ISU Extension Week begins Sunday

AMES ­? Iowa State University Extension and Outreach will celebrate the land-grant mission of putting the university?s research and resources to work throughout the state of Iowa during ISU Extension and Outreach Week Sunday through March 29.

Iowa?s 100 county extension offices, including the Jefferson County ISU Extension Office on the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, will host activities throughout the week focused on celebrating past milestones and future goals.

Barbara Kistler, the Jefferson County ISU Extension office manager, said the local office will be giving away six ISU reuable bags filled with helpful information and items through a radio promotion.

Two bags will have an agricultural theme with a farm accounting booklet, soybean and corn field information, an ISU Extension baseball cap, an Iowa rivers poster, a 4-H cookbook, magnets, a voucher for free ice cream at the Jefferson County Fair and more.

Two bags will have a NEST theme, with diapers, wipes, diaper rash ointment, bibs, mealtime conversation starter cards, a 4-H cookbook, a voucher for free ice cream at the Jefferson County Fair and more.

Two bags will have a gardening theme with gardening gloves, a seed starting tray, seeds, gardening information, an emerald ash bore identification guide, a 4-H cookbook, a voucher for free ice cream at the Jefferson County Fair and more.

Kistler said one of the gardening bags will be given away during Diana Flynn and Terese Cummiskey?s ?Off the Subject? show, which airs 7-8 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays on KRUU. Kistler thought they would be giving away the bag the morning of March 25.

The other five bags will be given away on KMCD.

The winners will need to visit the Extension office to pick up the bags.

Kistler also invited everyone to stop in the office and chat with the office staff: Courtney Taglauer, county 4-H youth coordinator; Kim Keller, horticulture assistant; and Lynne Johnson, NEST program coordinator.

Office hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

?Extension and Outreach is about people and education is our mission,? said Cathann Kress, vice president for ISU Extension and Outreach. ?This celebration is one way we say ?thank you? to the many volunteers, community leaders, organizations, agencies and other partners who support ISU Extension and Outreach work in Iowa.?

?We?re focused on feeding people, keeping them healthy, helping their communities to prosper and thrive, and turning the world over to the next generation in better shape than we found it because what Extension and Outreach helps people do for themselves achieves the greatest results,? she continued.

ISU, the birthplace of Cooperative Extension, joins the national system of educators celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Smith-Lever Act, which established the Cooperative Extension Service. ISU Extension and Outreach is a statewide educational network supported by ISU, local county governments and the United States Department of Agriculture. Every county in Iowa has an elected extension council that decides how to support ISU Extension and Outreach educational programs at the county level.

The current Jefferson County Extension Council includes chairman Pete Tollenaere, vice chairman Kurt Ledger, treasurer Sheri Stone, secretary Sharie Leazer and council members: Jeanette Lacey, Marvin Larson, Wayne Mitchell, Deb Swan and Scott Whitham.

Jefferson County Extension began in 1917.

For more information about ISU Extension and Outreach, visit www.extension.iastate.edu or contact any county extension office, including the one in Jefferson County, at 472-4166, kistler@iastate.edu or www.extension.iastate.edu/jefferson.