Schools, 4-H, Convention and more: summer intern progress

 

 As our Canadian Angus National Convention has wound down in Lethbridge, it is once again my turn to report on  my activity as an intern. Since I last blogged, I have been extremely busy with 4-H shows and sales along with school visits. Once again the school visits have been very well received. I have been to five other schools, and one of them I even sent two days talking to all of the grade 4 and 5 classes. The kids are very excited to learn about how beef cattle are raised and what it takes to take care of them. The kids are also very excited to learn about our junior programs. It continues to amaze me that even at such a young age they are all so interested in the summer job and exchange programs. I have even had a lot of interest from kids who didn’t live on farms but were still wondering if they could attend our programs.

June is show and sale month in Alberta, and I have spent a large amount of my time on the road attending seven shows in eight days at the beginning of June. The enthusiasm of 4-Hers has been high at all of the shows that I have attended with lots of interest in the heifer project. I am finding that a lot of the younger 4-H members really like the idea of the heifer project. They like that they can keep her and continue to show her. At 4-H shows, I also talk to kids about our programs offered by the CJAA and have handed out many registration forms. Most of the kids are unaware of the large number of programs that we offer and were very interested in continuing to develop the cattle knowledge that they have gained through 4-H in the CJAA. The last show that I attended was the southern Alberta regional l 4-H breeding show, for this show I had received some of our new promotional material, red and black Angus bracelets which were a huge hit with the 4-Hers and other people in attendance.

From there many of the office staff, the Alberta Angus Association and Southern Alberta Angus Club members were thrown into a flurry of planning events for convention, and I spent the week leading up to convention helping with set up, promoting the event and contacting media. Once convention started Erin and I took a break from our duties as summer interns and attended the CAA convention as Robert C. McHaffie Junior Ambassador competitors along side Breanna Anderson, Megan Rodger, and Laurie Noiseux. The Convention was a great opportunity for me to talk with my fellow Angus breeders and hear some suggestions that they had for us with the internship. It was also very encouraging to hear how many of you have been reading the blogs that Erin and I have been posting.

So far this internship has been amazing experience; I have met so many great people and have heard a lot of positive thoughts about juniors participating in our programs. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer has in store, and if any of you will be attending the Calgary Stampede, remember to stop by and visit us interns at the Cattle Trail.

Posted by Stacey Domolewski Feedback: cdnangus@cdnangus.ca