Local campers get cultured at 4-H dairy class

JACKSON, Tenn. — A local summer camp starts to wrap up a monthlong program to help kids learn more about dairy.

“I had a lot of fun,” camper Jordan Smith said. Camp-goers of the Westwood Summer Camp continued their June dairy month activities into July.

“We’re actually making up a couple of programs that we missed because, we went to 4-H camp week before last, so we’ve been gone,” said Teressa McDonald of the Madison County UT Extension Office. “We needed to make up a few of June dairy month activities today.”

Students participated in a dairy coloring contest and watched an informative video, but the most favored event of the day was making butter.

“My favorite part was when we was singing the song and shaking the butter,” Smith said.

“Back in the day, the children would have to pull the butter in there and had to smash it until it made butter,” said Jeremiah McGill about what he learned Tuesday.

The Westwood camp has partnered with the Madison County UT Extension Office to promote healthy behavior.

“Our mission for the summer is commit to health,” Peewee Williamson-Easley said. “UT is here working with us to keep the kids healthy for the summer, so they decided to program with us for the summer.”

Camper Taylor Green said she learned about how dairy is good for our bodies. “Dairy makes your bones strong, and teeth and muscles,” she said.

Supervisors say letting the campers do hands-on and edible activities really helps to drive home the importance of living healthy.

“We gave them a recipe and they can take it home,” McDonald said. “They can add honey, they can add some mashed-up strawberries, a little confectioner’s sugar if you want to make a little sweet butter to put on a biscuit or something like that.”

The UT Extension Office will continue to have nutritional talks throughout the rest of the summer for the Westwood camp.