Celebrates Extension’s 100-year anniversary at open house today

The Smith-Lever Act creating Cooperative Extension nationwide was signed on May 8, 1914. Today, 100 years later, we will celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Cooperative Extension Service.  Throughout Kentucky, extension offices will be celebrating 100 years of helping people change their lives for the better. 

We invite all our friends to an open house today from noon until 5 p.m. at the Carroll County Extension Office, 500 Floyd Drive in Carrollton to help us celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Cooperative Extension Service. If you have any memorabilia of your experiences in Extension, in 4-H, Agriculture and Natural Resources,  Extension Homemakers or Family and Consumer Sciences (Home Economics) please bring them to share. We want to learn when you first became involved with Extension and will mark it with a “leaf on our special tree.”

Many of the duties of the first extension agents included helping farmers become better stewards of the land and helping homemakers improve food preservation techniques so they and their families could lead healthier lives. Today, Extension agents continue to work to make Kentuckians’ lives better, but now these duties may include helping farmers keep up with the latest precision agriculture technology, guiding families as they bounce back from the recent recession or teaching 4-H’ers about the consequences of bullying. 

Despite the many social, technological and academic changes that have occurred the past 100 years, one thing has remained constant is that Kentuckians can always turn to their county cooperative extension agents to get reliable, research-based information on topics ranging from bed bugs to public speaking to physical activity and healthy living. While extension agents don’t make decisions for our clientele, we provide them with the most up-to-date knowledge so individuals can make the best decisions possible for themselves.

Today, change occurs rapidly, and extension is still the place where Kentuckians can turn to for help to address those changes and move forward toward a better Kentucky. Please feel free to contact us, stop by the office and read our columns in The News-Democrat for information and local programs to help you answer your questions. We will do our best to help you answer your needs.

You have the opportunity to see the national centennial celebration via live streaming video from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST on May 8, 2014 by connecting to http://www.windrosemedia.com/windstream/ext100years/.  USDA Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack will address participants at the Centennial Convocation at the Reagan Building in Washington, DC There will be insights from keynote speakers about where Cooperative Extension is headed for the next 100 years and an impressive parade of states. See the event at  http://www.windrosemedia.com/windstream/ext100years/ on Extension100years.net.

Come visit us at our open house today!

Diabetes Support Group

Diabetes Support Group meets from 9:30 a.m. – 11 a.m. today May 8, at the Extension Office. Topic is High Blood Pressure. Healthy snack and good information.

Dates of Interest

May 8 – 100th anniversary of Cooperative Extension open house. Noon-5 p.m., Carroll CES. 

May 21 – “The Patriotic Basket” basket making class, 6 p.m. Carroll CES (Register with $35 class fee prior to class)

Grace Angotti is Carroll Co. Extension agent for family and consumer sciences. Call her at (502) 732-7030.