The stories are constructed from the pictures and testimonies of people throughout Alabama whose lives have been touched by the Extension System’s educational programs.

They comprise what is commonly known as the Extension Annual Report, one of the main ways the Extension System explains its mission year after year to its diverse clientele.

This year’s report has been titled "Stepping Up to the Plate" to reflect how Extension continues to adapt to meet the ever-changing needs of a diverse Alabama audience, despite the perennial challenge of budgetary and hiring restraints.

"I can’t imagine a more appropriate title and central theme for our 2001 Annual Report," says Interim Extension Director Dr. Gaines Smith.

"Stepping up to the plate is what every Extension professional does day after day to provide Alabamians with the tools they need to improve their lives," he says, adding that the report is "a testament of the outstanding work Extension continues to do despite a full plate of challenges."

Like previous annual reports, the 2001 edition highlights Extension’s work within its principal programming areas: agriculture; forestry, wildlife and natural resources; urban affairs and new nontraditional programs; family and individual well-being; community and economic development; and 4-H and youth development. But it also offers something entirely new: Instead of a summary of major Extension programs that characterized earlier reports, the 2001 edition introduces readers to more than 50 Alabamians from diverse backgrounds served by Extension programs.

These include Curtis and Suzie Franklin, both longtime members of the Extension-sponsored Master Gardeners program who worked with local Extension professionals Dr. David West and Hayes Jackson to organize a horticultural therapy project for troubled youth at the Coosa Valley Attention Center in Anniston. For their efforts, they were recognized as National Master Gardeners of the Year.

Also featured is Hugh Summerville, a Pickens County cotton grower, who credits Extension with his decision to switch to cotton genetically engineered to withstand the budworm, a pest that almost destroyed his entire crop several years ago. Without this switch, Summerville says, he would not be in the cotton business today.

Readers are also introduced to Dianne Madyun, who worked with her local Extension agent and studied health literature provided by Extension’s Urban and New Nontraditional Programs to reduce her dangerously high blood pressure to a healthy level.

They also meet Wanda Pharris, whose interest in daughter Tiphanie’s 4-H activities inspired her to serve as an active 4-H volunteer and, ultimately, Alabama 4-H Volunteer Leader Association president. Tiphanie, for her part, credits 4-H with helping her become a Gates Millennium Scholar, an honor that entitles her to a full, four-year college scholarship.

"Each of these stories is impressive in and of itself," Smith says, "But they are equally important in the way they reflect the many successful programs that have been conducted in every corner of our state."

"They show how we are meeting local needs with statewide impact."

More than 6,000 copies of the report will be distributed to key Extension stakeholders throughout the state.

The report can be viewed online at <http://www.aces.edu/pubs/2001AnnualReport.pdf>.