4-H and FFA have taken some creative approaches to programming during the pandemic.
Dillingham 4-H usually hosts an annual culture camp with activities like making dance fans, Yup’ik dancing and singing. As an alternative, volunteers and organizers put together culture camp activity kits each week, to be completed under adult supervision.
KDLG public radio interviewed Deanne Baier, who said she usually organizes camps in two or three communities.
“Since we started putting these kits together, we’ve made contact with several different villages in the region, who are interested in receiving these kits,” she said.
So far 105 kids from Dillingham, Chignik, Chignik Lagoon, Perryville, Ekwok and Kokhanok have enrolled in the Culture Kit program. Each month members receive a box with 3-4 craft kits or activities geared toward their grade level and the season.
Activities included mask making, rock and story knife painting, making a bird feeder, Eskimo yo-yos, Native Youth Olympic activities and learning about the life cycle of salmon. September’s kits focus on subsistence gathering.
Baier said the feedback from families has been positive, she said. “It has worked out fabulously.”
Bristol Bay 4-H has partnered with the UAF Bristol Bay Campus to provide the kits year-round for youth. The 4-H program in Bristol Bay is supported by the Federally Recognized Tribes Extension Program, Peak Oilfields and the Indian Land Tenure Foundation.
4-H statewide is also sharing activities, such as a chalk coding activity this month, a gardening kit and instructions for mask making. Each office assembles and distributes its own kits, which are made available to 4-H members and other Alaska youth. In addition to virtual club meetings, other online activities have been generated by local 4-H, such as art activities or the ukelele camp in Sitka.
Despite the Tanana Valley State Fair cancellation, 4-H and FFA in Fairbanks hosted a joint virtual market auction last week at www.lastfrontierauction.com. Kenai hosted a drive-in market livestock auction Aug. 15 with the bidders and guests in cars in the parking lot of the Soldotna Rodeo Grounds, with their radios tuned to the auctioneer’s FM transmitter.
FFA State Advisor Kevin Fochs said officer training has been conducted online and he has been gearing up for virtual district conferences this fall.
