Southern Region's Day at the Lake

Southern Region IEAFCS retirees--and some spouses--traveled to Kathy and Joe Harrison's cabin on Kentucky Lake for a fun day in early June.

Highlights of the day were a great lunch and a pontoon boat ride. All the food was great, and Joe outdid himself with the barbecue!



Here is a photo of the view Joe and Kathy have  from their cabin. They can just take a short walk to the waterfront anytime they want!

Those who enjoyed the day were Joy Richey, Martha Speir, Janet Burnett, Ruby Lingle, Joyce Pyatt, Milly Kaiser, Lois Smith, Carol Schlitt, Patti Faughn, Rusti Grogan, and Kathy Harrison.

Rick Lingle, Paul Pyatt, Jimmy Smith, Michael Faughn, and Joe Harrison were also there.

Thanks to Kathy and Joe for their wonderful hospitality--and to Milly Kaiser for assisting them.

As the saying goes, "It's good to have friends in nice places to visit."    

Member Update

Here are a few bits of information from the Summer Reunion shared by Cheri Burcham and Chelsey Byers-Gerstenecker. We really do appreciate their willingness to take time to bring us an update from Extension.

IEAFCS now has 30 members which is a good improvement from a few years ago when almost all current members left Extension. There are 6 Family Life Educators, 3 for Consumer & Family Economics, 10 in Nutrition & Wellness, and 19 who are SNAP ED and EFNEP. More are needed if funding issues can be re-solved.

The reason for the larger number in SNAP ED and EFNEP is that Federal money has been relatively strong in recent years. There is 4.5 million set aside for school nutrition programs.

We are always happy to see Marjorie LaFont and learn that she is still very busy! She is leader of a 4-H club that has 50 members--including her grand kids.  She is still carrying on the good work of Extension.

Marjorie also spends a lot of time helping out the Midwest Food Bank in Peoria. She helps in development of recipes for various food products--especially the unusual ones. She mentioned trying to figure out ways to use sauerkraut juice, textured vegetable protein, and couscous. These would be a challenge for sure! The Midwest Food Bank serves 244 area food pantries. They receive about 2,000 pounds of food per month! Keep up the good work, Marjorie!

Special Guests!

We were honored to have three former National Presidents for NEAFCS at our Summer Reunion last week.

Pictured are Carollyn Hunt, Carol Schlitt, and Carmen Walgrave. I do not remember when Carollyn and Carmen served their terms, but I believe Carol's was in 2007. Hope that's correct!

This is just another example of the outstanding leadership in Illinois (both past and present) for Family and Consumer Science programming!