April 18, 2024 Minutes
Weld County Extension Advisory Council Minutes
April 18, 2024
IN ATTENDANCE:
Rick Bowen
Josh Docheff
Kim Eastwood-4-H Program Update
Teresa Johnson-4-H Program Update
Pat Kindvall
Erin Mathews
William Nelson
Cindy Nosko-Minutes
Patrick Pulis-4-H Program update
Gary Schaneman
Mike Schwan
Sean Short
Lori Stevens
Hannah Swanbom
ABSENT:
Commissioner Perry Buck
Amy Cooksey
Dr. Darin Lickfeldt
Sean Short welcomed the group and called the meeting of the Weld County Extension Advisory Council to order at 12: 00 pm. The minutes were approved by the board members. The topic for board update was what are your summer plans, and what you did well and what could be improved upon.
Hannah gave an update on Extension. As of Monday, our Horticulture agent started. Her name is Micaela Truslove from Iowa. She came from the Boulder County Extension and is currently living in Larimer County. She was planning to be here but had a meeting with Amy Lentz to bring her up to speed on the White Plumb Farm. Right now, we are fully staffed, but in July we’re looking to interview and hire 2 EFNEP agents. We used to have a strong EFNEP program and are looking to bring that back. Hoping we have a good search and hire 2 to begin in August.
Currently working on White Plumb Farm and getting it ready for planting. Need to spray and do some weeding, as we are currently looking for a tiller. At this point, we’re off to a good start and moving in the right direction.
Fair is up and running, getting contracts out and sponsorships are starting to come in. Goat Extravaganza is this weekend and before we know it the Dairy Extravaganza will be here in June.
Budget got moved up by a month and a half so will be starting to work on that shortly.
We have a new facilities director in the county and have had a couple of meetings with him on re-enacting the new facility for Extension. He seems to be on board and willing to help.
Commission Buck was unable to attend the meeting this month so there is no update at this time.
Kim Eastwood, 4-H Development Agent and Teresa Johnson, 4-H Event Coordinator gave an update on the 4-H Program. Had a very successful year and the CWF trip was a success despite some obstacles and the kids came back with a lot of knowledge. We are looking to do the trip again in 2026.
Enrollments are down this year. We currently have about 940 compared to over 1000 last year. Not really sure why except that some have aged out and enrollment closed on March 1st.
Teresa gave us an update on the events for 4-H. Camp Cloverbud is usually done twice a year, one in summer at Island Grove and one in Winter further south Weld. This winter we had about 62 youth attend, ages 5-7. The theme was Vet Science and we took them to Aims. There they were able to participate in a mock surgery, learning how to scrub in to do surgery. They also learned about an animal’s digestion system, learned the different development stages of a chick inside the egg. The kids learned about pig anatomy, about parasites and also the ABCs of Agriculture while creating a trail mix snack.
4-H Showcase is done at the beginning of the year. This year we saw about 150 kids that came through that day and they can come and see the different projects that they’re able to do in 4-H.
For the 4-H Youth Executive Council, they’re kids who are a step above the club level but haven’t quite made it to the district level of 4-H. They put on dances during the year, they supply scholarships and do scholarships to conferences. They met with Commissioner Buck, did an Agriculture tour, and attended the Leadership Development Conference in Denver.
Recognition night is done at Island Grove and we’re the only County that doesn’t charge for the dinner. We invite everyone to a full dinner at no cost. We usually set up for about 500 hundred people, but we don’t always get that many. This is an event where we celebrate the Cloverbud graduation that are moving on to regular 4-H, we celebrate the 5 yr.- 65 yr. leaders and we also celebrate the state fair exhibitors who can go up and talk about who they are and what they did at the fair.
We currently started doing a career expo and doing some tours around different places such as CSU Spur Complex in Denver and Aims Community College. We also took the kids to Fort Collins for a day to the Equine Center and some of the representatives there to learn about the career opportunities for classes. We also have set up some time with Amy Lentz to learn about opportunities in Horticulture.
We do now have a 4-H State Director, Michael Compton from Iowa on board. He was also on the council of the national 4-H program, so should have some good support.
Patrick gave an update on his program as the 4-H Outreach agent. There were about 3546 youth reached through the afterschool monthly programs and 13 different locations also reached like schools, libraries, and youth centers.
The Juntos 4-H program was launched and it serves both Hispanic and all students seeking opportunities to advance their education to a post-secondary learning with options.
Patrick facilitated 15 hours of programming called Data Detectives to five classes of 4th and 5th graders at Union Colony Elementary. About 95 youth read a chapter book about to kids who travel back in time to investigate various diseases and viruses. About ¾ (73.3%) said that this program had a positive in STEM engagement, 57.8% saw STEM career interests and 48.9% identified themselves with a STEM identity.
He facilitated a program called 30 Days Lost in Space developed by invert.lo. The program teaches youth how basic coding works and problem-solving skills to debug problems that arise from having an incorrect code.
Patrick is also doing monthly program at locations to bring research-based programs that range from electromagnetism to making lip balm out of products found in Agriculture.
He attended the Yes Fest, presenting a workshop on liquid nitrogen and showcasing a booth with the Van De Graffs generator. Over 1,000 people attended that event with Dr. Temple Grandin giving the opening speech. Also helped at the Poudre Pour in Windsor as adults and youth planted succulents in mugs. Finally, 4-H Outreach of Larimer County partnered with us to teach about the science of sound at the Windsor Charter Innovation Night that had over 800 in attendance.
Patrick will also be providing a program for young entrepreneurs with YouthBiz, youth will follow along a 15-course program that will span over 2 months. This teaches youth about running a business. About 6 youth are currently enrolled and in the process of learning how to run a business from design to prototyping, to pitching, to shark tank, to manufacture and then the sales.
Some of the program that Patrick taught so far this year were:
January – Science of Sound, where youth learned how the science of sound works and explore various objects that make sounds including musical instruments.
February – Feed the Birds, youth created their own bird feeders out of pinecones, peanut butter (or sunflower butter) and bird seed. These were hung from trees for the birds to eat.
March – Rockets and Orion’s Belt, youth were able to explore various types of rockets such as straw rockets, water rockets and even meet up on a specific day to launch a live rocket into the air.
With no further business or new business, the meeting was adjourned at 1:15 p.m. The next Council meeting will be on June 20, 2024 at the Extension Office.