With the Covid-19 national pandemic, our country is facing new challenges daily, from isolation to uncertainty, causing stress for many individuals.  This challenge has affected every individual in the family unit, whether you have been in direct contact with the virus or not.  As this virus affected 55 million youth, interrupting their school year (National 4-H Council), many guardians adjusted their work and life schedule as students began to remain home completing non-traditional instruction, these individuals were faced with learning the materials with their students in order to assist with homework and completion of school tasks.   Additionally, teachers were challenged with quickly redirecting educational materials from an in-person platform to distributing and attempting to communicate with their students electronically or by other means.  This crisis also left the 4-H Youth Development program unable to meet with those youth scheduled to be in the classroom and in community clubs as they would have traditionally met.  As a result, a survey conducted by the National 4-H Council revealed that 70% of teens are worried about the long-term consequences the pandemic-related trauma will have on their generation.

In order to provide relief for the guardians with educational information for the students completing work at home, 4-H was able to provide hands-on informal education activities to families through Take-and-Make kits.  Each week beginning in March, 12-50 kits were prepared for families and youth ages 5-18 at the Cooperative Extension Office in Daviess County.   Kits ranged in activities covering all seven of the 4-H curriculum areas and availability of the kits was promoted through the 4-H newsletter and Daviess County Cooperative Extension Facebook page.  Beginning in April, additional kits or activity sheets of up to 320 per week have been distributed to multiple community partners and school lunch delivery programs in an effort to reach more youth with hands-on education activities and relieve stress from guardians searching for things to do with their youth during this time spent at home.

Take-and-Make kits have ranged from individual activities including scavenger hunts in your back yard, stress recognition and management, and art projects, to family activities like rockets, gardening, and nutrition.  Many kits have additionally involved getting youth and their families into the outdoors together be it gardening, making bird feeders and watching for birds to visit, and fishing.  As of the end of June, 2020, over 2,000 kits and 145 recipe cards have been distributed to 4-H youth and their families developing life skills and family interactions in our community during a time when isolation has become a new normal.