ESPA

Inside this issue

Past President's Remarks ............ 2

Fundraising ................................. 3

Membership ............................... 4

Service Project ………………………….4

Birthdays………………………………….. 5

New Member Highlight …………….5

Board Members and Reps…………6

2018-2019 President’s Challenge

Karen Bixler

Thanks so much for entrusting me as

your incoming President for the 2018-

2019 year. I’m super excited to be

hosting the upcoming conference in

Fairhope, AL with the assistance of

Sandra Walton. I want to encourage

each of you to continue to recruit

new members as you are ESPA’s own personal

advertisement.

Our 2019 conference will be held in Fairhope, Alabama.

You will love the “small town” feeling when you drive

through downtown Fairhope to arrive at the host hotel,

Hampton Inn. We will be 2 miles from the water which has

a wonderful view and a long pier you can walk on.

The theme for this year’s conference is VISION and each

person who attended the conference received a pair of

sunglasses to help them remember ESPA’s Vision for our

2019 conference.

Valuable Information Serving Identifying Organizing Needs

Professional development workshops are being worked on

as we speak and will be updated soon. Our annual banquet

and auction will be held at the gorgeous Oak Hollow

Farms. What a gorgeous facility this is and very rustic, and

will be casual business attire.

Stay tuned as we develop, plan,

and execute the 2019 conference.

I know you will love coming to

Fairhope and seeing what it all

has to offer!

2018 Summer Newsletter

Past President’s Remarks Elaine Densmore

Greetings again from Chilton County! I’m thrilled so many of you attended the con-

ference and I hope you took back to your counties lots of information and inspiration.

It was great to have four new members attending the conference and five retirees

that attended the awards banquet and auction.

It was an honor and pleasure to work with a dedicated executive committee. It takes

everyone doing their part to have a successful conference and I appreciate each and

every one of you! Thank you for letting me, Gay West, our Regional

Extension Agents, our Master Gardeners and our Research

Station employees share Chilton County and their expertise

with you. We hope you enjoyed the workshops and

gained something from them. It was a pleasure to

serve as President this year and I look forward to

meeting with you next year in Fairhope!

Karen Bixler officially became President on June 1!

Tana Shealey has taken another position with Extension as the new CEC for Lowndes County. She begins this new chapter in her life on Monday, July 2. Although we will miss Tana as an ESPA Sister, we are super excited about her new endeavor. I know that she will bring life and laughter to the Lowndes County Extension Office. The Autauga County

Extension Office held a small reception for her on June 27, 2018, and Elaine Densmore and I were able to attend on behalf of ESPA and wish her the best of luck in her new career. Her quote was “once an admin, always an admin.” Tana, may your bubbly personality touch lives wherever you go! ESPA will miss you but Lowndes County is gaining a wonderful colleague with a heart for Extension.

Best Wishes Tana!

Fundraising

Thanks to everyone who helped with the fund-

raising efforts of ESPA for the 2017-2018 year.

Due to your efforts, we were able to raise the fol-

lowing money for ESPA to help with the confer-

ence expenses this past May in Clanton.

Auction—$1,625.00

Yeti Cooler and Tumbler giveaway—Brought in $729.00, we spent $303.78 making a profit of $425.22.

Thanks again to those who collected donations

for the yeti give-away, donated items, and

purchased items.

Fairhope Pier Fountain and Rose Garden

2017-2018 Membership Drive

The drink tabs you donated for the Ronald McDonald House are helping

this family & many more stay close to the hospital as they go through the

battle of their lives. Thank you for your kindness & support.

(Their baby Lillian, 4 lbs. 1 oz., arrived on June 13 healthy and beautiful,

but they are still in the Ronald McDonald House until she is healthy

enough for them to go home.)

Please continue to collect tabs for next year. Also, we will collect and bring

items from this Wish List to be donated to the Ronald McDonald House.

Karen Bixler Angie Moore As this year’s membership drive came to an end, I want to thank all the District Reps and ESPA Members for assisting with it this year and doing an outstanding job. We had 2 new members join this year because of the effort of the membership drive and two who joined prior to the membership drive. Out of the 2 winners, we drew for free conference regis-tration and that went to Lisa McCullough, Chilton Co Research Center.

Thanks again to everyone who helped in this endeavor of the Membership Drive. The new members were recognized at our annual conference, May 16-18, 2018 in Chilton County.

Ronald McDonald House Service Project

Public Art at Orange Street

Pier

Public Art at the Fairhope

Library

I encourage you to answer the following questions: How do you SEE yourself within ESPA? How do you SEE yourself within Extension? How do you SEE your goals for ESPA? How do you SEE your goals for ESPA?

-Karen Bixler, 2018-2019 ESPA President

June Rita Dunn-Bibb-6/25

Vicky Yarbrough-Lee-6/29

July Beth Glasscock-Cullman-7/1

Brandy Phillips-Choctaw-7/2

Sonia Gamble-Franklin - 7/19

Celia Fabery-Morgan-7/29

I have been married to Jason for 24 years and have one son, Sam, who is 11 years old. We have two dogs, Skeeter and Willie Nelson. I grew up in Chilton County, but moved away for about 18 years and lived in Austin, Texas. We moved back “home” a little over 4 years ago to be closer to family. It was important to me for my son to grow up in a small town like I did and there is no better place than Clanton, Alabama. I began my career with Chilton County Extension as a NEP/SNAP-Ed agent in August of 2014. As a NEP Agent Assistant, I covered two counties, Chilton and Bibb. In November of 2017, I had the opportunity to move to the Chil-ton Research and Extension Center as the Ad-ministrative Associate. My entire career was spent doing administrative work beginning with the Chilton County Board of Education and a fifteen year career as a legal assistant/paralegal. My father was a farmer and sold

produce, so I have a passion for helping our lo-cal farmers. Therefore, the CREC was a perfect fit for me. August 2018 will mark my 4th year with Extension and I love it. I wish I had discovered the Alabama Cooperative Extension years ago. I love what we stand for and what we do here at Extension. Helping others is what I am passion-ate about, whether it is teaching Nutrition Education to children or helping farmers produce better crops because Chilton County Peaches and produce are TOPS!

Birthdays

New Member Highlight—Lisa McCullough

August Emma Thornton-Cullman-8/7

Diane Anthony-Mobile-8/20

Stacey Ferguson-Washington-8/20

Sandra Walton-Baldwin-8/21

Karen Bixler-Montgomery-8/30

Christina Leonard-Marengo-8/30

September Susan Coke-Colbert-9/1

Cornelia Tuck-Coosa-9/8

Mitzi Moran-AU Retired-9/16

Karen Bixler

President

Sandra Walton

Vice President

Vicky Yarbrough

Secretary

Brandy Phillips

Treasurer

TBA

President Elect

Executive Board Members 2018-2019

District I—Randi Wright, Cherokee

District II– Helen Drake, Jefferson

District III—Shannon Murray, Lawrence

District IV—Laurie Howe, Randolph

District V—Kathy Dunlevy, Russell

District VI—Deborah Crawford, Houston

District VII—Brandy Phillips, Choctaw

District VIII—Lisa McCullough, Chilton

District IX—Diane Anthony, Mobile

District Representatives 2018-2019

Sherry Kelley

Parliamentarian