York County Extension reaching kids in and out of the classroom

YORK – Most associate York County Extension with the 4-H program and the county fair, but did you also know they have an active role in the education of local youth?

​They certainly do.
This week, York County Extension’s Tanya Crawford and Amanda Hackenkamp met with the York County Commissioners to discuss the programming which has been going on with the local schools and with students who are home-schooled.
In the 2024-25 school year, York County Extension taught 20 programs in local schools, Hackenkamp said, as she is involved in youth development and these school programs.
They taught 268 kids about germs and handwashing at Emmanuel Faith, McCool Junction, St. Joseph’s Catholic School, York Elementary and Heartland School.
They also had “a lot of fun programs” in the STEMP programs, teaching about weather (at St. Joe’s and YES), kitchen science at St. Joe’s and YES, bees at YES, butterflies at McCool Junction, St. Joe’s and home-schooled students. They also had STEM programs independently with home-school lessons. Hackenkamp said the home-schooled programs were in partnership with the library in York and “now we are excited because many home-schooled kids are also joining 4-H.”
They had many health programs, at the various schools, and they conducted an ag literacy festival for fourth graders from YES, St. Joe’s, Emmanuel-Faith and Heartland.
The embryology program is one of the most popular programs they provide, as they incubated about 10 dozen eggs and held a chicken adoption program so kids could adopt chicks to take home. About 70  chicks went home with their new adoptive families.
“We are excited about all the work we did and it is so fun to hear how the kids really enjoyed the programs,” Hackenkamp said.
Now, summer workshops are getting underway, “with all signs pointing to the York County Fair. There will be about 15 workshops to participate in, with a wide variety of topics.”