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Tag: Cottonwood District

Donna Krug, Cottonwood District

When your business or organization needs to conduct a staff retreat, where do you go? Sometimes groups leave their town to go to a bigger city with lots of venue choices.

Woman smiling on cover of magazine
Donna Krug

Today we’ll meet an Extension district whose staff chose to go in the opposite direction. They are choosing to hold their retreats in the smaller towns within their counties.

Donna Krug is the district director for the K-State Research and Extension Cottonwood District, comprised of Barton and Ellis Counties. She also serves as a family and consumer sciences agent for the district.

Donna grew up on a farm near Washington, Kansas. After graduating from K-State, she became a 4-H agent in Texas where her future husband, John, was attending chiropractic school. They married and came to back to Kansas where Donna became the family and consumer sciences agent in Barton County. John was a chiropractor in Great Bend for 32 years.

“As an Extension agent, I do a lot of health and wellness and nutrition classes,” Donna said. “I like sharing my knowledge on health and wellness, and I love the people who come to learn.”

She enjoys teaching Stay Strong, Stay Healthy workshops and has developed10 family and consumer sciences fact sheets focused on health and nutrition. She’s now teaching a sauerkraut making class.

“I recently did a fact sheet on taking a new look at fermented foods,” Donna said. “I shared it at a national meeting. The folks at Iowa State called and want me to come present it there.”

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Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Alicia Boor, Great Bend virtual farm show

By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.

Let’s go to a farm show. We’ll see lots of vendors, hear speakers with the latest information, and learn about various products. But wait, we can’t do that. There’s a pandemic and a stay-at-home order in place.

What if we could participate in a farm show and do so virtually and safely, from the comfort of our homes? Today we’ll learn about a community which accomplished exactly that.

Great Bend virtual farm show exhibit
Great Bend virtual farm show exhibit

Alicia Boor is one of the agriculture and natural resources agents for the K-State Research and Extension Cottonwood District, serving Barton and Ellis counties. She grew up in Dodge City, earned an animal science degree, and got a job as a zookeeper for rare breeds of livestock at the Sedgwick County Zoo before joining extension. Her extension position enabled Alicia and her husband to move to her husband’s hometown of Hoisington in Barton County. Hoisington is a rural community of 2,706 people. Now, that’s rural. Continue reading “Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Alicia Boor, Great Bend virtual farm show”

Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Youth Community Perceptions, Ellis

By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.

Let’s go to a city council meeting. City council members are listening to a presentation about perceptions of their community. Is this presentation being made by an expensive consultant from halfway across the country? No, this presentation is being made by a local group whose average age is 17 – and they might be thinking about their senior prom. This was part of an innovative program called Youth Community Perceptions which is designed to gain input from youth and engage them with their community.

Ellis youth community perceptions team
Ellis youth community perceptions team

Susan Schlichting is a 4-H youth development agent for the K-State Research and Extension Cottonwood District, serving Ellis and Barton Counties. Susan helped pilot this new program called Youth Community Perceptions.

The program originated from Kansas PRIDE Program discussions about how to get youth more engaged in their hometowns. The PRIDE Program is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2020, so this is another in our series of profiles highlighting PRIDE communities.

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