Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk-Line: Katie Baker on upcoming local 4-H programs

Transcript

Talk-Line: Katie Baker on upcoming local 4-H programs · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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  Speaker 1: Good morning, Sock Valley. You're listening to the Waking Crew
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  Speaker 1: here on AM fourteen sixty FM ninety five to one WIXN,
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  Speaker 1: and now it is time for our talk line segment
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  Speaker 1: of the show, where we're joined by our good friends
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  Speaker 1: from the Lee County four H Katie Baker, the Lee
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  Speaker 1: County four H Youth Development Program Coordinator. Good morning, Katie,
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  Speaker 1: Good morning. How are you today?
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  Speaker 2: I'm doing good.
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  Speaker 3: How are you?
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  Speaker 1: Very well? Thank you? So, first I'd like you to
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  Speaker 1: just kind of start off by telling folks a little
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  Speaker 1: bit about Lee County four H and what you do,
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  Speaker 1: especially with the youth, because you guys do such amazing work.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. So it's it's really neat just to have the
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  Speaker 2: kids have a place where they can explore those interests
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  Speaker 2: and learn more about that and have kind of an
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  Speaker 2: adult there to guide them in that. And I basically
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  Speaker 2: just kind of oversee that and help the volunteers get
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  Speaker 2: involved with the kids. It's it's a really neat program.
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  Speaker 1: No awesome, And I know that you have something going
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  Speaker 1: on tonight right, a very special event.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is my probably second favorite thing of the
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  Speaker 2: year besides fair. This is our awards and volunteer recognition ceremony.
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  Speaker 3: So.
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  Speaker 2: We get to see what all the kids have done
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  Speaker 2: throughout the year. So they fill out applications that tell
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  Speaker 2: us like that they go to so many club meetings,
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  Speaker 2: what community service stuff did they help out with, what
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  Speaker 2: do they do in their project areas? All that different
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  Speaker 2: kind of stuff. And they filled these applications and then
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  Speaker 2: they're graded and they're basically like a silver or a
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  Speaker 2: bronze or a gold rating or a metal and then
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  Speaker 2: we get to give them prizes and awards and recognize
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  Speaker 2: them for all that they've done tonight at our awards ceremony.
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  Speaker 2: Our Federation Club always buys pizza. Our Lee County Extension
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  Speaker 2: Foundation usually provides dessert every year, or we do like
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  Speaker 2: some kind of dessert fun thing. In this year, they
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  Speaker 2: managed to work it out with Culver's and Culver's is
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  Speaker 2: donating the dessert for tonight, So that's super awesome so
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  Speaker 2: to be a very enjoyable, tasty night for our forage members.
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  Speaker 1: What are some of the things that they've been a
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  Speaker 1: part of that they're being recognized for tonight.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, So those awards that they fill out, they it
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  Speaker 2: ranges from like their community service projects with their clubs,
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  Speaker 2: like some of our kids and their clubs go to
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  Speaker 2: oh man, it's somewhere near Chicago. It's feed my starving children.
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  Speaker 2: They like pack meals. Some of our club members go
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  Speaker 2: out to like local cemeteries and just like help clean
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  Speaker 2: stuff up in the fall or spring. Like they just
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  Speaker 2: do stuff all over the community, like they donate dog
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  Speaker 2: toys or they some of the clubs have made dog
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  Speaker 2: toys in the past and then donate them. There's food
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  Speaker 2: collections that they do within their clubs and the communities.
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  Speaker 2: Just tons of different like just different things. Whatever the
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  Speaker 2: kids are interested in, they get to go out and
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  Speaker 2: do those and then yeah, this is just super nice.
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  Speaker 1: No, absolutely, are there any of anything. You think the
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  Speaker 1: kids seem to favor Mores as far.
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  Speaker 2: As some of these, I think they really like going
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  Speaker 2: in toward Chicago and like helping packing food and doing
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  Speaker 2: food drives. It seems like a lot of our clubs
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  Speaker 2: do like the food drives and they get a really
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  Speaker 2: good response out of those. So that's really neat. And
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  Speaker 2: we've got all those like mini food pantries around like
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  Speaker 2: Lee County and Ogool and they can take them there
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  Speaker 2: and it's it's a super easy like drop off donation.
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  Speaker 2: Our Federation Club did the Buddy Bags last year. The
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  Speaker 2: kids wanted to go out and buy a bunch of
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  Speaker 2: food for them, so we went out and got a
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  Speaker 2: bunch of stuff and dropped it off.
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  Speaker 1: And yeah, yeah, that Buddy Bags is such a great program.
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  Speaker 1: And I really love hearing that the kids love you know. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I've you know, I talked with so many
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  Speaker 1: organizations and I know that for the most part, it
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  Speaker 1: seems like volunteerism like can kind of be kind of low, right,
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  Speaker 1: So they hear these kids getting excited and to me
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  Speaker 1: feel like they're leading the pack on that they.
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  Speaker 2: Love getting out and doing stuff. And our Federation Club
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  Speaker 2: like every year they pick like some something and that's
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  Speaker 2: like our fair donation drive and so they like have
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  Speaker 2: all the clubs and they make it a competition to
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  Speaker 2: see you can bring in them stuff and then take
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  Speaker 2: that and spread that out throughout the county. And it's
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  Speaker 2: like it's really cool to see like the kids being
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  Speaker 2: passionate about that and wanting to get that stuff done
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  Speaker 2: and out and spread through the community.
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  Speaker 1: That's absolutely amazing. And I know you have your statewide
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  Speaker 1: Building Brick Challenge series.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's really cool. That's one of the things
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  Speaker 2: that are Illinois for each is kind of managing, but
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  Speaker 2: it's just building bricks. So if you've got legos or
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  Speaker 2: other kind of building bricks at home, you don't have
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  Speaker 2: to go anywhere. You're not meeting anyone anywhere. They have
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  Speaker 2: a theme they had win last month and then this
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  Speaker 2: month in December, and this month's theme is Hometown Pride.
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  Speaker 2: You build the thing at home. The directions for like
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  Speaker 2: how big it can be is online and then you
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  Speaker 2: just take a picture and submit it to the link
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  Speaker 2: and you're entered into that contest. And there's different age
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  Speaker 2: groups that you can be in. But it's just like
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  Speaker 2: a really cool little opportunity to do a little project
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  Speaker 2: at home. And then this Building Brick Challenge kind of
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  Speaker 2: like leads into like our new project area for this
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  Speaker 2: year is going to be like a building brick area
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  Speaker 2: and then there's different themes and stuff you can do
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  Speaker 2: within that. So this will kind of get you a
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  Speaker 2: little head start on that project.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, what's this year's theme?
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  Speaker 2: So this month is Hometown Pride, but there's not like
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  Speaker 2: a theme for the year.
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  Speaker 1: It's just.
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  Speaker 2: Whatever you want.
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  Speaker 1: I know.
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  Speaker 2: They have like, oh, man, there was one little build
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  Speaker 2: it's like you do a little room as one of
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  Speaker 2: the builds that you can do for like a fair project.
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  Speaker 2: Another one was like a like a creature a creature build,
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  Speaker 2: and it could be like a fictional creature. It could
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  Speaker 2: be a dog, it could be a dragon, whatever you want,
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  Speaker 2: or a combination. But yeah, it just kind of varies.
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  Speaker 2: And I think the last challenge is in December, so
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  Speaker 2: then that'll be it for the year. But yeah, it's
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  Speaker 2: a really neat little opportunity.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, how do they sign up for that?
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  Speaker 2: So you just build it home and I think I
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  Speaker 2: got the guidelines here, so your build for this month
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  Speaker 2: should fit on a standard thirty two by thirty two
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  Speaker 2: stead lego or a base play of that similar build size.
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  Speaker 2: And then you just take a picture and go on
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  Speaker 2: the Illinois for Eah's website and you can check our
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  Speaker 2: Facebook for links to that stuff too, and you just
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  Speaker 2: submit the picture there so that it's.
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  Speaker 1: Easy, peasy awesome. How long do they have to get
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  Speaker 1: those entries in?
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  Speaker 2: You have until eleven pm on November thirtieth, so another
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  Speaker 2: week or two.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, Well, there you go. Kids, start generating those ideas
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  Speaker 1: and get those entries in that's that's such a fun
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  Speaker 1: thing it is.
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  Speaker 2: I can't wait to see what they come up with
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  Speaker 2: for fair this year too. There were some really neat,
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  Speaker 2: like oh god like pictures that.
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  Speaker 1: They did this year, and any standout entries you've seen
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  Speaker 1: so far, maybe just in recent.
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  Speaker 2: So in our fair this year. I know one of
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  Speaker 2: the kids did like an astronaut from little like lego
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  Speaker 2: pieces and it was like a picture instead of like
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  Speaker 2: a build and it was super neat.
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  Speaker 1: Oh wow, Yeah, that's super cool. You also wanted to
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  Speaker 1: talk about Holiday Steam.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, we've got Holiday Steam coming up and this is
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  Speaker 2: through our White Said County for each and this will
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  Speaker 2: be December thirteenth, from nine to noon, and this is
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  Speaker 2: just an opportunity to do like a variety of workshops.
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  Speaker 2: They get to pick one for every hour and there's
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  Speaker 2: three hours, so you get to do three workshops that morning.
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  Speaker 2: The registration for that will come out and probably the
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  Speaker 2: next week or so, so check again our Facebook. If
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  Speaker 2: you're in our four each program. You should be getting
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  Speaker 2: that stuff in your newsletters too, so just keep an
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  Speaker 2: eye out for that stuff that'll be coming up here soon.
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  Speaker 2: That's a really neat program and.
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  Speaker 1: You said, there's kind of a variety of workshops. Do
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  Speaker 1: you can you mention just a few of those.
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  Speaker 2: So one of the ones we're gonna do is like, god, oh,
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  Speaker 2: gingerbread houses, but with like gram crackers. So we're gonna
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  Speaker 2: build little houses and have a little mini competition for
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  Speaker 2: one of them. Another one we've done in the past
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  Speaker 2: is like a snowman build, and I think I'm gonna
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  Speaker 2: do that again this year. You get like cotton balls
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  Speaker 2: and straws and paper clips and you have to build
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  Speaker 2: the tallest snowman with all that stuff. So some fun
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  Speaker 2: different things. Sometimes there's like artsy things like creating ornament.
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  Speaker 2: Our master gardeners in our three county collection usually do
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  Speaker 2: some kind of fun gardening creative decorating thing too, So yeah,
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  Speaker 2: lots of different options.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, if you need a taste testing judge for
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  Speaker 1: those gingerbread houses, I volunteer, I volunteers tribute.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think we're gonna go on looks, but I
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  Speaker 2: keep that in mind.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe a new category in the future that would be cool.
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  Speaker 2: We have to like make your own gingerbread that would
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  Speaker 2: be tasty.
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  Speaker 1: You also have the Frosting Fun Spin Club.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is one of the really neat special interest
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  Speaker 2: clubs we have coming up, so that spin is special
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  Speaker 2: interest and this one is just like for kids that
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  Speaker 2: are interested in food decorating. Our volunteer that runs this
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  Speaker 2: used to be a manager of a bakery and she
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  Speaker 2: is wonderful. She I think she had five or six
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  Speaker 2: kids last year signed out, maybe a couple more, and
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  Speaker 2: they decorated like on a cake mold. They decorated an
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  Speaker 2: actual cake, they decorated cupcakes. One of the girls made
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  Speaker 2: like like zoo animals on the cupcakes. It was super
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  Speaker 2: cute cookies. Anything you can decorate. And that's again that
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  Speaker 2: leads into one of the projects that you can take
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  Speaker 2: to our four each show in July is food decorating.
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  Speaker 2: So that club will start in January. I think January
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  Speaker 2: tenth is the first day, and then I'll run till
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  Speaker 2: the last February or the last Saturday and February, and
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  Speaker 2: it'll be nine to eleven am each of those Saturdays.
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  Speaker 2: There's a kit that the kids got last year, and
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  Speaker 2: if they're returning members, they can bring that kit. If
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  Speaker 2: they need a kit. That one's thirty dollars and we
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  Speaker 2: can we can order that for you and then there's
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  Speaker 2: a ten dollars supply few for like the frosting and stuff,
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  Speaker 2: So that'll be a fun, fun time this winter. If
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  Speaker 2: you're looking for something different to do, or if you
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  Speaker 2: already like to decorate food.
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  Speaker 1: Stuff, Yeah, what are you looking at? Moving on and
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  Speaker 1: into the rest of the year.
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  Speaker 2: What am I look at?
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  Speaker 1: Home? Man?
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  Speaker 2: Everything? So we've got a couple more things coming up.
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  Speaker 2: We've got the Spin Club, We've got a positive leaders
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  Speaker 2: so our dog obedience club will be coming up probably
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  Speaker 2: late January February. We are going to do a hiking
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: series club, so like it's the Nature Explores Special Interest
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  Speaker 2: club that we had before, but we're going to kind
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  Speaker 2: of change it up this year and go to different
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  Speaker 2: places throughout our county, our region. I guess I will
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  Speaker 2: kind of just explore different trails and look at different ecosystems.
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  Speaker 2: So if you're into nature, that's one of them. If
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  Speaker 2: you know anybody that's super into bugs and wants to
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: come and learn about bugs and also teach people about bugs,
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  Speaker 2: that'd be cool because that's something that I always want
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  Speaker 2: to know more about. So we've got that going on.
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  Speaker 2: There's other stuff that's popping up too, But yeah, then
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: we quickly get into just like planning for the four
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  Speaker 2: each show.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, okay, and you know we're getting close to
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  Speaker 1: the end of the year, you know, Thanksgiving and Christmas,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm sure you folks have had kind of a
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  Speaker 1: big year. What are some of the standout events that
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  Speaker 1: you have throughout each year?
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  Speaker 2: Throughout each year, So this awards program that we've got
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  Speaker 2: tonight is one of our big ones. We have Project
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  Speaker 2: Pool that comes up in March, and that's kind of
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  Speaker 2: an annual thing we do, and that's similar to that
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: holiday Steam workshop where it's from nine to noon and
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  Speaker 2: then there's three sessions with like multiple choices of workshops
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  Speaker 2: and each thing. So that's that's every year. Our federation
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  Speaker 2: kids help out with that too, whether that's like helping
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  Speaker 2: to set up a few of them, like take on
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  Speaker 2: the leadership rule of like running a workshop, especially if
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  Speaker 2: it's a project that they've been in for a few
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: years and they know about that and they can kind
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  Speaker 2: of teach to other people about that at this point.
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  Speaker 2: So that's that's always a fun one too. We've got
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  Speaker 2: one of our we've got an Alpaca club and they
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  Speaker 2: are starting their meeting Saturday. So if you're interested in alpacas,
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  Speaker 2: you don't have to have an l paca, but you
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: get to work with an lpacas if you want. If
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: you're interested in that, reach out and let me know
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  Speaker 2: and we can connect you with that club. Yeah, there's
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  Speaker 2: a bunch of different stuff, but those those like the
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  Speaker 2: awards program is like probably like our second biggest thing
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  Speaker 2: to fare.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, how did you come to be involved in
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  Speaker 1: the organization and how long have you been with them?
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  Speaker 2: I man, I had a bunch of different seasonal jobs,
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  Speaker 2: and one of them I worked at TAFT as a
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  Speaker 2: program coordinator and I really liked working with kids. And
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: then somewhere along the line, I ended up working for
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  Speaker 2: EPA down in Illinois, and fine job, I just this
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: is not for me, and so I was looking for
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: other jobs and this popped up up here. And I
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  Speaker 2: love this area, Like is it from a somebody who
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: really enjoys nature? Like we have a lot of really
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  Speaker 2: cool state parks and natural areas around us, and also
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: like a pretty good volunteer community. I feel like I
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: feel like all of my volunteers and for each are
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: just like exceptional, like they go above and beyond for
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: the kids. And I really love working with those kind
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: of people, right, Like that's awesome. And so I think
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  Speaker 2: I've been here for three years now. It is my
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  Speaker 2: fourth fair because that's how I measure time, because I
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: started like two weeks before the fair and it was like, oh,
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: I'm doing something was fair cool, but it was trial
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: by fire, as everyone says, and it was wonderful, exhausting,
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: but wonderful. And so yeah, I've been here about three
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  Speaker 2: years and I love working with the kids, and I
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: love working with the volunteers and seeing like all the
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: cool fun community service stuff they do. They go out
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: and they do like field trips too, and just to
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: like spend time together and get to know each other better.
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  Speaker 2: And it's just it's a really neat opportunity for them
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  Speaker 2: to make friends and give back to the community and
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: just do something fun with their time.
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  Speaker 1: Were you a four h kid growing up?
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  Speaker 2: I had no idea it existed. Really, I started dating
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: my now husband, Yeah, I had no idea what it was.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: And it was a lot to learn. So every time,
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: which I feel like it's helpful because when we get
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: parents that like, oh, I want to sign my kid
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  Speaker 2: up for this, but I have no idea I'm like, okay,
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Like it's a lot, and that's fine if you don't
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: get everything, because I know it's a lot. It's a lot.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: It's a big program to learn and there's multiple steps
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: and yeah, it's a lot, but it's super fun and
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: it's worth it. Yeah, I had no idea. I didn't
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: know anything about it. As a kid.
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: It would have been super cool.
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  Speaker 1: Though, Well, now you are helping other kids who might
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: not have known. Yeah, let them know what it's all about.
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  Speaker 3: Trying to get you involved. If you're out there and
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: like I don't really like to do things like this
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: is probably a thing you might enjoy because you get
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: to pick the things that you like to do and
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: do those for projects. Yeah, and there's there's so many
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: different project areas. I think one of the struggles that
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: I think for each kind of faces sometimes is like
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  Speaker 3: people think it's just for live stock. And in my
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: three years, I have only heard one person actually say
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: that to me that like they thought it was just
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: for live stock.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: But like it there's robotics sections, there's woodworking, there's welding,
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: entomology like the study of bugs and stuff. That's one
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: of our project areas and We've got a few kids
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: that have like giant collections, Like they're super into it.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: If your kid likes rocks, we have geology, there's.
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: Pebble pops projects.
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  Speaker 2: We just had a geology workshop this past Saturday.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: We corn cupcakes and we cracked g odes.
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  Speaker 2: It was real fun. It's a good time.
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  Speaker 1: No, that's amazing, and so many wonderful things. Like you said,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: sounds just like something for everyone.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, whatever your interest is, like, there's there's a.
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: Spot for you.
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  Speaker 1: And four Eah, that's amazing. Well we're out of time
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: for today, Katie, but well we definitely have you back
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: on the show. And I thank you so much for
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: not only coming in to share this information, but for
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: all the wonderful work that your organization does. So that
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: was Katie Baker from the Lee County four h up.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: Next is your ABC Weekday Sports with Jay Reynolds. Stay
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: tuned right here on The Waking Crew AM fourteen sixty
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: FM ninety five to one Wi Accent.