YOU ARE HERE: Central Kentucky Home→Collections→Meeting Room

4-H Clover Corner: New extension building expands 4-H horizons

January 23, 2008|KIM RAGLAND

We're having an open house 2-4 p.m. Sunday for the public to come take a look at the new Cooperative Extension Service building. The building is located at 99 Corporate Drive in the Industrial Park, off Lebanon Road, outside the Danville bypass, just behind the technical school.

If you are interested in 4-H or what 4-H can do for your child, come to the open house where you will get a sense of just how many new things we will be able to do in Boyle County 4-H because of this new facility.

Several of our clubs and projects will host displays and demonstrations in our meeting facility during the open house so you can learn more about on-going 4-H programs. We also will have refreshments; hosted, self-paced tours of the building; and tokens of our appreciation for your visit.

The new building features a large, well-lit, child-friendly meeting room that can be subdivided into three smaller meeting rooms. It is equipped with an excellent sound and audiovisual system. One room is outfitted with floor outlets, cabinets for our sewing machines and adjustable chairs so 4-H'ers can learn to sew in well-designed comfort.

An attached kitchen provides space for serving meals to those using the meeting room, but more importantly for us, it has four teaching stations.

That means we can comfortably teach up to 16 youth at a time about nutritious food choices and cooking skills.

Convenient facilities

The public meeting facilities are all located on one side of the building that can be opened for the public even when our offices are closed, making convenient meeting space available for our night and weekend club meetings.

Plenty of storage space allows us to keep all the materials our youth need for their project and club meetings nearby and handy for our volunteer leaders.

An additional metal building is planned for the back portion of the lot that will feature a "dirty project room," with washable floors, walls and furniture so any time of year, we can comfortably host animal and plant projects that can get a little messy. The building will provide extra meeting space for some of our larger clubs and possibly even a shooting sports range for our air pistol and archery participants.

The extension district board planned and saved for this facility for many years and now that it's here, we are excited about the many possibilities it opens to expand 4-H programming for local youth. In many cases, the board designed and furnished the building with young people in mind: durable, easy-to-clean furnishings and floors; low counters and sinks in the kitchens; adjustable sewing chairs; and even a library where materials youth can use to study about their projects can be housed.

Boyle County 4-H and the youth of our community will benefit from this highly functional, kid-friendly facility for years to come. Please come out from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday and see what we have to offer.

For more information about the new building or the open house, contact the Boyle County Cooperative Extension Service at (859) 236-4484 or cesboyle@uky.edu.

Kim Ragland is Boyle County extension agent for 4-H youth development.

|

|

|