May Program Update
Cornell University Cooperative Extension of Warren County RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED
377 Schroon River Road Warrensburg, NY 12885 518-623-3291 or 518-668-4881 [email protected] Fax-518-668-4912
Program Update A Publication of Cornell University Cooperative Extension - Warren County
May 2014
Inside This Issue: Family & Consumer Sciences ESNY Up-coming programs Natural Resources Master Gardener
4-H Youth Development
The Bike Safety Rodeo program started up at the end of April, went through the month of May and will wrap up in June. This year, several new Head Start programs requested rodeos in addition to almost every third grade class in Warren County that participates. The Bike Safety program has been an integral part of the programs 4-H has offered Warren County. This year is its 35th year. Another addition to this year’s program is the participation of several members of the Warren County Safe and Quality Bicycling Organization. These folks volunteered to help out for the duration of the entire program which is quite a time commitment. The 4-H Adirondack Guides hosted Map & Compass training at Pack Demonstration Forest and nine youth participated in the training. The 6-hour program reviews the parts of the compass, the parts and colors of a topographic map, basic navigation using a map alone and a map and compass together.
The Kensington Road School participated in a combination Nature Detectives and Habitat Connections program that was delivered over the course of four sessions in two classrooms, Mrs. Scott and Mr. Farrar. Youth learned about what makes up a habitat, how animals interact with their habitat, and what birds might be found in the school’s habitat, as well as how they can participate in citizen science by using the e-Bird website: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ The newest 4-H Adirondack Guides camped at Forest Lake Camp in Hadley-Luzerne and teamed up with the Girl Scouts to learn about tree identification, local fish species, knot tying, and the all-time favorite: fire-starting. To wrap up the weekend, members of the 4-H ADK Guides challenged some of the most proficient Girl Scouts to a firestarting competition, where the fire must be built with all-
natural materials, one be lit with one match only, and must stay burning for at least two minutes. It was a draw! The Queensbury 4th Grade hosted an Environmental Field Day and all ten classes in that grade attended the roundrobin session hosted in the woods on the QCS campus. Cornell Cooperative Extension’s 4-H program contacted 200 students with two different topics: wildlife of the Adirondacks and Environmental Stewardship. Several staff members presented at New York State 4-H and Extension programs during May. Martina presented at the 4-H Club Management 101. There has not been a state wide club management program in over 8 years. There were over 86 4-H educators, staff, Executive Directors, and programmers attending. John led the Campus-County Connections: Getting Youth Engaged in the Environment. The program cooperated with CCE of Washington and Saratoga Counties on a Wal-Mart grant related to youth nutrition education and have been approved for that grant, which will support extended Choose Health Food, Fun, and Fitness programming that Abby has been doing. John also met with faculty and staff at Cornell as part of a Hatch Grant conversation related to 4-H Shooting Sports and documenting the positive impacts of the program on youth from New York State and elsewhere. Michele identified a new funding source to send even more campers to the Skye Farm Camp as part of the Warren County Campership program. At this time, it looks like nearly 100 youth will be able to attend the program at no cost thanks to county funding, private donations, and in-kind donations from the parent organization of Sky Farm.
4-H
Programs Events
5th Annual Cornell Cooperative Extension Golf Tournament & Silent Auction Cronin’s Golf Resort, Warrensburg
Saturday, August 23, 2014 - Tee Time: 10am Silent Auction: Disney Tickets, Gift Baskets, Gift Certificates, NFL Memorabilia Much, Much More!
Contests: Most Accurate Drive, Longest Tee Shot, Lowest Team Net Score, Closest to the Pin, Skins & 50/50
$ 85.00 per player Includes: green fees, cart, goodie bag, Chicken BBQ & a whole lotta fun! 4 Person Scramble Individual players are welcome and will be placed within a team.
Monies raised through this event will be used to help support our organizations educational programs. Contact Cornell Cooperative Extension at 518-668-4881 or 518-623-3291 and ask for Amy Sabattis
Agriculture & Natural Resources
Family and Consumer Sciences Eat Smart New York’s (ESNY) goal is to promote health by helping low-income individuals establish healthy eating habits and a physically active lifestyle. Programs are offered throughout the community.
May was National Egg Month
Through a grant from Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County, Warren County CCE is now offering “Cooking Matters At The Store” to community residents. Cooking Matters At The Store is an interactive, guided in-store tour that helps low-income families learn how to make the most of their limited resources, including SNAP and WIC benefits, to make healthy choices. The first tour was offered this month to 7 women from Head Start Warren County. Participants learned how to identify whole grains, shop for fruits and vegetables on a budget, compare unit pricing and read a nutrition facts label. Thank you to Wal-Mart (Route 9) for donating gift certificates to each participant. If you are interested in offering this program to your constituents, contact Roxanne Westcott at [email protected] or by phone at 668-4881. Have you ever tried an Ugli fruit? A red banana? Sometimes these exotic fruits can be found in our local food pantries and people pass them up because they have never tried them or don’t know what to do with them. Members of a monthly meeting group in Glens Falls had a fruit sampling this month of red bananas, Ugli fruit and kiwis. Tips on preparation and storage of the fruits were explored as well as recipes. The members of East Side Center’s Healthy Eating group which meets
weekly celebrated National Egg Month this month in the kitchen. Six members were given cooking instructions on how to build a healthy omelet with fresh vegetables and low fat cheese. Charles, Arthur, and Sheri earned their first pleat in the chef’s hat with their own renditions of the French omelet. Everyone had fun and enjoyed delicious, healthy omelets. Thanks to Kevin for his help in the kitchen!
Staff participated at the Glens Falls Y Senior Wellness Day this month as well as PERMA’s (Public Employer Risk Management Association) worksite wellness fair at the Sagamore Hotel.
The Eat Smart New York garden plot at East Field is planted and sprouting. The produce from the garden will be used in cooking demonstrations with the excess being donated to local food pantries.
May 3rd was opening day for the outdoor farmers’ market in Glens Falls. Staff had a table with seasonal recipes and information about increasing fruits and vegetables. Market season is just starting to get going. Meet Roxanne at the following Farmers’ Markets in June: June 7th– Glens Falls June 18th – Chestertown June 26th – North Creek
Up-Coming Program Parenting Apart
July 23 & 30, 2014
6:00-8:30 pm Lake George area. Pre-registration is required by calling Roxanne Westcott at 668-4881.
Calls and visits to the CCE office for information have greatly increased and we are answering all request for information as quickly as possible. Again, this uptick in request for information is a good indicator that more people are aware of the need for healthy soil and appropriate pH levels for their lawns, vegetables, perennials, and annual plants. The May Master Gardener meeting was a ‘Nature Walk and Talk’ to the Gull Bay Preserve near Lake George. Warren Rosenthal, of the Lake George Land Conservancy, led the hike to Gull Bay and provided information on the ‘shrinking’ Great Blue Heron Rookery. Warren talked about the natural loss of the ideal habitat for the nesting of the Great Blue Heron. This is primarily due to the decay of the dead and decaying trees in the boggy areas of Gull Bay. Warren also talked about other woodland wildlife and plants within the Gull Bay Preserve. The new 2014 members of the CCE Master Gardener Volunteer program have vigorously begun participating in the CCE Warren County Master Gardener Volunteer program! We are pleased to have them on board and becoming involved in the local communities by providing important information about organic gardening and farming practices through CCE. This information is pro vided by CCE MGs staffing MG tables at Farmers’ Markets, working at several weekly garden volunteer flower and community vegetable gardens, and staffing tables at various other CCE and MG programs throughout the year. Although we always hope for more CCE Master Gardeners to come into the CCE Master Gardener office to help with an- swering calls and meeting people who come into the office for planting and growing information, there have been a few more Master Gardener Volunteers coming into the CCE Master Gardener office this year to help. A few Master Gardeners have been coming together to help improve the appear-
ance of the grounds around the CCE building. This includes planting and maintaining the CCE window boxes, and also planting and maintaining the new gardens around the CCE building. The new CCE sign and planter under the sign is done! The Master Gardeners have done a lot of work around the new CCE sign and have finished filling in and installing plants under the new sign. Their hard work and dedication to helping CCE appear welcoming and open to the public is greatly appreciated. Master Gardeners staffed a table at the opening of the Glens Falls Farmers’ Market the first Saturday in May. It was very busy at the MG table and many people also brought their soil samples over for pH testing. Two new MGs, Connie Bosse and Valerie Brown, have signed on for the summer to work with the Family Services Association in Glens Falls. They will be helping out with the Community Garden at the East Field Recreational Area. The vegetables in these gardens will be distributed to local food pantries. Connie and Valerie are also helping out at the Glens Falls Farmers’ market one week each month.
Dick Rieger is also busy at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in S. Glens Falls overseeing the Community Garden raised beds. He is teaching and inspiring children about gardening and hopes it will become a life-long enjoyment for them. Dick also participates in the church’s after school programming. (Post-Star article, May 17, 2014.) Julie Nathanson staffed a Master Gardener table at Shepherd Park in Lake George for the Fund For Lake George with regard to lake-friendly living. The MG program provided information for example, about planting buffers (instead of lawns that meet-the-lake) on property near Lake George, and near other lakes in our region, and using Phosphorousfree fertilizers.
Master Gardeners Regina Chabarek, Kathy Lion, Nadine Magee, Suzanne O’Dea, Carolyn Parks, Jean Lavoo and Michele Humphry (not in photo) doing the work to fill-in and plant-up under the new CCE entrance sign. May-June 2014
377 Schroon River Road Warrensburg, NY 12885 518-623-3291 or 518-668-4881 [email protected] Fax-518-668-4912
Program Update A Publication of Cornell University Cooperative Extension - Warren County
May 2014
Inside This Issue: Family & Consumer Sciences ESNY Up-coming programs Natural Resources Master Gardener
4-H Youth Development
The Bike Safety Rodeo program started up at the end of April, went through the month of May and will wrap up in June. This year, several new Head Start programs requested rodeos in addition to almost every third grade class in Warren County that participates. The Bike Safety program has been an integral part of the programs 4-H has offered Warren County. This year is its 35th year. Another addition to this year’s program is the participation of several members of the Warren County Safe and Quality Bicycling Organization. These folks volunteered to help out for the duration of the entire program which is quite a time commitment. The 4-H Adirondack Guides hosted Map & Compass training at Pack Demonstration Forest and nine youth participated in the training. The 6-hour program reviews the parts of the compass, the parts and colors of a topographic map, basic navigation using a map alone and a map and compass together.
The Kensington Road School participated in a combination Nature Detectives and Habitat Connections program that was delivered over the course of four sessions in two classrooms, Mrs. Scott and Mr. Farrar. Youth learned about what makes up a habitat, how animals interact with their habitat, and what birds might be found in the school’s habitat, as well as how they can participate in citizen science by using the e-Bird website: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ The newest 4-H Adirondack Guides camped at Forest Lake Camp in Hadley-Luzerne and teamed up with the Girl Scouts to learn about tree identification, local fish species, knot tying, and the all-time favorite: fire-starting. To wrap up the weekend, members of the 4-H ADK Guides challenged some of the most proficient Girl Scouts to a firestarting competition, where the fire must be built with all-
natural materials, one be lit with one match only, and must stay burning for at least two minutes. It was a draw! The Queensbury 4th Grade hosted an Environmental Field Day and all ten classes in that grade attended the roundrobin session hosted in the woods on the QCS campus. Cornell Cooperative Extension’s 4-H program contacted 200 students with two different topics: wildlife of the Adirondacks and Environmental Stewardship. Several staff members presented at New York State 4-H and Extension programs during May. Martina presented at the 4-H Club Management 101. There has not been a state wide club management program in over 8 years. There were over 86 4-H educators, staff, Executive Directors, and programmers attending. John led the Campus-County Connections: Getting Youth Engaged in the Environment. The program cooperated with CCE of Washington and Saratoga Counties on a Wal-Mart grant related to youth nutrition education and have been approved for that grant, which will support extended Choose Health Food, Fun, and Fitness programming that Abby has been doing. John also met with faculty and staff at Cornell as part of a Hatch Grant conversation related to 4-H Shooting Sports and documenting the positive impacts of the program on youth from New York State and elsewhere. Michele identified a new funding source to send even more campers to the Skye Farm Camp as part of the Warren County Campership program. At this time, it looks like nearly 100 youth will be able to attend the program at no cost thanks to county funding, private donations, and in-kind donations from the parent organization of Sky Farm.
4-H
Programs Events
5th Annual Cornell Cooperative Extension Golf Tournament & Silent Auction Cronin’s Golf Resort, Warrensburg
Saturday, August 23, 2014 - Tee Time: 10am Silent Auction: Disney Tickets, Gift Baskets, Gift Certificates, NFL Memorabilia Much, Much More!
Contests: Most Accurate Drive, Longest Tee Shot, Lowest Team Net Score, Closest to the Pin, Skins & 50/50
$ 85.00 per player Includes: green fees, cart, goodie bag, Chicken BBQ & a whole lotta fun! 4 Person Scramble Individual players are welcome and will be placed within a team.
Monies raised through this event will be used to help support our organizations educational programs. Contact Cornell Cooperative Extension at 518-668-4881 or 518-623-3291 and ask for Amy Sabattis
Agriculture & Natural Resources
Family and Consumer Sciences Eat Smart New York’s (ESNY) goal is to promote health by helping low-income individuals establish healthy eating habits and a physically active lifestyle. Programs are offered throughout the community.
May was National Egg Month
Through a grant from Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County, Warren County CCE is now offering “Cooking Matters At The Store” to community residents. Cooking Matters At The Store is an interactive, guided in-store tour that helps low-income families learn how to make the most of their limited resources, including SNAP and WIC benefits, to make healthy choices. The first tour was offered this month to 7 women from Head Start Warren County. Participants learned how to identify whole grains, shop for fruits and vegetables on a budget, compare unit pricing and read a nutrition facts label. Thank you to Wal-Mart (Route 9) for donating gift certificates to each participant. If you are interested in offering this program to your constituents, contact Roxanne Westcott at [email protected] or by phone at 668-4881. Have you ever tried an Ugli fruit? A red banana? Sometimes these exotic fruits can be found in our local food pantries and people pass them up because they have never tried them or don’t know what to do with them. Members of a monthly meeting group in Glens Falls had a fruit sampling this month of red bananas, Ugli fruit and kiwis. Tips on preparation and storage of the fruits were explored as well as recipes. The members of East Side Center’s Healthy Eating group which meets
weekly celebrated National Egg Month this month in the kitchen. Six members were given cooking instructions on how to build a healthy omelet with fresh vegetables and low fat cheese. Charles, Arthur, and Sheri earned their first pleat in the chef’s hat with their own renditions of the French omelet. Everyone had fun and enjoyed delicious, healthy omelets. Thanks to Kevin for his help in the kitchen!
Staff participated at the Glens Falls Y Senior Wellness Day this month as well as PERMA’s (Public Employer Risk Management Association) worksite wellness fair at the Sagamore Hotel.
The Eat Smart New York garden plot at East Field is planted and sprouting. The produce from the garden will be used in cooking demonstrations with the excess being donated to local food pantries.
May 3rd was opening day for the outdoor farmers’ market in Glens Falls. Staff had a table with seasonal recipes and information about increasing fruits and vegetables. Market season is just starting to get going. Meet Roxanne at the following Farmers’ Markets in June: June 7th– Glens Falls June 18th – Chestertown June 26th – North Creek
Up-Coming Program Parenting Apart
July 23 & 30, 2014
6:00-8:30 pm Lake George area. Pre-registration is required by calling Roxanne Westcott at 668-4881.
Calls and visits to the CCE office for information have greatly increased and we are answering all request for information as quickly as possible. Again, this uptick in request for information is a good indicator that more people are aware of the need for healthy soil and appropriate pH levels for their lawns, vegetables, perennials, and annual plants. The May Master Gardener meeting was a ‘Nature Walk and Talk’ to the Gull Bay Preserve near Lake George. Warren Rosenthal, of the Lake George Land Conservancy, led the hike to Gull Bay and provided information on the ‘shrinking’ Great Blue Heron Rookery. Warren talked about the natural loss of the ideal habitat for the nesting of the Great Blue Heron. This is primarily due to the decay of the dead and decaying trees in the boggy areas of Gull Bay. Warren also talked about other woodland wildlife and plants within the Gull Bay Preserve. The new 2014 members of the CCE Master Gardener Volunteer program have vigorously begun participating in the CCE Warren County Master Gardener Volunteer program! We are pleased to have them on board and becoming involved in the local communities by providing important information about organic gardening and farming practices through CCE. This information is pro vided by CCE MGs staffing MG tables at Farmers’ Markets, working at several weekly garden volunteer flower and community vegetable gardens, and staffing tables at various other CCE and MG programs throughout the year. Although we always hope for more CCE Master Gardeners to come into the CCE Master Gardener office to help with an- swering calls and meeting people who come into the office for planting and growing information, there have been a few more Master Gardener Volunteers coming into the CCE Master Gardener office this year to help. A few Master Gardeners have been coming together to help improve the appear-
ance of the grounds around the CCE building. This includes planting and maintaining the CCE window boxes, and also planting and maintaining the new gardens around the CCE building. The new CCE sign and planter under the sign is done! The Master Gardeners have done a lot of work around the new CCE sign and have finished filling in and installing plants under the new sign. Their hard work and dedication to helping CCE appear welcoming and open to the public is greatly appreciated. Master Gardeners staffed a table at the opening of the Glens Falls Farmers’ Market the first Saturday in May. It was very busy at the MG table and many people also brought their soil samples over for pH testing. Two new MGs, Connie Bosse and Valerie Brown, have signed on for the summer to work with the Family Services Association in Glens Falls. They will be helping out with the Community Garden at the East Field Recreational Area. The vegetables in these gardens will be distributed to local food pantries. Connie and Valerie are also helping out at the Glens Falls Farmers’ market one week each month.
Dick Rieger is also busy at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in S. Glens Falls overseeing the Community Garden raised beds. He is teaching and inspiring children about gardening and hopes it will become a life-long enjoyment for them. Dick also participates in the church’s after school programming. (Post-Star article, May 17, 2014.) Julie Nathanson staffed a Master Gardener table at Shepherd Park in Lake George for the Fund For Lake George with regard to lake-friendly living. The MG program provided information for example, about planting buffers (instead of lawns that meet-the-lake) on property near Lake George, and near other lakes in our region, and using Phosphorousfree fertilizers.
Master Gardeners Regina Chabarek, Kathy Lion, Nadine Magee, Suzanne O’Dea, Carolyn Parks, Jean Lavoo and Michele Humphry (not in photo) doing the work to fill-in and plant-up under the new CCE entrance sign. May-June 2014
