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For the first time since 2008 West Tennessee 4-H’ers will have their own camp to attend nearby.
Lee Maddox: 4-H Camp Returns to West Tennessee: Welcome and Hello again everyone for Tennessee Home and Farm Radio. I’m Lee Maddox
Ron Blair: Every young person that comes through this center will be changed in a positive way.
Lee Maddox: For the first time since 2008, West Tennessee 4-Hers will have their own camp to attend nearby. Lone Oaks Farm in Hardeman County is 1200 acres of beautiful pasture, lakes, trails, and woodlands. And this week, 64 4-Hers will get an experience of a lifetime; retiring Lone Oaks Farm Director Ron Blair
Ron Blair: They’ll be in the garden they’ll be getting connected back to their food where their food comes from. They’ll swim in the lake. They’ll get to see the natural beauty and the night sky. I think it’s just going to be a game changer.
Lee Maddox: Ron Blair says while only a limited number of 4-hers will get to utilize the facilities this year. The plan is for rapid growth.
Ron Blair: You’ll see twice the buildings and five times of participation. It will grow faster than we can grow it and that’s a good thing.
Lee Maddox: Well, not only will 4-H camp be happening on the farm throughout the year. Ben West with the UT Foundation says the facilities will also be utilized to teach other Tennesseans about water management and stream mitigation.
Ben West: We’ve partnered with the West Tennessee River Basin Authority. It’s an agency within Tennessee Department Environment and Conservation to create literally a truly unique facility here there’s no place like it in the world, called the Tennessee Water Education and Training Center where people engineers, road builders, people that that develop any infrastructure that water interacts with, they’ll be able to come here and learn how to do that better.
Ron Blair: We have a great opportunity to teach skills, hard skills and soft skills.
Lee Maddox: As camp opens this week, the hope is the 4-H Center at Lone Oaks Farm will become one of the premier facilities of its kind in the country for Tennessee Home and Farm Radio. I’m Lee Maddox
