Special to the Times Vedette

On Jan. 21, Adair County extension council members and 4-H’ers met with Iowa legislators at the Iowa Extension Council Association legislative breakfast held at Capitol Building in Des Moines. They joined other county extension council members and supporters from across the state to show the real impact ISU Extension and Outreach makes in Iowa communities.

Extension council members shared an impact report for each county in the legislator’s district as well as ISU Extension and Outreach’s 2024 Statewide Impact Report.

“The focus of the day was to share that Extension and Outreach is having real impact in our communities,” Jennifer Vit, IECA executive director, said. “It was a refreshingly positive conversation with legislators about what’s happening in their districts, despite this tense political climate.”

The event was sponsored by the Iowa Extension Council Association and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. The Iowa Extension Council Association represents 900 elected extension council members across the state. At the local level, county extension councils function as the legal body and are the local partners with Iowa State University (Extension and Outreach) and the USDA. They identify needs in their local communities and help meet those needs with Extension programming to create impact.

Special to the Times Vedette

Maddox Hammerstrom, a student at Northwestern College in Orange City, earned a spot on the Academic Dean’s List for the fall 2025 semester. The Dean’s List is comprised of students who have achieved a semester grade point average of 3.50 or above while carrying a minimum of 12 graded hours. This semester, 532 students qualified for the Dean’s List. Of them, 354 students earned a GPA of 3.75 or higher and are considered Collegiate Scholars, designated with an asterisk. Hammerstrom is a senior majoring in business administration/finance.