Hayman receives UW Extension’s highest honor

Vicki Hayman, Weston County nutrition and food safety educator for the northeast area, was awarded the Jim DeBree Excellence in Extension Award – UW Extension’s highest honor.

Whether handing out recipes and food samples at farmers markets, teaching menu planning and how to read a nutrition label, or team teaching food safety practices with the local health inspector, Hayman engages with people to help them improve their lives.

“Vicki includes innovative approaches and multiple teaching styles to expand her audience and increase program impacts,” says nominator Denise Smith, nutrition and food safety educator in Niobrara County.

As a member of extension’s Healthy Eating Focus team, Hayman teaches food preparation skills, Dining with Diabetes and other Chronic Diseases, and the Real Food program, all with hands-on learning and resources to ensure healthy changes last after classes end.

Publications and curricula co-developed or authored by Hayman include Cooking It Up! Diabetes-Healthy Recipes Everyone Will Love, Cooking It Up! Friendly One-Pot Meals from Your Pressure Cooker, the Real Food curriculum, Calcium Science Investigation (CSI) curriculum, and the Wyoming 4-H Fabric and Fashion Manual.

Hayman promotes interaction and cooperation among agencies and organizations through a variety of roles, says Smith. These include adviser, coalition member, facilitator, and liaison.

Hayman joined UW Extension in 1997 and is based in Newcastle.

Goshen County 4-H educator honored for inventive programming

Innovative programming and working across generations are among reasons Goshen County 4-H educator Megan Brittingham received the Newer Employee Award from the University of Wyoming Extension.

She joined UW Extension in 2010. Nominators say Brittingham successfully works with ages teen to senior citizen and includes all members of groups in starting and evaluating programs.

She worked with local businesses and the local school district to start a chick-hatching project in eight Goshen County elementary classrooms. She determined which breeds would be most successful and obtained the necessary equipment. The project extended beyond the school year with students seeing their hatched chickens at the county fair.

She also spearheaded creation of the Wyoming 4-H Theater Camp. Extension educators worked with college theater departments to bring theater and arts education into the Wyoming 4-H Program.

Diversity efforts gain Crook, Weston County 4-H educators extension honor

4-H educator Sara Fleenor in Crook and Stacy Buccholz in Weston County were recognized by the University of Wyoming Extension for their diversity education efforts with the Diversity Enhancement Award.

The two worked with teen 4-H leaders to create workshops and menu ideas that incorporated cultural diversity at the Crook-Weston County 4-H Summer Camp.

4-H’ers were able to experience different countries and learn about cultures, global challenges, and participate in hands-on activities while they learned.

Buccholz joined extension in 2008 and Fleenor in 2012.

Service to Cent$ible Nutrition Program earns Coordinator of Year Award

Cent$ible Nutrition Program (CNP) educator Beth Barker serving Lincoln and Uinta counties received the program’s Coordinator of the Year Award.

CNP director Mindy Meuli says Barker is a standout team player. Barker has served on numerous state committees, trained new employees, helped recruit participants for two multi‑state research projects, and began covering another county in addition to her home county, Uinta.

She did this while graduating 62 adults and 279 youths in the two counties, notes Meuli.

Fresh produce efforts in Big Horn County draws UW Extension recognition

A nutrition educator who helped establish a community garden in Greybull to donate fresh produce in Big Horn County received the Cent$ible Nutrition Program’s (CNP) Linda Melcher Award.

Kristy Michaels received the honor named for Melcher, a past CNP director, who developed the program in Wyoming. The award goes to an educator who embodies the spirit and essence of CNP, notes Mindy Meuli, CNP director.

“With little direction and a lot of motivation and a vision, Kristy played a key role in developing a community garden that donated more than 310 pounds of fresh produce to organizations serving low-income people in Big Horn County,” says Meuli.

Wind River efforts prompt Educator of the Year award

Cent$ible Nutrition Program educator Kelly Pingree received the program’s Educator of the Year award.

Pingree serves the Wind River Indian Reservation.

CNP director Mindy Meuli notes Pingree’s program had 79 graduates and a 44-percent increase in participant physical activity last year. The CNP curriculum has 17 hands-on lessons.

Meuli says Pingree serves on the Shoshone Cultural Foods project committee, is planning a gardening project in partnership with the Eastern Shoshone 477 Program, and has helped with a number of policy, system, and environmental changes at the Warm Valley Senior Center.

Youth nutrition education program effort reaps UW Extension honor

Cent$ible Nutrition Program (CNP) educators who updated and expanded a curriculum implemented in elementary schools across the state received the organization’s Community Impact Award.

Grazing with Marty Moose is the program’s curriculum for second and third graders. The educators helped incorporate new materials and activities into the curriculum and trained other educators on the program.

Educators and their home counties are Marilou Vaughn, Fremont; Krista Brown and Michelle Hans, Natrona; and Beth Barker, Uinta.

CNP director Mindy Meuli says the curriculum was updated in 2016 and implemented last year.

“Without the hard work and creative ideas of this group, this new Marty Moose program would not have been possible,” she says.