The COVID-19 Pandemic has reshaped how extension affects our community tremendously. As extension professionals, we have had to become creative in brining programming to our counties. The virtual world including social media is becoming more and more important during this time.  

In January of 2019, before the pandemic struck Bracken County youth cured and hung the very first hams in the ham building in over 5 years. Throughout the summer months the hams hung and cured. When this project was started again, we had all intentions on doing a country ham auction in November to allow the youth to gain some revenue from their projects they worked so hard on. However, COVID-19 had a different idea. With our county being in “red” and the restrictions placed by UK we knew that an in person auction was out of the question. As said before, social media had become the mainstream way of getting information to our community; therefore, the idea of a virtual country ham auction was formed. 

On September 14, 2020 the country ham participant’s photos were placed on Facebook and the bidding was opened. At the close of bidding on September 15, 2020, there was a total of $2395 was raised! Overall, the youth still got to experience the project in its entirety and the community rewarded them by showing their support!