Kosciusko County Purdue Extension Director Kelly Heckaman addresses the Kosciusko County Council Thursday, May 10.

WARSAW — The Kosciusko County Purdue Extension Office has been busy, and with the county 4-H fair less than two months away, things aren’t about to slow down anytime soon.

Extension Board President Jenny Nelson

Four representatives of the extension office addressed the Kosciusko County Council Thursday night, May 10, to highlight some of the organizations many ongoing programs.

Jenny Nelson, president of the extension board, presented the council with handouts introducing the speakers and programs to be featured in the presentation.

“We really thank you and appreciate this time to be able to come and update you on all that’s going on with the Purdue Extension.

And, here to update you all is our three educators and we’re going to start with Jackie Franks and she is our educator for health and human sciences.

Firefighters And Heart Disease

Franks told the board about a program designed to raise awareness of a killer disease and the unlikely demographic that it hits hardest.

“Firefighters are at a higher risk of heart disease,” said Franks. “In general, in the population of the state of Indiana, about 25 percent of deaths are from heart disease and among firefighters, 45 percent of active duty deaths are because of heart disease,” she said. “So, there is a definite need in that population for education on how they can keep themselves safe and prevent that disease from occurring.”

Franks told the council she presented a program called Be Heart Smart to firefighters from the Warsaw Fire Department in four one-hour sessions during January and February, addressing such issues as watching salt intake and making other healthy meal choices.

“Have you considered offering the firefighter Be Heart Smart program to the area volunteer firefighters too?” asked Councilperson Joni Truex. “Yes,” replied Franks. “And I’ve kind of been brainstorming a little bit, but from some of the volunteers that I’ve talked to, they said that it would be very difficult to get them to come. We were lucky with the Warsaw department because the chief let me do it during their work time. But, from the volunteers that I talked to, they said ‘you’re going to have a hard time figuring out a way to get them there.’ So, if you all have some ideas, I’d be very interested in hearing them.”

Hidden In Plain Sight

Franks also highlighted a program called Hidden in Plain Sight, where parents and grandparents are educated on how to spot seemingly innocuous items in a household that could be evidence of a youngster in the house engaged in risky behavior such as tobacco use or drug or alcohol abuse.

“We cover a bunch of different topics there, so the parents and grandparents are given a chance to look through this room and identify what objects they think look suspicious. It’s been really good for them to just see physically what some of those objects look like because a lot of those families were really shocked when they found out what some of those objects could indicate.”

4-Hers In Go Time

Mindy Wise, the extension office’s 4-H educator told the council that 4-H is at the forefront of activities with the fair waiting just around the corner.

“We’re really in go time right now,” she said, adding that 4-H has been getting a new look in recent years.

“In our traditional 4-H program, we have the typical projects in livestock and cooking and sewing and anything creative,” she said. “But, we are trying our best to really keep with the times and tie in some workforce development projects. A few years ago we added a welding project and just this year we’re adding our first fire education project.”

Wise said driving membership has been a key goal to 4-H leadership.

Our traditional program club membership is up by five percent,” she said, giving credit to three eight-year members who chose 4-H as their Kosciusko Youth Leadership Academy project. Wise said those members created a marketing program that helped to drive new members.

“They were really very involved,” Wise said. “I was so proud to see some of our 4-Hers wanting to give back and encourage other young people.”

Wise said recruitment is also enhanced with a program called Spark Clubs, “which is designed to spark an intereste in 4-H without asking a young person to commit to a year-long or 10-year-long activity but really to just give them a taste of that,” Wise said. “It starts with a six-hour experience.”

Wise said Spark Clubs have been started for such fields as the culinary arts, investment and gardening.

“4-H is not just a county fair, it’s not just farm kids, we’re working on really expanding that in every way we can,” she said.

“It looks like you’re trying to make the program relevant to today, which is great,” said Councilperson Sue Ann Mitchell.

Farmers And Mental Health

Extension Director Kelly Heckaman told the council that the office has been working to raise awareness of a mental health-related issue that can negatively affect members of her organization’s target demographic.

“May is Mental Health Awareness Month,” said Heckaman. “The Centers for Disease Control came out with a new statistic around February that reported the highest rate of suicide in the United States is among farmers, and those in fisheries and forestry,” she said.

“Right now, the suicide rate is about 85 per 100,000.” Heckaman told the council she was educated in mental health first aid along with about a dozen other extension educators “so that we can be better prepared to help those in agriculture deal with stress, depression and anxiety. We are not good in agriculture talking about things like this so we want to make sure that they are supported.”