The Whitley County Cooperative Extension Service noticed that there wasn't any available clubs or programs for the youth in our county that involved Horticulture.

     After a very successful first graduating Master Gardener Class it was decided that it would be an amazing opportunity to co-partner with the 4H Program to offer up a Jr Master Gardener Club for the youth in our county. The recently graduated Master Gardeners would serve in volunteer roles to assist both the 4H agent and myself in conducting a Jr Class one time per month. These Jr Master Gardener classes would focus on building the youth's skills in Horticulture by exposing them to a variety of different horticulture topics including: Site Selection, Site Preparation, Planting, Harvesting and Basic Growing Techniques. 

     By offering the Jr Master Gardener Program we were targeting primarily youth Kindergarten- 6th Grade in our area who were already active in 4H Youth programming that have shown an interest in Agriculture/Horticulture. Our first scheduled class on Saturday, August 5th, 2023 we had a total of four youth in attendance. However, since our first meeting we have been able to add at least 1 student each month. This past Saturday on July 13th, 2024 (10 months of programming) we had 14 students in attendance for the program. That is a 10% increase in participation each month. This was a huge success in the start of the Jr Master Gardener Program. 

     This program would not be possible to offer to our youth if it wasn't for our awesome volunteers and program assistants. Both the Horticulture and 4H Program Assistant have worked diligently to provide resources as well as organizing volunteers each month. 

     We believe this Jr Master Gardener Program will continue to impact the youth locally in our county. We look forward to continuing offering this program and continue watching it grow. We also believe that by exposing our youth to Horticulture early in life we can certainly have an opportunity to provide a better quality of life and access to freshly grown Fruits and Vegetables of their very own to be proud of.