FARMINGTON — Franklin County Extension Homemakers [FCEH] of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension program is gearing up for the year of 2023 with a meeting with their advisory board scheduled for Monday, Feb. 13. The purpose of the meeting is for the group to discuss and target specific community needs and problem solve those needs for the year 2023.

UMaine’s Cooperative Extension Program works with Maine volunteers to offer community-driven, research-based educational programs in every county.

“We work with youth, and we work with families through the Cooperative Extension,” Lisa Fishman, Maine Extension Homemaker State Coordinator, said. “The Maine Extension Homemakers Council across the state really works with those same goals in enriching lives, bettering the lives of others, and many of their community service projects are all about raising funds, or creating or making items and donating the funds received or the items they’ve made to charitable organizations that benefit typically families, children, community resources as well.”

In Franklin County, programs such as Franklin County 4-H [FC4H], Small Business Education [SBE], Maine Master Gardner Volunteers program [MMGV], and the FCEH all utilize the resources of the UMaine system to better themselves and their community.

FCEH, for example, is a volunteer group with the goal of developing leadership, supporting worthy community causes, and promoting UMaine Cooperative Extension’s educational programs in Franklin County.

Their most recent efforts include community service project where over 240 adult cover ups were created for nursing homes and assisted living facilities, including Sandy River Center, Orchard Park Rehabilitation, Edgewood Rehabilitation & Living Center, Woodlands Senior Living of Farmington, and Pinewood Terrace.

A portion of the fabric was donated by the daughter of the late Janet Imelda Kennedy, who owned Imelda’s Fabric and Design in New Sharon.

“[When she passed], her daughter asked if we could use some of the material, so she donated quite a bit of that material,” Lois King, president of the Franklin County Advisory Board, said.

The adult cover ups are just one example of the numerous ways in which the FCEH tries to help its community, and more programs like it exist in Aroostook, Somerset, York, Cumberland, and Hancock County.

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