A little Mrs. Debbie

Hello!  I’m sorry if you were hoping for Mrs. Debbie, but she wanted me to introduce myself.  I am Faelyn Campbell, and I am Debbie’s intern!  I’m part of the Rural Resources teen training internship.  I am in the 5th year of the program which is the internship and in trying to find a place for me that I would both like and where they had room for me, I became Mrs. Debbie’s little helper!  She’s always very busy with the other teens, the animals, and the rest of the buisness like things on her plate, so I help her out with whatever I can.

This is me.  I’m 16 years old and I’ve been involved with Rural Resources most of the my life.  I was in a program called Backyard Learning Center that was held at my elementary school, Tusculum View Elementary, since I was in Kindergarten.  Rural Resources was close partners with this program so they visited often and helped us build a raised bed next to the school, where we grew spinach and tomatoes that we would have for snack.  We would also often have field trips out to the Rural Resources farm for lunch and such when they still had the large building before it burned down.  From there my oldest sister out of my three sisters (2 older, 1 younger) went into the teen program in 2008 when Mrs. Debbie was introduced as the new coordinator.  Back then the program was only for one year and it was focused on cooking.  After that sister, then my closest sibling that entered the program, stayed in through all 5 years at the time.  She was part of the first group that had the pleasure to be part of the internship.  Then I came along and I have enjoyed the program thoroughly.  It has helped my family in so many ways by teaching me and my sisters responsibility, and the meaning behind food, and to not be wasteful.

One of my favourite years was the cooking years.  For me the cooking was two years because they had not yet decided to make the first year only do farming.  The pictures above are of me and my group Mini Farming Ninjas and our many trips to Munsey Memorial church in Johnson City TN.  This trip was to cater to several hundred people for the first and second services that the church provided.  It was important to behave and to do your job quickly and quietly because you did not want to disturb the guests you were feeding.  Everyone there were very thankful for our time and service to them and we were very thankful for them because they had to prepay to participate in our meal.  The money we got from this catering job helped in many things our program needed.  It helped pay us for our meetings, it helped buy snacks to feed us at our meetings, and it helped pay for trips we might want to take to help us on our trust as groups.

I participated in the trip Rural Resources took to the Harvest Table farm in Meadowview, VA.  There we visited their farm and their restaurant that ran mainly off of what they grew at the farm.  I also took part in the first Teen Chopped Event inspired from the show Chopped.  My group was lead with the help of my father.  It was one of the best fun I’ve ever had at an event.  My group won 3rd place sadly but I believe we should have won first, but I’m biased.

I hope that I will always be able to participate with Rural Resources for the rest of my able life.  It’s an amazing organization with inspiring people and I will always love this farm and it’s people.  I also got the news that we met our goal for the grant to build our new building.  I’m so excited and thankful for everyone that helped us reach our goal!  Thank you all for all the support you do, whether you donated or just spread the word about us.