Wisconsin

Wisconsin Farm Technology Days is the largest agricultural show in Wisconsin and one of the biggest in the nation. This year the event was held at Snudden Farms in Lake Geneva. There were more than 600 exhibitors present for thousands of attendees to see.

AgrAbility of Wisconsin hosted a booth in Innovation Square this year. They were joined by Chad Hermanson of Action Trackchairs for the duration of the show. At this year's event, several AgrAbility clients shared their experiences with attendees.

AgrAbility of Wisconsin held its July Neighbor-to-Neighbor meetings at the Faust family farm in Chilton. Adam Faust is a client of the AgrAbility of Wisconsin program and gave the farmers in attendance a great overview of his experience with the program and the assistive technology he received with the financial assistance of the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR). Adam also gave the attendees a tour of the farm and explained how the technology he received, with DVR's assistance and purchases he has made himself, are helping him to continue farming with spina bifida.

Submitted by Abigail Jensen

Staff Changes

We have recently selected Abi Jensen for the position of outreach specialist. As she is coming into the position, we are saying goodbye to the outgoing outreach specialist, Hannah (Gerbitz) Barthels.

Hannah served the AgrAbility of Wisconsin program first as a program assistant from 2012-2013 and later returned as outreach specialist in 2014. Barthels recently moved to Illinois and relocated to Rhea & Kaiser, a marketing agency in Naperville. She works as an assistant account manager and brings her agricultural background and public relations experience to her work on the Bayer account. Hannah was an excellent member of the AgrAbility team. Her mentorship and creativity helped to take the program to new heights.

We are grateful for all that Hannah has done for our program and wish her the best.

Many of you may already know Abi Jensen since she worked as the AgrAbility of Wisconsin program assistant for two years before applying for the outreach specialist position. As a Wisconsin farm kid and recent UW-Madison graduate in the life sciences communication, animal science and agricultural business areas, Abi brings her passion for agriculture and communication to the AgrAbility team. Throughout her time as program assistant, she really enjoyed meeting all of the farmers, farm workers, and families involved with the AgrAbility program and hopes to meet many more as outreach specialist.

We are excited to have Abi continue to be a part of the AgrAbility of Wisconsin. Welcome, Abi!