Ideas flow during Holmes Extension advisory meeting
Community members who attended the recent Holmes County Extension Advisory Committee meeting on Thursday, April 24 were asked to brainstorm ideas to enhance Holmes County. There were many, among them creating more wellness-focused events, including around seniors.
In its recent gathering of community leaders for its extension advisory committee meeting on Thursday, April 24, the team from the Ohio State University Extension Holmes County worked at bringing like-minded people together to brainstorm issues, events and ideas that could help promote the county and aid area efforts to enhance the lives of every aspect of living in Holmes County.
Those in attendance broke down into small groups and came up with many ideas about issues.
“We’re going to think really big here,” said Janessa Hill, extension program director. “We want you to think outside the box and brainstorm about some amazing community partnerships that we can develop and promote that would include programs or events that benefit Holmes County.”
What resulted were a variety of topics including using area media to promote safety issues, promoting area programs that promote employment, developing the farmers market industry, developing a poison hemlock eradication program, exploring grazing programs, summer food programs for school children, many tourism ideas, E-bike safety communication for tourists and locals, focusing on improving lives of senior citizens, creating a countywide wellness conference, video workshops for the agricultural community and more.
“This was great,” Hill said. “There was a lot of information packed into that. Hopefully, we can keep the ball rolling, put all of these thoughts together and catch the momentum in figuring out how to develop some of these ideas.”
Ella Lorentz, Holmes County 4-H educator, began the meeting by talking about the enrollment statistics for 2025 Holmes County 4-H. The initial data following the April 1 sign-up deadline saw the overall enrollment standing at 476 total youth including 422 traditional members and 54 Cloverbuds.
There also are 132 4-H volunteers in the county’s 22 clubs, along with the 4-H advisory committee, senior fair board, junior fair board and Fair-Entry Team.
Overall, there were 1,002 project numbers submitted for this year including 881 livestock projects and 121 Life Skills projects.
In further breaking down the particulars of the livestock projects, Lorentz said there are entries of 225 poultry, 211 swine, 182 rabbits, 82 goats, 55 beef, 38 sheep, 46 dairy, and 42 other entries including equine, dog and llama.
The Life Skill-a-thons will take place July 17 and 21, and the Livestock Clinic and Skill-a-thon practice will take place July 14.
“They can change their mind about their projects from now until the end of June,” Lorentz said. “So some of these numbers might ebb and flow a little bit.”
She said those numbers are in line with the numbers from last year, except for the area of showing dogs, which continues to grow.
Other topics of interest included Cloverbud Camp at Harvest Ridge June 24-25. This year’s theme is “Lego,” and Lorentz said the camp will invite youngsters age 5-8 to challenge their imaginations.
Children need not be a current 4-H member to attend.
The cost of attendance is $30, and anyone with questions can call the extension office at 330-674-3015. Registrations open in May at holmes.osu.edu.
Another opportunity discussed for teens is the upcoming 2025 Knolmes Junior Fair Camp in St. Louisville, Ohio. The camp is slated to take place June 5-9 at Camp Ohio.
Lorentz also will have a busy May in the area school districts, promoting a bottle rocket program in area elementary schools as part of the STEM project.
Another development, according to Lorentz, is the Holmes County Board of Developmental Disabilities partnered with the extension office to host the BeYou Livestock Show at this year’s fair in August.
Members there will give a presentation to some of the members who will help out, offering pointers and tips about what to expect from the all-inclusive effort.
In addition, the Holmes County Health Department will work with the extension office and the junior fair board on a seminar discussing the environmental effects of tobacco.
“I’m excited for that group to be working with you as a community, and they are excited as well,” Lorentz said. “I thank you all for always including our youth and our teams in everything you do.”
The OSU Extension Advisory Committee meeting is open to anyone interested in learning more or helping to promote what is taking place through the extension and in 4-H, and anyone interested in becoming a member can call the extension office at 330-675-3015.