Carrie Harris is an intern in the OSU Extension office in Coos County.
Hello again from Coos County!
So far, the internship in Myrtle Point has been an interesting adventure. One of the biggest projects that I have helped my supervisor Elissa Wells with was the 2020 Coos Youth Livestock Auction. We assisted the auction committee in coming up with ways to still have the auction this year while making sure to follow state safety regulations regarding COVID-19.
Since the number of people attending the auction in person needed to be limited, it was decided that the youth wouldn’t attend with their animals. In order to have visual representation of the youth with their projects, both pictures and a video of the youth were displayed on screens during the auction. I took on the project of putting together one of the presentations to display during the auction.
There were 126 lots to sell, which meant finding the correct picture of the youth on a flash drive and recording the correct name and animal weight onto the presentation. The auction ended up being a success, all the lots sold, and it was amazing to see such a small community come together to support their youth during such a hard time.
I am seeing the mission of OSU’s Extension Service being met by completing outreach in the community, and still finding ways to complete programs while following state safety regulations. Despite the county fair being canceled, the Extension office was still able to accept the usual static exhibits to be evaluated by judges. The exhibits varied from plants to photography and artwork, baking and sewing and stitching, and even animal pelts. It was cool to see the wide variety of interests that 4-H youth have, and their creativity displayed in their projects.
One of the big learning moments I’ve had so far is being able to talk with some of the other OSU employees and hearing what their position is in the Extension office and what made them interested in working for Extension. It has been interesting learning all the different components that go into the Extension office and all the different ways that it helps the community and the youth in 4-H.
