BROOKINGS – Stacks of cardboard boxes line the walls of rooms at the Brookings County Resource Center at Swiftel. For days, about 24 volunteers have come in and out to help pack up all that Brookings County 4-H has in anticipation of its move out to their new facility, the Brookings County Outdoor Adventure Center.
“The reality of it is starting to set in,” said 4-H Program Advisor Sonia Mack.
4-H has been at the Brookings County Resource Center since about 1999, and they’ve accumulated a lot in those years. Kitchen items, posters, promotional items, paperwork from the Resource Center’s nearly one dozen rooms are all being packed up.
The actual moving day for 4-H is the morning of Oct. 19. They didn’t have to move to the OAC so soon, since the deadline to move is Nov. 15. With the 4-H recognition event on Nov. 13, however, that would be too much work at one time.
With that in mind and the desire to avoid moving when if it’s snowing by then, this was as good a time as any to move.
On any given day, about three or four people come in to help box things up, with some groups consisting of different 4-H groups. Volunteers from 4-H shooting sports have had to ready the gun safe for transport by unloading it, so to speak, of its contents.
Some of the furniture has already made it over to the new facility. Mack, along with her children and some volunteers, went there to clean up the space 4-H will move into.
“I had the carpets shampooed, we did some fixing on some walls because it is a new space for 4-H and we wanted to move in knowing that it was fresh for us,” Mack said.
Other work in their other rooms will come eventually, but for now, they’re prioritizing what to focus on. So for now, most of her work is simply making sure furniture and all else has a place it can go once it’s brought over.
Naturally, there is an emotional side to leaving the place where they’ve worked for so long. They do get sidetracked, for example, whenever they stumble upon a photo, the work pausing as they try to remember the names of those pictured.
In addition to that nostalgia, there is some trepidation about how things will go for 4-H in the new space, typical anxiety about change after calling the Resource Center home for so long.
“Will it work? Most definitely. How it will work within that space is probably the better question to ask because it’s like looking at a blank canvass and thinking of where to start,” Mack said, but figure it out they will.
And the future of 4-H looks just as bright as ever. 4-H just ended its 2016-2017 year with about 324 members and 60 registered volunteers, with a lot of clubs gaining new members with younger siblings who can join when they are old enough.
One of the ways 4-H will benefit from the move is through improved integration of shooting sports and host winter activities all under one roof.
“I also think there could be some real opportunities for partnership with some organizations and special interest groups in Brookings that can utilize the location – the Nature Park, the bike trails – and do some youth programming to create that interest in some of those lifelong activities that … promote lifelong health and being outside and active,” she said.
There will be a new 4-H address once they make the switch, but for now, it’s unknown what that and the phone number will be.
To stay updated on contact information, Mack recommended checking the Brookings County website at http://www.brookingscountysd.gov/345/4-H or by checking their Facebook page, Brookings County 4-H.
The Brookings division of South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks will also make the move to the OAC in two or three months, according to Emmett Keyser, regional supervisor for GFP in Sioux Falls.
This has been something they’ve been in talks about for roughly a year and a half, and they’ve continued to pursue this move with the change of ownership.
Right now, they have two staff members whose offices are at South Dakota State University: Conservation Officer Jeff Grendler and Senior Waterfowl Biologist Rocco Murano.
It’s not that their space at SDSU is lacking, but rather that there are greater opportunities at the OAC location.
“We’re looking to develop some additional partnerships in the future. We know there’s a thirst for that kind of programming up there and the OAC is a neat facility and wish we had one down here,” Keyser said. “We’re happy to be a part of whatever group is engaged there at the OAC and see how we can add value to some of the work that they’re doing there.”
At SDSU, their offices don’t have walls; instead, they use cubicles. Once work on their new space is complete and they move in, Grendler and Murano can look forward to having two walled offices.
For GFP, the move will allow some greater efficiency for them since they’re involved in some work at the Dakota Nature Park, such as stocking its ponds with fish, installing fishing piers and work on programming.
“We look at it as an opportunity to play a role and help get kids outside and recruit people to hunt and fish and provide those safety education components that go along with being outdoors,” Keyser said.
Contact Eric Sandbulte at esandbulte@brookingsregister.com.
