😎🎂

wednesday- I wrote up all my backlogged posts about Fair Camp, did some photo + video editing, and finished FY18 survey analysis.

thursday- I finished the FY17 survey analysis and sent out final copies! 🎉🎉💃 I’m not sure what sparked more joy, sending out those final doc files or organizing the 4-H supply closet.

friday- Today I did a bunch of odd jobs to help out others in the office- the most notable being a class enrollment poster I designed for Family Education. They were really excited about the characters on the board being detachable even though I can’t draw so that was nice 😂 In addition to this I also watched a webinar on privet biology, since they are in my opinion one of the cutest but most insufferable invasive plants around. It was quite informative!

[vfcatvce2019-blog]

CARNIVAL DAY!🎪💥🔮

After weeks of plans the day has finally arrived! And I gotta say, I am really happy with how the carnival turned out! It had rained the day before during Fair Camp so I wasn’t sure how our outdoor activities would go on Friday but clearly the weather was on our side. Everything went off without a hitch and you could really tell the kids had a good time at both carnivals 😊

If the fair camp theme is the same next year and there is another carnival show planned, I would tell the next intern to double the quantities of the most popular Show Barn games in order to fill up the more and cut down on the waiting (namely at the ring toss and the tin can stilts). The face painting and tattoo booth was super popular, as expected, and one of our counselors this year had her own fortune telling booth that was super cute.

Te second part of the carnival was hosted in front of the Children’s Barn and consisted of more mobile games. The biggest hits at this carnival were definitely the hay bale roping, cornhole, chalk walk, and the pass the water games. (The chalk circle could have been drawn a liiiiitle bigger so the kids wouldn’t be squished together, but hindsight is 20/20 😂)We had some great guests displaying the proper way to rope cows and hay bales with lassos- shout out to Katie Saul for helping with that! 🐴🤠

All in all it was a very successful and fun morning and the perfect way to end our Fair Camp week!

[vfcatvce2019-blog]

week 10 🤩🧚🎪

Ladies and gentlemen, it's finally here, the moment you've been waiting for all summer....*insert drumroll here*

THE 2019 PRINCE WILLIAM FAIR CAMP!!!

This was a crazy fun week and I'll to summarize it as best I can so this post isn't super long, but you really had to be there to get it. I had not been to a county fair since I lived in Kansas over a decade ago, and I definitely hadn't been to a day camp since my VBS days (let alone volunteered at one!) The energy was so great the entire week- all of the counselors were super engaged and they made the kids even more excited about all the activities. (I also volunteered in the childen's barn one night while the fair was open, and the Flour Tower station was equal parts fun for the kids and messy chaos 😂)

I think my favorite activity to be stationed at as an adult was either the Poultry + Rabbit barn or the Agricultural Barn with the bees and the alpacas! The guests we had for each show at the end of the day were amazing- my favorite has to be Ackmonster because I love his art style. We had a ton of fun crafts that I sadly did not get pictures of, but here are some snaps of the cutest things I saw this week:

Stay tuned for pt. 2 of this week all about my carnival!

[vfcatvce2019-blog]

[vfcatvce2019-blog]

week 9 🐔🎟🎇

When I took an outdoor programming course in my final semester of college, my professor liked to say that “Anything that can go wrong in program planning, will go wrong.” And WOW I have never believed him more than this week! Between a coworker spraining her ankle and effectively being out of commission for the Children’s Barn and my own drama outside of the office I’m a little surprised we’ve been able to pull everything together in time! Truly nothing will make you work harder or better than a little disaster towards the end of a deadline 😂

Drama aside, this week I was happy to be able to spend an entire day at the Children’s Barn, adding the decorations from the ground up. The theme this year is “Once Upon A Time” so the inside of the barn is going to be decorated with a big cloudy blue sky and rolling green hills topped with animals and flowers. There’s also a bit of barn-ception going on with the design for the front doors (this shot was taken mid-decoration):

Overall it looks really good and I’m proud of all the work our volunteers were able to put in. (I’ll post a picture of the final decor next week during Fair Camp).

Back at the office I was able to finish the display on sustainability for the 4-H table at the fair- we’ll be providing flyers with guidelines for all the local counties as well as a fun visual game to test the fairgoers’ previous knowledge about recycling. There’s a possibility the wheel might not get used until a 4-H event this fall when I have moved on from this office, but I’m still proud of it and hope it will be useful 😊

Stay tuned next week for lots of pictures of Fair Camp and probably a cute animal or two 🐷🐣🐴

[vfcatvce2019-blog]

week 8 🍿🦆🥇

I started out the week with the worst summer flu (probably from Junior Camp) but after taking Monday off I still managed to have a super productive week 💪

tues- Attended Fair Camp Counselor training to meet some of the teens who volunteered this year and to get a better idea of how the week is going to go. I was pleasantly surprised by how many questions/concerns they had about the program and how invested they are- Gen Z teenagers are truly a different breed!

wed- Had some last minute meetings concerning the Children’s Barn at the fair and supplies we still need to find. I went to the fairgrounds this afternoon to rifle through the supply closets so ensure that we buy as little first-hand as possible because #sustainability always💚 Before I left, I closed responses for the nutrient plan surveys so I can pick contest winners tomorrow- all in all we had a combined 107 responses!!

thurs- Today was definitely the most I’ve been encouraged to let my creativity show at a job. I spent most of my day supervising volunteers making name badges for Fair Camp, coloring and designing signs, and doing endless laminating. Directions for the carnival are going to be nothing if not eye catching! I also used a random generator to determine the winners for both surveys- hopefully I can contact them next week and start analyzing the response results when the Fair is winding down.

fri- Put the finishing touches on the sustainability-themed wheel of fortune I made for the 4-H table in the ag barn, and no spoilers but it looks better than I thought it would! After attending camp last week and seeing the oodles and oodles of plastic waste going on I’m even more ready to put this information out there and see if it gets anyone to start to consider changing their behavior. (I know single use plastic products are a simpler solution when feeding the masses, but Still😒 )

I’m gonna play it safe and stay indoors with my Netflix queue for the weekend now. Fingers crossed that I return to the office next week cold free and completely refreshed!

[vfcatvce2019-blog]

week 7🍀🦉⛺

This week was not only my first time at 4-H Junior Camp, but my first time at a camp! I truly had no idea what I was getting myself into but it was soooo much fun and such a rewarding experience 😊 I never had cell phone service up in the mountains to post this (which was a secret blessing in itself) but here’s a couple snapshots of my week:

Pillowcases from the first day of my tie dye class- came out WAY better than expected!

Enjoying a rare afternoon at the pool during rec/swim time (it rained the first two days!)

Major props to whoever decorated the cafeteria like this- it almost made up for the lack of air conditioning in there 😂

A bunch of counselors and campers playing Gaga, a ball game everyone absolutely LOVES whose origins continue to elude me....

The final campfire of the week (and final one ever for the senior counselors omg)

I’ll admit, the first campfire I witnessed was a little strange as a 4-H outsider bordering on cult-like  but it’s hard not to enjoy how cheesy it is when all the kids and teens are so into it.

And that’s a wrap on my first week at 4-H’s Junior Camp! I enjoyed it but only time (and a weather report) will tell whether or not I attend again next year not gonna lie 😂

[vfcatvce2019-blog]

week 6 📝♻☔

This was such a whirlwind of a SUPER HOT week I feel like I’ve come out the other side as a shell of my former self! As fun as it was going to Green Industry Professionals Field Day on Thursday a part of me definitely melted away on that campus...

Here’s a short synopsis of my week:

mon- Had a big ol’ office meeting, did research on waste facility practices for several local counties

tues- Master Gardeners meeting + ENR department meeting, then sent out best lawns reminder email

wed- worked on my sustainability promo flyers for the 4-H outreach table at PWC Fair, attended a composting webinar

thurs- green industry professionals field day! below is the VCE tent setup 😊

fri- came in late to help with last minute things for 4-H junior camp and did a crash course in tie dye demonstrations

Fingers crossed I don’t get eaten alive by bugs or burned to a crisp at Junior Camp next week! I’m still excited though 😂

[vfcatvce2019-blog]

week 5 🌻🌎💚

I never feel more productive than when i’ve spent a few hours sweating under the sun building something with my hands. probably why I love the teaching gardens so much! it seems that all of the rain we’ve had is making the plants in the vegetable garden more exuberant than usual because everything sprouted up past my head within a matter of days! The corn looks perfectly ominous, the squash has exploded in a sea of giant sticky green leaves all over the place, and even the tomatoes are faring way better than in past years. 10/10 for us honestly.

The contraption we built for the squash to climb and grow over is Wack, but I think we did a good job and I hope it’s all safe from bugs now.

This week I also sent in all my paperwork for the 4-H Junior Camp! I’ve never camped before even as a child, so being an adult chaperone is gonna be interesting bc I feel like I’ll know as much as the kids around me. “Adventure lies outside your comfort zone” and all that, right?

Up until this moment I had been picturing all camps very stereotypically in my head- log cabins, no air conditioning, lots of singing and canoeing and cooking over fires, etc. So basically Gravity Falls was the vibe:

But I’m pleased to say that this campsite has actual buildings to stay in AND a kitchen that respects people’s dietary restrictions! The bar could not be lower and yet I’m still impressed they haven’t come after the Vegan ™ with knives and pitchforks lol.

It’s the end of the week and I’m feeling SO inspired about going zero waste and targeting my use of single use plastics. My 4Ocean bracelet came in the mail today, and man is that a great company- they remove 1 pound of plastic from the oceans with every purchase, and their bracelets are handmade in Bali from the plastics so it literally could not be more sustainable. (I got the one that benefits whale conservation 🐳) 

In my persuit of researching sustainability facts and practices for the PWC Fair, I also learned about an amazing company that makes a vegan alternative to leather out of (wait for it) LEAVES! Not only do they use the leaves after they’ve fallen to the ground and craft their products by hand, but they’re absolutely gorgeous and not super expensive to boot. It made me really happy to see how the market is growing for these alternative types of products- I’d really like to do a display on them at the county fair if I can 😊

[vfcatvce2019-blog]

[vfcatvce2019-blog]

week 4 ✨📝🐝

I only worked 2 days this week since it was the 4th of July weekend and I had a vacation planned, so I focused most of my energy on shopping for the supplies needed for the carnival happening during the PWC Fair Camp. We have a goldmine of a supply closet in the office and even more supplies for activities at the Children’s Barn, so it looks like the only thing I’ll want to build for Fair Camp is a corn hole setup or two. (Though I’m gonna have to go to Home Depot with a chaperone or something to hold me back from buying more plants, absolutely love that place 😂)

I did some basic graphic design for the carnival signs at Fair Camp as well, since I was not keen on installing Photoshop or getting an Illustrator subscription for my work computer. This way, I don’t have to navigate the copyright laws of someone else’s artwork plus I have complete control over the design and colors! It’s a win-win situation.

On Tuesday afternoon I took advantage of some downtime to watch a webinar on bumblebee ecology and conservation. It was really interesting and I learned a surprising amount in only an hour- for example, did you know that 65% of bumblebees nest underground? They are also smart enough that they can be trained to roll a ball in order to get a reward (!!)

Looking forward to going back to the gardens next week as well as reading some of the feedback on my lawns survey, but for now it’s time to enjoy the long weekend 😊

[vfcatvce2019-blog]

week 3 🥔📊🎠

This was kind of a busy week for me so I don’t have many notes in the way of what I did every day, but I felt very productive so that’s a plus!

On Monday wrote a basic code to comb through all of our BEST lawns participants and get their contact info to send out emails this week. We had hundreds of names in the spreadsheet and some of them were duplicates and nobody has time for that tbh. I also started reading Doug Tallamy’s The Living Landscape during my breaks because he’s basically a very niche celebrity to me and my college friends 😂 We love his thoughts on biodiversity in home gardens!

Tuesday I pulled up some carrots and potatoes at the gardens today and made some new animal friends! (Namely a frogs and toad and a slug whose life I spared when found on a plant) I don’t know what we’re gonna do about the deer or the groundhog who have been trespassing though...

The squash and corn is coming in absolutely beautifully and I can’t wait to take photos with our growing sunflowers since they’re my favorite flower :’)

One of the gardeners came to me with a plant that needed identifying and I’m happy to say I identified it without any help. It was a bit of a challenge since she presented it without any of its blooms but I got it done and I’m ready to share my newfound knowledge with her next week! (It was an obedient plant btw, they’re native to Minnesota and look like this:)

The rest of the week I focused mainly on fleshing out my plans for the carnival on the last day of Fair Camp. I’m splitting up the activities between the Children’s Barn and the Ag Barn so I think it will be best to have all the active and large motor skill activities in the Ag Barn and the more solitary activities (like marbles, horseshoes, etc) in the other barn. I spent almost all of Friday honing my graphic design skills to create a bunch of signs directing the carnival and I think they might look better than they did in my head when all is said and done 😊

[vfcatvce2019-blog]

[vfcatvce2019-blog]

1st visit to the Fairfax Plant Lab at Merrifield Gardens! I could go bankrupt here in a heartbeat 🌻💚✨

[vfcatvce2019-blog]

week 2 🌱🌾🚜

monday

Today I learned a lot about the Children’s Barn and the 4-H outreach programs for the PWC County Fair in August! I haven’t been to a county fair since I was a little kid living in Kansas, so any background knowledge I have is coming solely out of Parks and Rec. (The Harvest Festival in that show was such goals).

I’m excited to pull my inner child back out to plan some old timey games for the carnival on the final day of the children’s Fair Camp as well. The theme this year is “Once Upon a Time” so tying in old, Cracker Barrel-esque toys in with the history around the fair should be fun. I don’t care what year it is, kids will never get tired of cornhole and monkeys in a barrel 😉

- The main question I’m grappling with is what sort of 4-H takeaway i can create for kids in the Ag Barn to show that this program isn’t just cows and corn but STEM too! i think a basic activity using GIS or even drones would be neat but the weather is so unpredictable...

tuesday

I visited the PWC fair grounds for the first time today! I love how small scale it is and how it’s not out in the country away from the city so it’s really accessible. I weeded an entire flower bed in front of the dairy barns on a whim in the hopes that a club might adopt the space and plant something before August. We were able to clean up the children’s barn and also rearrange the office to make it so that Fair Camp runs more smoothly too.

wednesday

A decent chunk of my day was spent formatting the BEST lawn surveys we’re sending out this summer so i’m pretty sure my brain is a mush now. You can only type the words “satisfied or dissatisfied” so many times before it ceases to look like a real word! Despite the fact that I had never heard of Qualtrics before last month, the interface is really user-friendly so I feel confident fiddling around with survey minutiae on there. It looks like the biggest obstacle we face every year with the survey evaluations is low response rates so i’d love to get a giveaway of some sort going to encourage the participants to actually check their emails.

Aside from a free lawn survey the following year/ turf care equipment I’m not sure what is a good incentive though. Maybe a Merrifield gift card? Because who could say no to more plants right?

[vfcatvce2019-blog]