EXTENSION TRENDS: BONNEVILLE COUNTY University of Idaho Extension, Bonneville County • www.uidaho.edu/bonneville
2019 Impact
2019 By the Numbers • 8,990 direct contacts • 2,573 youth participants • 159 volunteers • 15,009 volunteer hours • $15,073 extramural funding
Our Advisory Council Special thanks to our volunteers who help shape programming and inform the work we do for UI Extension in Bonneville County: Kathy Duplessis, Ann McRill, Morgan Nield, Christine Gladstone, Pamela Rich, Hazel Meshrow, Dorothy Kennedy, Lori Baldwin, Roger Christensen, Joe Kennedy, Bryon Reed, Linda Beckstead, Hersh Mynarcik, Deb Clements, Jan Prudent, Sherry Glick, Mark Hechenbach, Wendie Radford, Judy Seydel and Cathy Johnson.
UI Extension Educators Leslee Blanch 208-529-1390 lblanch@uidaho.edu
Ron Patterson 208-529-1390 rpatterson@uidaho.edu
Alaena Ruth 208-529-1390 aruth@uidaho.edu
In 2019, 1,628 individuals were impacted with new knowledge and skills related to health and wellness. Adult nutrition programming included guidelines related to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer prevention, women's health, aging and meal planning. Youth were educated on the My Plate nutrition guide with emphasis on increasing fruit and vegetable intake while decreasing intake of sugar-rich beverages. Both adults and youth were offered regularly scheduled aerobic, strength and toning, and yoga instruction. Chair yoga was provided to two local assisted living facilities. Other wellness topics in 2019 included mindfulness and worklife balance. UI Extension, Bonneville County implemented a horticultural pest alert for Eastern Idaho. This began as an email list of people who wanted to know when to spray their apples trees for codling moth and fire blight. The project expanded to include other pest issues as well. By the end of the year the email list was approximately 120 people. This gave people current information on when to spray and with what. It has the impact of protecting pollinators, improving effectiveness of pest control activities, and reducing environmental contamination through homeowner-applied pesticides. Three informational booths were organized and executed at three large community events: Idaho AgFest, Discover Idaho Falls and the Idaho Falls ARTitorium’s HarvestFest. During these events, over over 1,500 youth and adults were engaged, including approximately 400 Hispanic youth and adults. Consumers were educated about the beef industry through a comprehensive class developed and organized by UI Extension, Bonneville County and educators from other counties. Focus areas of the workshop were animal handling, beef quality assurance, beef feeding practices, beef palatability and selection, cutting demonstrations, nutrition of beef, and beef cooking methods. Consumers increased their
scores significantly on all questions on the post-test and indicated that, in total, information could potentially reach an additional 235 people. This program is being funded again by the Bingham County Farm Bureau Board.
4-H in Bonneville County Overall, the UI Extension, Bonneville County 4-H program grew by 33% in 2019 with more than 750 youth enrolled. Volunteer participation also increased by 101% to 127 volunteers specific to 4-H. UI Extension, Bonneville County is part of a multistate Innovate Project Grant to establish a Dabble in Dissection program. This program was taught in one school for 56 youth in 2019 and the evaluation for the program was developed.
On the Horizon UI Extension Associate Educator Leslee Blanch will be offering an updated version of Improving Sleep: The Latest Research. Sleep disturbances affect over one-third of Americans and impacts many aspects of health. The program will be offered through an online venue to accommodate social distancing guidelines. Online fitness classes are being offered twice weekly and a variety of recorded fitness classes and healthy lifestyle video clips are available for viewing on the UIÂ Extension, Bonneville County website. The Bonneville County 4-H program welcomes an AmeriCorps service member to the office for the coming summer. The program hopes to increase participation in family and consumer science projects by engaging with potential 4-H members at community events and teaching them about projects beyond livestock. The new beef barn will enable Bonneville County 4-H to house more beef projects while also freeing up space for more goat, sheep and swine projects. The new horse stall facility next to the horse arenas will allow for more versatility for horse projects. Educator Ron Patterson is assisting with demonstration gardens at the new Bonneville County Education Center and will be expanding the Pest Alert program to other counties in Eastern Idaho.