The Knott Co 4H program offered multiple brown bag take home projects with educational curricula to youth in our county during the COVID pandemic. The projects themselves are experiential educational learning opportunities.  The product of this effort was to show our communities that we understand that the mental health and well-being of our youth is upmost importance during this trying time.  Those projects provided outlets for youth and their families to refocus their attention to positive educational interactions and away from negative anxieties during this time of uncertainty.

The brown bags included virtual photography contest info, an expressive-arts focus and a woodworking project.  The expressive arts focus included twelve hours of national 4H educational curricula resulting in twelve possible fair projects for each child to work through.  There were two hundred and fifty expressive art kits distributed. 

The woodworking focus was an intermediate level kit.  The kit had no written instructions and the level of finish was determined by the youth.  Two hundred kits were distributed.  A local non-profit that focuses on youth with special needs utilized these kits for a project lesson, as well.

The Knott Co 4H also encouraged youth involvement through virtual experiences.  Sharing the states weekly and daily Facebook programs youth could choose to take part in.  Those virtual opportunities gave our youth a way to feel connected to the state at large without leaving the security of home. 

Even though the county fair was cancelled, that did not curtail youth from trying new projects, sharing those projects and becoming involved in a positive way at home.

Since the pandemic began our county 4H Facebook participants have doubled, nearing six hundred. We have also reached youth and families through our local paper with weekly 4H and UK updates, a collaborative office effort..