Traditionally, the Fleming County 4-H Program hosts the “Welcome to Reality” Reality Store for the entire 5th and 7th grades in the community. After an almost three year hiatus due to Covid-19 and subsequent protocols, our community was able to finally come together to host the event in November of 2022 for all 7^th and 8^th grade students.   The current Fleming County Middle School population were the first students to never have participated in the in-person event since three weeks prior to what would have been their 5^th grade reality store was March 13, 2020.  

In November 2022, these 7^th and 8^th grade students felt reality when they participated in the elaborate reality store involving more than 15 real life stations. Throughout the program, youth draw a profession, research it and its educational background, then apply their monthly salary to a monthly budget. For the first time ever, Fleming County applied this program to two grades simultaneously doubling our need for volunteers and manpower.   Just completing this event with one grade level the support of the entire community of Flemingsburg, however, to successfully complete this endeavor with two grade levels congruently we recruited nearly 50 community volunteers and around 20 local businesses represented in their specialties and several student family members volunteered their time to help make this program come together nicely. 

The 2022 4-H Reality Store brought up new community ideas and initiatives as well as put some things in perspective for our students.  Volunteers from our local Licking Valley Action Group approached the planning committee about adding a station for community resources to assist with students that are starting out with low incomes.  Learning to ask for help early on, could become a vital skill later in life. Upon conclusion of the event, students commented that “they didn’t realize clothing was so expensive”, and “why is childcare so expensive?”. With nearly 300 youth participating in November 2022 school year approximately 85% of the students expressed that they “now understood the importance of their parent’s monthly budget”, 95% The volunteers in attendance stated “this is great, this really does give a real life look at what adults deal with every day” and “this is important information and causes the youth to think about things not typically on their radar at this age such as child care”. Student and community feedback is essential when planning the future of the program.