The Sunflower County branch office of the Mississippi State University Extension Service hosted its annual luncheon on Monday to give local officials, volunteers and other stakeholders a rundown on the services, activities and programs conducted during the past year.
Extension agents Ann Twiner and Alex Deason shared statistical and other information on the wide array of programs offered through the extension service, which include cooking, cake decorating, diabetes control, horticulture, sewing, computer webpage design, gardening and canning and more.
Twiner said groups such as churches who are interested in certain topics, such as canning, can contact her and if needed, she can come to their facility to conduct the sessions.
In addition, numerous outdoor activities such as camping, unmanned aerial systems and shooting competitions are available also. Deason said over 40 children participated in last year’s shooting competition that covered 78 different disciplines and some of the youth were able to contend at the state level.
Among the other projects is the pesticide safety education program, Delta Cattlemen’s Association and a 4-H Scout school that Deason helped develop that endeavors to hold the young people’s interests in agriculture and hopefully provide them with a variety of viable options within that field.
Dr. Richard C. Lacy, regional extension coordinator at Stoneville, said “If we could just take this county and put it in about 15 others of these counties, we would be in great shape because this is one of our best county offices in terms of the things that they do and in terms of their programming and the way they balance the kids with the adults.”
Lacy praised Twiner and Deason for their efforts in the county and asserted that most people could either only work with the youths or the adults, but not both. “So, they both do a really good job and I really appreciate what they do,” he said. Lacy also thanked the Sunflower County Board of Supervisors for their contributions and expressed his appreciation to all of the volunteers.
Deason, who pens a weekly column for the Enterprise-Tocsin, invited the public to submit topics of interests and he would gladly respond in print. The local office also has a public newsletter that is sent out six times a year and Twiner encouraged everyone to contact the office to be placed on their electronic mailing list and to go onto their Facebook page where they post other photos of their activities and list upcoming events.
