Hey, it’s Meredith again. My last blog was all about Older Members Conference which was a blast and if you didn’t read it you should take a minute to learn all about the wonderful camp that it is! After camp, I headed to the beach with my family for a few days then I flew from Myrtle Beach to Little Rock, Arkansas. I bet you’re wondering what in the world I was planning on doing in Little Rock but it was actually yet another 4-H opportunity.

I was headed to the Arkansas 4-H center where I attended a conference on a program called “Health Rocks” which teaches children about the dangers of tobacco, alcohol, and drug use. The conference was called “Health Rocks! Train the Trainer Institute.” They implement the program by teaching the lessons to teenagers so that the teens can teach the lessons to the children. This is because we understand that a child is very likely to listen to the teen that they look up to.

We arrived Friday and learned all about the program’s goals and what we were going to do during the weekend. Then we played a lot of get-to-know-you games to help us feel more comfortable with all the teams we would be working with.

On Saturday, we learned many different lessons from the books they gave us and even got to practice teaching the lessons to a group.We only had about a half hour to put together an entire lesson and address it to a certain audience. This was a challenge but my team pulled together and we received very good feedback about our teaching skills.

On Sunday, we received certificates that prove that we have completed the “Health Rocks” program and are ready to teach the information. In order to complete the children to complete the program, they must receive ten hours of actual instruction.
Ashley Lavengood and BeccaFint-Clark, Monongalia County’s 4-H Extension Agent, were the other people on my team. I want to thank Becca for giving me this opportunity since I am very interested in health topics. We plan to teach other teenagers in our community, from the 4-H Teen Leaders and possibly students at MHS from the National Honor Society. These students already work with the Boys and Girls Club which is the organization we were thinking of targeting.

There were people from many different states such as: New York, Utah, Ohio, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, Idaho, Louisiana, Kentucky, Michigan, South Carolina, North Carolina, and of course West Virginia. It
was great getting to know the people from the other states and learn a little bit about their 4-H programs. When you go to a National 4-H event, you really get an idea of how different 4-H programs are when you go from state to state.

Another interesting thing I noticed about this weekend is that the problems we face day to day vary so much by the places that we live. Yet many children are being influenced in the wrong way and we can change that if we just take that extra step. 4-H itself is a wonderful organization to keep kid’s away from many dangers in life, but the Health Rocks Program is associated with 4-H and teaches young children specifically about the dangers of drug use. This is an issue that many children are not educated about and they need to be.

If you would like any more information go to the Health Rocks website to see more about the program , contact the Monongalia County Extension Office at 304-291-7201 to see how to get involved, or contact me through email Meredith.o32@gmail.com or try Facebook. Also, if you have an organization such as the Boys and Girls Club or an afterschool group of kids that you think could use this information in their lives, let me know. We plan on educating as many people as we can about the dangers of these awful drugs and just about staying healthy to make their lives the best that they can be.