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About Extension
2007 Hardin County Highlights
College 101 – Strategies for a Successful 1st Year
Over two hundred college bound high school seniors from all six county high schools participated in a two-hour program entitled “College 101 – Strategies for a Successful 1st Year”. The program is designed to provide information to high school seniors that will help improve their chances of successfully completing their first year of college. Evaluations of the program indicated a large majority of the students found the program to be educational and planned to use the information to help them be successful in college.
Tillage Club Series Impacts Local Farms
A series of five breakfast programs were held in 2007 on conservation and farm management issues. These programs were held in cooperation with OSU Extension and the Soil and Water Conservation Districts in Hardin and Logan County. Local lenders, farm suppliers, and farm organizations contributed $1650 toward the program expenses. One hundred thirty two different people attended the series, with an average of 63 participants at each program. A total of 81,285 acres were represented by program participants, or an average of 616 acres in each farm operation. The producers said as a result of this program, they planned to use nitrogen more efficiently. If nitrogen was reduced by 20 pounds per acre on all the corn acres, there would be a $280,000 savings. If fungicides were not needed on 25 percent of the corn and soybean acres, then $267,000 could be saved. The economic benefit of acting on Dr. Roberts marketing comments could have been worth $3.3 million dollars on Hardin and Logan County farms.
The EFNEP Outreach into the Communities
The “Eating Smart, Being Active” series of eight lessons, based on the new MyPyramid, is made available to homemakers of limited income families with children through the Pilot Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program.
Since September, thirty-seven have participated, with over 80% reporting they learned new information that will help them in eating more nutritious meals, stretching their food dollars, and preparing foods more safely.
Most of the participants voiced an increased awareness of how to use nutrition labels and ingredient lists on food packaging to make healthier food choices. One participant stated that, prior to the classes, she could not do much cooking by herself, but as a result of the classes, she has increased her confidence and has successfully tried many new recipes.
Community Leadership Development Programs
Thirty-five sophomores completed the 2007 Hardin County Youth Leadership program. Extension Educator, Kathy Oliver, plans and oversees the eight personal/community leadership development training sessions held monthly during the school year. The six Student Advisors state it prepares these students to be more positive forces by developing their confidence and skills to take charge when a job needs to be done. These students are more likely to volunteer and show a passion to make things better for the benefit of all students and their community. This program is a true model of cooperation between schools, businesses, and community organizations.
Sixteen adults completed Hardin Leadership in 2007. All sixteen graduates report being more involved in community organizations and in influencing local issues that affect them and their families. On pre-post assessments conducted by Kathy Oliver, all participants reported an increase in their personal level of confidence in the twelve leadership tasks addressed in the program. Over 250 of the past 15 years’ graduates are still active in the Hardin County community leadership structure with fifty having accepted elected or appointed local governmental leadership positions since their involvement in the program. The participants are from all areas in the county and from all walks of life, yet have one thing in common--the desire to be involved in the betterment of Hardin County.
Hardin Leadership II was developed as a hands-on challenge to bring together individuals’ talents and resources to benefit the county. The group of ten leaders joined to complete three summer family-focused activities in 2007 including the third annual concert on the golf coarse green, a movie showing on the courthouse square and a bicycle tour featuring the Amish culture. The impacts of these projects are that additional activities are being planned to attract visitors to Hardin County, and new venues and genres of music are being planned for 2008.
Go Green With 4-H
Sixteen Hardin County 4-H Teen Council members presented “Go Green With 4-H” to approximately 700 county 4-H members. The program provided teen council members with valuable public speaking experiences and county 4-H members and their families with information on the energy saving potential of Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFL’s). The program was sponsored by the Walmart Foundation and Mid Ohio Energy Coop who provided $1000 in funds to allow the purchase of one CFL bulb per family. Feedback from club volunteers and families that responded to a brief survey indicated the information provided was useful and that some families decided to purchase additional bulbs because of the information they received.
Master Gardener Program
Fourteen new Master Gardener interns were trained this year, bringing the total of active master gardeners to 35 volunteers. These volunteers were busy helping plan landscaping, planting and maintaining demonstration gardens, holding horticultural programs, writing horticultural news items for the newspaper, conducting a plant sale, and offering gardening expertise at the Extension Help Line, Earth Day, and the Farmers’ Market. Nearly 1000 hours of educational training was taken, more than 1500 volunteer hours of service were given, and 56,108 contacts made by these volunteers.
Family Nutrition Program Outreach into the Community
FNP in Hardin County distributed a total of 7030 pieces of educational material yearly (590 monthly) from the eight food box distribution sites. The Program Assistant interacts with the clientele at the Alger site and reports that 85% of the clientele have positive comments concerning the educational material they receive and how it relates to the commodities and food received. Direct contacts average 116 monthly with an estimated 90% responding they learned new information and 75% plan to make recommended changes.
Classes with Harco MRDD continue with an average of 25 adults monthly taking advantage of the nutrition education offered. Classes help prepare the individual for independent living. It is estimated that 75% of the individuals report increased knowledge in nutrition, food preparation and food safety.
New classes continue at the Hardin Northern Library in Dunkirk with an average attendance of 12. They are a highly enthusiastic and motivated group. They respond 100% that they have gained new knowledge and are using it.
Hardin Crest and Seton-Kenton which are elderly subsidized housing in Kenton have become two new sites this year for classes. Average attendance at each site is 10 and they report positively and are excited about monthly classes
School Based Science Education
More than 200 third, fourth and fifth grades students participated in 4-H based in-school programming during the 2006 – 2007 school year. Classroom teachers were provided with a variety of hands-on science curriculum resources they could use to support their attempts to increase science proficiency in their classrooms. Through this cooperative effort of the classroom teachers and Extension Educator 4-H Youth Development, these students expanded their knowledge in the areas of science of flight, plants, chick embryology and weather.
Soybean Fungicide Research
A replicated field-size research plot was conducted with the help of farmer Gary Shick. The use of two soybean foliar fungicides was tested against a control, which was no fungicide treatment. This was part of a statewide research project, with similar plots in three other Ohio locations. The Headline fungicide was effective in reducing the amount of Brown Spot in the lower canopy, but the Shick plots showed no significant difference effect in the yield of the various treatments. This information will help producers evaluate the economic benefit of using foliar fungicides when disease pressure is low.
Educational Support Makes the Difference at Critical Learning Stages
Goo Crew is an on-going educational support group in Hardin County. Parents and their children who are active participants report that the group encourages them to make strong friendships, thus giving them the support they need to make it through some tough family and parenting situations. This year’s monthly parent-talk topic focused on parenting principles and the importance of early literacy activities in the home. Fifty families have been involved in Goo Crew during the year, with twenty-eight of them attending at least once a month.
At the request of Ohio Northern University Residence Life Leaders, Kathy has collaborated with resident life staff to develop a monthly program geared at assisting apartment dwellers make the transition from university food service plans to self sufficiency while living in university-owned apartments. Programming has focused on healthy food lifestyles by planning, purchasing, preparing, and storing foods that are economical as well as nutritious and easy to prepare. Two evening trainings have been held with an attendance of 25 students per meeting. A website has been created including web links to additional information that will assist the students. Preliminary reports show that students appreciate the new ideas and have incorporated several of the food shopping and food safety principles into their routines.
National Conservation Tillage and Technology Conference Held in Ada
The annual Conservation Tillage and Technology Conference was held at Ohio Northern University. There were 536 in attendance the first day and 597 attended the second day, or a total of 684 different people participated in this program. More than 300 farmers attended, with a $9.60 per acre benefit, or $11,400 per farm. There were 256 crop consultants in attendance, who consulted on average 27,500 acres annually. They work with growers on a total of 5 million acres, with a $75 million dollar perceived value of the program. Consultants earned a total of 2554 hours of certified crop advisor continuing education credits offered at this program.
