By: Robyn Stewart
Lincoln County Extension envisions a world in which youth and adults learn, grow, and work together as catalysts for positive change. Our vision is to provide empowering, impactful programming containing unbiased, research-based information to Lincoln County residents in the areas of 4-H youth development (4H) and agriculture and natural resources (ANR).
When 2020 began, nobody could have predicted what the rest of the year would bring. The departure of Ms. Jodi Coon in the spring left us without a dedicated 4-H staff member until October, and the COVID-19 pandemic severely restricted our ability to do any in-person programs or events. In light of these challenges, Lincoln County Extension has been hard at work. In 2020, our office served over 2300 individuals face to face, over 500 people by phone, and over 1800 by email. We also provided 50 on-site consultations for homeowners and other clients in 2020. These numbers reflect a significant increase in phone and email contacts over 2019, and despite the pandemic, our face to face numbers remained similar. Lincoln County Extension also processed 146 samples of feed and forage, water, and soil in 2020, a 65% increase from 2019. In addition to our office contacts, Lincoln County Extension also moved into our new building, hired two new staff members, and provided a variety of 4-H and ANR programs.
The Lincoln County 4-H program had a tough year in 2020. In the spring prior to the pandemic, we were on track to continue our historical participation in DPA, summer camps, and poultry judging. We were able to have 28 students participate in District Project Achievement, of which 53% placed. Our junior/senior 4-H’ers also won the Outstanding Community Service Project at their District Project Achievement contest. Due to the pandemic, all in-person contests were cancelled shortly after we finished Project Achievement, and Jodi Coon left at around the same time. From around April to October, Lincoln County Extension did not have a 4-H staff member, and we were not able to host any in-person meetings or events with students for approximately the same time frame. Even now, we have just gotten word that all UGA Extension activities with more than one county are cancelled through February 14th. Despite these challenges, we did hire a part-time 4-H Program Assistant, Ms. Johannah Stone, in October of 2020. She has been holding in-school club meetings for 4-H’ers and working on getting them ready for Project Achievement this spring, which we are still hopeful will happen in-person at Rock Eagle in May. Due to the restrictions on in-person programming, we have decided to hold off on starting our specialty clubs back up (poultry judging, livestock judging, and archery team) as we would not be able to have adequate practice for students and there are no contests being offered at this time.
Fortunately, despite the pandemic our ANR programming was able to continue, albeit in some new ways. Our ANR agent hosted two iterations of a Hobby Flock Seminar Series. The first, held prior to the pandemic, was held in-person in February and had 17 attendees. The second reiteration was held online in July and had 248 registrants. This program won the 1st place poster at the Northeast District Annual Research Symposium and a 2nd place poster at the Georgia Association of County Agricultural Agents (GACAA) AM/PIC. A second program that was offered was an online Horse Owners Seminar Series. This program was held in August and had 286 registrants. It won the GACAA equine programming award and was 2nd place in the GACAA Oral Presentation contest. A final program held in 2020 was an online Sportfish Pond Management class, which had 14 attendees. Our ANR agent is also the one who typically writes our newspaper articles—if you ever want to hear about a specific topic, please let us know!
Despite the challenges of 2020 and early 2021, Lincoln County Extension is proud to serve our community. If you have ideas on how we can better communicate, provide information, or any programs you would like to see, please let us know at uge3181@uga.edu or 706-359-3233.
