In the fifth year of conducting Reality Store In Letcher County, some much needed change was made to make updates in the program. The reality store is held at the Letcher County Extension Office with all of the 7th grade in the county and some of the 8th grade depending on the school and what they would like. This will help the youth to make a better transition into high school and the real world. Hopefully this will help them while in high school to make good choices and not wait until they graduate high and try to step up to becoming a great adult. The community and the schools are very involved with reality store, volunteers and school personnel are really what makes reality store the program that it is. The teachers love the reality store program and the volunteers as well this is what puts things into perspective for  a lot of the youth that go through the Reality Store program from the prep work to the actual reality store. In February is when the prep work begins for the reality store in the schools, then the volunteer letters go out to recruit folks from the public from the courthouse Clerks Office , Kentucky Farm Bureau, City Police, Shriner's, FRYSC, 4-H Council members, District Board Members, community members and parent volunteers. Generally those that have helped with a past reality store want to come back again the next year and help. The upgrade to the program this year was going through and setting the price for the automobiles, insurance, groceries, fast food, taxes, medical insurance. I ask the volunteers to help give the real prices in today's world through their careers. When the prep work was being done in the schools we worked with the teacher, principles a, and guidance councilor to get the youth GPA and put them with a job that will be compatible to what their future job could be. Some of the youth did not like the job that they received and wanted to change. Some did not like the face that they had a family with several children and they could not" get rid of the kids". They had to keep the family and children. They wanted know if they could "live off of the government". In my Reality everyone had to work and take care of their children and family. They could no have a one bed room apartment and put five people in that one bed room. Each child had to have their own bed room to sleep in. They said this is hard working and supporting a family when I have a spouse that will not work. Some of the youth realized that they had to work two job just to make the bills. Each of the youth at came through Reality Store had to purchase insurance for themselves and their family. They could not believe that insurance is not free and that we had to pay for it. The volunteers love that I try to make this as real for the youth as possible by getting prices as close to the real-world price making each child have a career and some had a family and others did not. They think it is great fro the youth to see what it cost to live in today times. The value of handwork that the youth learn through reality store is amazing. 

222 youth seventh and some eighth grade students participated in reality store. 84% of the students realized that they need to be better at budgets. 70% said that they will be more aware of how they spend their money. 90% learned about career choices for the future, 70% realized how important school is and why they need to stay in school and graduate from high school. 40% of the youth said they will be saving money instead of spending money.