We tried a little something new last Friday when we hosted Grow Strong! 2017 at the Georgia Center in Athens. We reached out to almost 300 MGEVs across the state, connecting 14 remote sites and 2 distance speakers to the host location. We were able to have conversations, see presentations, and ask questions, no matter where you were at! This was a continuing education event built around our state initiatives. (If you attended, don’t forget to record your training hours in MGLOG!)
We had a fantastic line-up of speakers who were tasked with updating MGEVs on horticulture pertaining to our state initiatives. We started out talking about Environmental Stewardship with Dr. Clint Waltz, who spoke to us about “Wisely Answering This Spring’s Turf Questions.” Dr. Doug Bailey (upper left in photo) followed with “The Importance of Wise Water Use and Conservation in Landscapes.” As we pondered their messages over lunch, Dr. Tim Smalley (lower right in photo) joined us to cover our Value of Landscapes presentation. His presentation on “Cultivating the Economy: Economic Value of Landscaping to a Community” got us all thinking about revenues and gardens! To address our Home Food Production initiative, Dr. Judy Harrison (lower left in photo) shared with us valuable lessons on “Food Safety for School, Community, and Home Gardens.” Finally, winding up our time together, Dr. Martha DeHart (upper right in photo) spoke to us about our Health Benefits of Horticulture initiative with her presentation on “Therapeutic Uses and Benefits of Horticulture.”
Our event was not only unique because of the wide communication involved, but also because of MGEV participation! You knocked our socks off with way more questions than we could answer in the time we planned. Since you had lots of great questions, we are sending those on to our speakers. When they respond, we’ll share your answers here on Trellis. I think of it as a meeting after the meeting, right?
PS: Look for Grow Strong! to return in 2019!
