Adair County recently hired a new Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences, Dylan Gentry. Adair County had been without a FCS Agent since before the pandemic, but despite this local homemaker membership numbers stayed consistent. Dylan quickly got to work offering workshops based on feedback he received from stakeholders who contacted him welcoming him to the position. A strong supporter of him while he was becoming orientated to his position was his homemaker council. Within the first two months he met with all six homemaker clubs. From these meetings it was identified that offering a Cultural Arts Competition was a big priority of the homemakers.

    There had not been a local Cultural Arts Competition in over 10 years. Starting from scratch meant that Dylan could design the competition in a way that was modern and utilized technology to its fullest advantage. The county competition was determined to be held the day before the area competition, this allowed participants to drop off and pickup their entries once for both competitions. Additionally, Dylan created a digital sign-in process for entry drop-offs. Stream lining and simplifying the process. The competition was advertised in our three local newspapers, on our digital sign, and Homemaker Newsletter. Homemakers who had a well known talent were contacted to solicit entries.

    Despite these efforts, we were unsure how much participation we would have for our competition, since we had not had one in such a long time. The local homemaker vice-president made the comment that she would be elated to have four to six entries. We were all blown away to have thirty-four entries, spanning twenty-one entry categories. An FCS Agent from a neighboring county traveled here to judge our competition. Of these thirty-four entires, twenty-one advanced to area competition.

    At the area competition we faired well, an outstanding sixteen entries received first place, the second most of any county. These entires compete one final time at the Kentucky Extension Homemakers Annual Meeting in May, where we anticipate doing well. The success of this years program has sparked a renewed interest in cultural arts. It also taught Dylan several valuable lessons about conducting a cultural arts competition. Probably most importantly, it energize a homemaker base who had been without an agent for an extended period of time.