In an effort to provide a unique opportunity for military teens to connect and form relationships with caring adults and other military teens from Kentucky, an idea was born to host a 4-H Military Teen Leadership Camp for teens from both Fort Knox and Fort Campbell and to be held at one of Kentucky's 4-H Camps.  Research shows that 4-H youth excel beyond their peers, are more likely to be civically active, make contributions to their communities, participate in science programs during out-of-school time and make healthier choices. (Tufts University, 2012)  Through the 4-H Military Partnerships, the resources of the Land Grant University—youth development professionals, research based curricula, and high quality training and technical assistance—are brought to military youth programs. University and County Extension 4-H staff served as project directors and a great collaboration was formed between the University, County Extension Staff and State 4-H Camping Program.

With the mission of Kentucky 4-H Camping to improve people through intentional life skill development, this camps’ mission was to provide a fun, safe, educational bonding experience through collaboration with local and state partners, research-based methods and programming, service-oriented practices, long-term strategic planning, and play. With the mission of the Kentucky 4-H Camping program in mind as well as the goal of 4-H military partnerships being to provide 4-H experience to military youth, the 4-H military teen leadership camp was developed, and 22 youth attended.  

After applying and being awarded one of the 2019-2020 Charles E. Barnhart Fund for Excellence grants, one of the goals of this program was to be able to offer the camp to our military families at no charge as a way to say "thank you" for their sacrifice.  

The objectives of the camp were to not only bring military teens together for support and encouragement but to focus on areas of leadership that enhance young people’s skills for the real world.  Topics and activities that were included in the camp were public speaking/communications, resumes/job applications, parliamentary procedure, customer service (how to be professional), teambuilding, manners/etiquette/fashion sense, social cues/awareness along with some fun bonding activities our 4-H camps are known for including a night hike, swimming/water slide, high/low ropes challenge course and canoeing/kayaking.  

At the conclusion of the camp, a formal assessment was given and the questions asked allowed for narrative responses from the participants including,

• “My favorite class was how to be a nice human because we had a deep discussion which helped open my eyes to other people’s perspective.” 
• “I would tell next year’s group to listen, cooperate, participate, be nice to others, and allow themselves to learn and grow.” 
• “My time at camp was exhilarating, thrilling, awestrucking, inspiring, funny, hilarious, heartwarming and AWESOME!”
• “It was very interesting and a lot of fun. I learned a lot about being a leader, about myself, and about others.”
• “If everyone could experience a camp like this the world would become a better place. Once again, I had an amazing time here and met some amazing people, thank you for this opportunity and I hope to come back in the future as a volunteer!”
• “If I’m being completely honest, I did not want to come to camp. But my mom pushed me to come and have a good time. So thanks to my mom, I am super grateful she pushed me to come.  I have met amazing people, learned new things about my leadership characteristics, and tried things that I never thought I would do (i.e. hiking, kayaking, putting coke in my hair, and pudding in my toes). So all in all, thank you to the staff who served the meals, the staff who held the classes, and to the leaders of the camp who decided to stay back to coordinate the events that were held.”