During the onset of COVID-19, the Cooperative Extension Service worked hard to explore new ways to adapt in unusual circumstances and bring our community together.  Ronda Rex had the opportunity of working with her colleagues to conduct the “Cleaning Matters” virtual learning class via Zoom with agents Kathy Byrnes, Kenton County Family and Consumer Sciences Agent and Diane Mason, Boone County Family and Consumer Sciences Agent. The class was Diane Mason’s idea and was planned and scheduled long before the pandemic.  Initially, Diane invited Kathy and Ronda to join her to make it a multi-county teach approach.  When the pandemic no longer allowed the class to be conducted in the usual Extension manner, Ronda volunteer to be a Zoom class host and her goal was to assist her FCS colleagues in any way so that the class would not be cancelled and that Extension could get out much needed cleaning information during a difficult time.   Ronda reached out to Jill Walch, Campbell County Extension Administrative Staff Support, to be a co-host for this class along with Diane and Kathy in order to help provide technical support for the participants as they learned the Zoom platform.  

The class was conducted on the scheduled date of April 28, 2020 at 1:30 pm.  Kathy Byrnes was the host for the presentation and taught about how to clean, sanitize and disinfect.  Diane taught household cleaning, having a cleaning schedule, and why and how often to clean.  Ronda and Jill provided the Zoom platform as the hosts for the class and Ronda taught how to clean more efficiently.  Ronda reached out to the Campbell County Media Central (a long-time collaborator) to record the Zoom class and air it on TV for Northern KY residents to view.   This was a great opportunity to connect Campbell Media with other area Cooperative Extension Services.  The Zoom video recording was also made available via the Family & Consumer Sciences Newsletter to 227 Homemakers and general public.  The video aired and continues to air on Campbell Media Central periodically which has a broadcasting audience of 12,600.  Twenty-four participants attended the Cleaning Matters Zoom class.   Ronda felt blessed to be a part of such a resilient team in order to make the class a successful.  

Prior to the pandemic, this same presentation, Speed Cleaning (Cleaning More Efficiently) was taught by Ronda as one of the sessions of Homemakers—Simplify Your Life Program.  Simplify Your Life was a N. KY Area joint program conducted by the N. KY Area FCS Agents with Homemakers and general public as the target audience.   The focus was how to organize your home and life to result in overall health and wellness (physical and mental).   Each N. KY Agent played a part in the program as either a presenter, organizer or facilitator.  As a result of Ronda’s session, 53% of the 47 participants stated that they adopted 1 or more of the practices suggested in Speed Cleaning or Efficient Cleaning.