WADESBORO — NC Cooperative Extension is more than just cows and corn, it is a collaboration between the state’s land-grant universities—North Carolina State University (NC State) and North Carolina A&T State University (NC A&T)—and county and tribal governments to bring research-based knowledge to citizens in communities throughout the state to help these communities learn, solve problems, and develop skills.
Sam Cole currently works at the North Carolina Anson County Center as their 4-H Agent, a position he’s held for nearly 2 years. “As the 4-H Agent my area is youth development,” said Cole. “I focus on enhancing their development through education and educational opportunities.” 4-H offers hands-on learning and education programs for children in order develop leadership, responsibility, and a variety of other skills.
Cole, a former teacher at Anson Academy, has worked at the Extension for almost five years. The first three years was as the Program Director for 4-H Youth Promise. 4-H Youth Promise is a program that works with at-risk youth and, according to their website, “Provides opportunities for youth to be held accountable for their actions to the community and/or victim through the performance of monetary restitution and community service.” 4-H Youth Promise also offers an After School program and a Parenting/Family Class called Anson Connecting Families.
Some of the 4-H programs that the Anson County NC Cooperative Extension office collaborates with the elementary schools to offer school enrichment, they also offer 4-H summer camps, community clubs, and state events like 4-H Citizenship Focus, and 4-H Congress. At Citizenship Focus, youth travel to Raleigh to meet local representatives and learn about county, state, and federal laws.
“Congress is the one program my older kids seem to enjoy the most,” said Cole. “They get to get away from home and spend some time in Raleigh with a bunch of 4-Hers in the state”
Cooperative Extension and 4-H also offers in-school 4-H clubs that utilize the 4-H robotics program with Anson County Schools. “At the elementary level, they do the coding,” explained Cole. “At the high school level, they actually build the robots.”
The Anson County 4-H Robotics Team, which has dubbed themselves the RoboWolves 4-H Club, were Regional Competition Winners at the FIRST (FIRST is the name of the competition ) robotics competition on March 12, 2019. They won first place again this year at the same competition on March 8, 2020.
These programs are funded by an annual event called the Clover Crawl. “The Clover Crawl is social fundraiser. There’s good food. Good drinks. A chance to socialize and dance. All for a good cause,” said Cole.
“Last year, it was cold and rainy but we had the most people come out to the Clover Crawl,” said Cole. “More than 180 people came out to support us and we had a good time.” The Clover Crawl this year was held on March 13 at the Lockhart-Taylor Center.
Due to COVID-19, the Extension office is closed to the public and the majority of staff are working remotely from home. Programmatic content is still being delivered through social media outlets, monthly news articles, and phone contacts. We are working on getting more content out daily.
“The NC Cooperative Extension and 4-H gives the youth of Anson County a variety of educational and extracurricular activities,” said Cole. “It gives youth a chance to participate in programs at a free or significantly reduced price and as a result it gives youth chance to, at times travel and get out of the county.”
