Like many other community organizations, the Graves County Extension Office has been trying to regain interest in volunteerism and participation since the pandemic in 2020. To complicate things even further, our community suffered a devastating tornado in 2021 and we are still feeling the effects of it to this day. Just before the tornado, our office was also moved out of the city center to a new location on the north end of town that is less visible. All of these factors have had a hand in the decline in participation with extension. On any given day someone comes into the office and says that they have never been there before or have never heard of extension programming. It's the same story on our social media posts where people comment that they don't understand what we have to offer. The staff have been coming up with new ways to get people to the office so that they can meet us and we can share what wonderful things we have happening here on an almost daily basis. With September being a great time to revitalize programming after what feels like a summer lull and a brand new 4-H programming year, the staff decided to host their first Fall Fest for the community. 

After settling on a date, the details began to come together. We partnered with organizations in our community that we work alongside often such as our local Conservation District and H&R Agripower to name a few to set up booths that talk about the programs that they partner with us on and to increase agricultural exposure with a Touch-a-Tractor booth where children and adults alike could climb up in a big tractor and check out all the features and how it works to harvest our food. 

In addition to community partners, we also had 4-H club leaders create booths that highlighted the work of their clubs to get families excited about becoming a part of them. Our Homemakers gave out information about opportunities within their organizations and helped with passing out hot dogs, popcorn, and snowcones to everyone who came through. We also included a Chili Cookoff that brought out 10 different recipes of chili that were judged, placed, and then offered to the community to sample. The agents all had booths set up with information about how to become a part of their councils, what they do, and any upcoming programs that they had as well as an opportunity to talk to them. Each guest received a passport in which they had to get checked off as they came around to each booth and after the completion of their passport, they were able to drop it off at the registration table to get a chance at winning a door prize. 

This event was targeted to children, adults, families, and seniors and overall it reached over 177 people that night. In the days leading up to the event social media posts interacted with over 2500 people as well. The staff felt like this event was a huge success and look forward to growing it each year. Out of the people who attended, 9 new 4-H enrollments came in, 6 new people signed up to participate in the Agriculture Advisory Council, and 4 new people expressed interest in joining the CEC. Many participants said that they were looking forward to engaging more with extension and were surprised to learn of all of the learning opportunities that we provide here every week.