Cooperative Extension Service turns 100 this week

Thursday is the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Smith-Lever Act, which created the Cooperative Extension Service. This week is a great time to highlight the accomplishments of local extension offices. The national organization has already created a series of sites on social media to help get people involved, including on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. Other resources are available on the agency's website. 

Here are some examples of what is being written about local agencies and the land-grant universities that oversee them:

Over the years, University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension agents and specialists "have implemented countless meaningful, educational programs and grassroots efforts," Katie Pratt reports for UK Ag News. "Such programs and efforts have given young people the self-confidence to speak in front of their peers, provided nutrition advice to young mothers, supplied information to help Kentucky farmers become better stewards of the land and helped in numerous other ways. Each year, extension personnel make over 7 million contacts across the state through their programs, events, initiatives and efforts." (Read more)

The University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension is having an exhibit called "Bringing the University to You: A Century of Service to the Granite State." The exhibit, which will run from May 7 through June 30, "will feature tools and equipment from the extension's early years, projects engineered by 4-H students and photographs of M. Gale Eastman—the extension's first agriculture agent—and astronaut Alan Shepard, a former 4-H member," reports Seacoast Online. "The display will include a pictorial journey through the extension's work." (Read more)

Penn State is sponsoring a film festival. "Silent and black-and-white films and film clips will display early cinematic techniques and demonstrate how humor was incorporated with the content to note the 'new' technology on the farm and in the home," reports the Penn State News. "The films were shown to rural families in the early part of the 20th century and today give a glimpse of life in the early 20th century. (Read more)