The second of 3 projects from a small team through the Rising Star Program. This project had us working with a non-profit organization called Cultivating Hope. This organization had a small plot of land on the edge of Ames, IA where they raised a small group of livestock. The organization leader Gina Perkins would set up afternoons where groups of youth with different abilities would come out and socialize with one another. These social gatherings had youth interacting with animals such as cows, pigs, goats, and chickens and learning how they were cared for. Activity days would often begin with visiting the animals and feeding them, followed by learning activities and then arts and crafts projects. The main goal of Cultivating Hope is to assist children and young adults with physical or mental disabilities grow in the world by providing new experiences and social interactions.

Our goal as interns working with the project was to assist with the outreach of the program. This involved working with the 4H side of Cultivating Hope to expand its outreach by getting more people involved with the idea. Over the course of the summer we worked with several external projects to help spread Cultivating Hope's message and expand public knowledge. We assisted with many activity nights for the program and hosted family fundraising events for the public and sponsors to visit the farm grounds and see just how important the cause was.

Developed for the program was a short sponsorship packet that was delivered to potential sponsor groups in both physical and digital formats. This packet included information about the goals of Cultivating Hope, who the project helped, and how companies could assist the program by making yearly monetary contributions to keep the program funded. Through this packet, the project gained several companies who pledged thousands of dollars in only the last few weeks.

To continue spreading the message of Cultivating Hope through the ISU Extension assistance of 4H, I took the time to record moments during the last Family Night that we ran that summer. I used this footage, alongside a voiceover segment from one of the other interns in my team, to create a promotional video that could be spread digitally by multiple parties. This video was provided to Cultivating Hope and the Ames ISU Extension office who assisted with the 4H side of the program to be sent alongside sponsorship packets and shared digitally to continue spreading the message of Cultivating Hope.