Casey Turner

     Hello again everyone! Over the past couple weeks in the internship, I have been kept busy with my mentors!

    For a good portion of the week, I was able to work with Jenny Rhodes to update UME's Poultry House Construction Fact Sheet. My main task was making sure numbers and addresses were all correct so those who use the resource in the future have accurate information to help them as much as possible and set them up for success. Along with this project, I also started research for what could be useful in boosting the counties agritourism. This has mainly involved reading previous studies done by the county on the subject, jotting down ideas of my own, some big, some small, to have a wide variety of routes to take for this endeavor. 

    On the 4-H side with Tom Hutson and Beth Hill, fair prep has been in full swing, with the Kent County Fair's entries opening, and Talbot's coming to a close. Inventory was one of the main items of the week in both counties. In Kent county I took inventory of old fair t-shirts to see what sizes we had to try and move them along in preparation for this years t-shirts. In Talbot county, the inventory was a bit more for me to work with, as I had been counting out the fair prizes that have arrived so far, with 6 different items (we are still waiting for another prize to arrive), totaling to over 2000 prizes for the fairs midway game and other events! I'll have to make use of the games during my time at the Talbot County Fair, since there certainly were a few prizes that caught my eye!

Taking inventory of Talbot County Fair Prizes, in total there were over 2000 prizes! The finger slingshot cows seemed to be tougher to "herd" where I needed them to go than actual cows!

    Another big item for the week at Kent County, was copying all of the 4-H identification cards for horses, dogs, rabbits, and poultry. Luckily for me, I enjoy those small, tedious tasks... at least for now! The highlight in Kent County for me is working on the Master Showman competition, which I won in my final year as a Kent County 4-Her. I was able to volunteer on the committee and help run the competition last year, so I am happy to once again be a part of one of my favorite competitions at the fair. This week was spent making sure we have everything we need, this will be the 4th year we have the competition, so there are still improvements we are trying to make to continue improving the experience for competitors, judges, and viewers!

    Also to prepare for fair season, I completed my Crowd Control training. As I learned in the course, any event with more than 1,000 people present requires a Crowd Control Manager Certified person for every 250 people. By achieving this certification, I will be able to control crowds at the fair in case there is an emergency (hopefully I won't ever need to use it though)!

    Along with the more tedious tasks in Queen Anne's (this weeks being organizing the collection of temporary tattoos), I was able to speak with Lee Ann Schnappinge and starting out what some starter goals are for the large agritourism project I am focusing on over the summer. Hopefully we will be able to find a time to meet with members of Economic Development and Tourism in the County to discuss our ideas with them.

    The work done through agritourism will tie in heavily to what we learned in our weekly connection lead by Arnelle Quashie. On the operators side, we need to work to find how to make agritourism work for a wide variety of operations, whether they are livestock focused, crop focused, etc.. We also need to take into consideration scheduling that works for farmers, many operations may do better with seasonal agritourism. Those looking to run U-Pick Produce, corn mazes, and other activities that depend on planting and harvesting schedules will especially be more limited in how much time they can run these activities each year. Knowing the preferences of consumers is also going to be a key player, after all, to make agritourism successful, we need to get potential visitors interested. 

    Finally, some of my week I was able to spend doing graphic design, with one design being the new cover for the Talbot County Fairs Facebook page. All the photos used in the collage were taken during the 2025 Talbot County Fair. While I am far from being a professional in the graphic design department, I did enroll in a graphic design class for my Fall semester of college to hopefully improve my skill even more, as up to this point I have been very self taught. 

    

    It was a very office work heavy week, but to make the more exciting events happen, all of this work is necessary! The little things add up, and I hope that the help I provide to each county will result in a positive experience for participants of all the fun County Fairs and Events happening this Summer! 

    I am looking forward to seeing everyone in College Park next week and getting to know the rest of this years interns!

    

New cover photo for the Talbot County Fair Facebook Page! All images used were taken during the 2025 Talbot County Fair!