Milestones from 1914-2014

100 Years of Family and Consumer Sciences Extension at the University of Kentucky

1912 – Extension Demonstration train, including a domestic car, traveled the state.

1913 – Helen B. Wolcott appointed as state agent to organize home demonstration work.

1914 – 17 home demonstration agents, including 5 African Americans, hired to work during the gardening and canning seasons

1919 – 63 home demonstration agents employed under an emergency appropriation from Congress

1922 – First “Manual for Home Demonstration Clubs” published

1924 – Myrtle Weldon hired at state leader of home demonstration work

1932 – Kentucky Federation of Homemakers established

1933 – Homemakers’ clubs report canning more than one million jars of fruits and vegetables

1937 – Home demonstration agents organized and directed response to the flood of 1937

1940 – Counties engaged in a project to utilize surplus cotton available through USDA to assist families in making mattresses

1942 – Home demonstration and agricultural agents carried out the “Live at Home” program

1946 – Bankhead-Flannagan Act funding provided a means to equalize counties by providing a county agricultural agent, home demonstration agent and sufficient clerical service for each county

1947 – Myrtle Weldon, T.R. Bryant and Thomas Poe Cooper devised a plan to unify extension programming in each county and establish an overall extension advisory council

1956 – Viola Hansen appointed as leader of home economics extension programs

1959 – Miss Sunshine Colley, Marshall County Home Demonstration Agent received the USDA superior service award

1968 – Congress appropriated funds to establish the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program to provide nutrition education to low-income families

1969 – Dr. Doris Tichenor named assistant director for home economics and community development

1970 – 250 paraprofessional aides worked with home economics agents to provide nutrition education for disadvantaged populations

1973 – Five areas of concern for home economics extension included family stability, consumer competence, family health, community resource development and family housing and home furnishings

1981 – Programs focused on stress management and family living were implemented in response to the economic crisis

1984 – Dr. Suzanne Badenhop hired as assistant director for home economics extension

1987 – The Kentucky Extension Homemakers Association received a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to implement the Family Community Leadership Program

1987 – Kentucky hosted the National Association of Extension Home Economists national meeting in Louisville

1991 – Dr. Janet Kurzynske appointed to provide leadership for the newly created Children, Youth and Families-at-Risk Task Force

1993 – Dr. Darlene Forester appointed assistant director for home economics extension

1998 – Dr. Bonnie Tanner hired as assistant director for home economics extension

1999 – Home economics extension was officially changed to family and consumer sciences extension

2001 – Donna Forgacs, Boyle County Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences received the NEAFCS Educator of the Year Award

2005 – Dr. Ann Vail hired as director of the School of Human Environmental Sciences and assistant director for family and consumer sciences extension

2007 – First “All-School Conference” brought together family and consumer sciences extension agents, state staff and School of Human Environmental Sciences faculty

2008 – An international project was implemented with the Kentucky Academy kindergarten in Adjeikrom, Ghana and involved the School of HES, family and consumer sciences extension and the Kentucky Extension Homemakers Association

2009 – First grant received to provide free summer camps from military families through the Operation: Military Kids program in FCS Extension

2010 – Plate It Up, Kentucky Proud project initiated, involving FCS agents, students in dietetics and human nutrition and the Kentucky Department of Agriculture

2010 – Peggy Powell, Montgomery County Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences received the NEAFCS Extension Educator of the Year Award

2011 – First statewide youth piggy bank design contest held as part of Kentucky Saves Month

2014 – Kentucky hosted the National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences in Lexington

2014 – Lora Lee Howard, Clay County Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences received the NEAFCS Extension Educator of the Year Award

2014 – Cooperative Extension celebrates the 100th anniversary of passage of the Smith-Lever Act

2014 – UK FCS Extension celebrates the first century of county programming