Ohio

Ohio AgrAbility staff, farmers, and students enjoyed the 2018 NTW in Portland, Maine. Many of them presented sessions for the benefit of attendees.

• Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia AgrAbility staff presented "Harmonizing at Farm Aid 2017: The story of a 3-state AgrAbility collaboration."
• OAP Staff partnered with Ohio State University Extension Educators on "Train the Trainer - Generation Rx and Educational Resources for CombatingSubstance Abuse in Your Community," an educational program with information and presentations to teach different age groups about safe medication practices, and the dangers of misuse of medications.
• The OSU Extension Educators also presented "Connecting with your Resources: Mental Health Awareness."
• The OSU Capstone GOATs (Girls Ohio AgrAbility Team) gave an excellent presentation on the "Challenges of Designing a Skid Loader Entry System for Lower Extremity Disabilities." They were very gratified to have a standing-room-only audience for the last session of the workshop.

The OSU Extension educators who attended NTW were very impressed with the AgrAbility Program, are very excited to share information about Ohio AgrAbility throughout their county and with other educators throughout the state. They also made connections with other states to collaborate on efforts to share Generation Rx training and information.

The Ohio AgrAbility Team is grateful to NAP for sponsoring some of their farmers to attend NTW. They were all first-time NTW attendees, and all expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to attend.

The OH farmers enjoyed everything at NTW, but did have a few favorites:

• Kirk appreciated Therese Willkomm's "Using Everyday Items to Create Solutions in Minutes on the Farm." He is left-handed and injured his left hand and arm in a fall from a grain silo, and he has difficulty finding left-handed devices, so he will be implementing some of her DIY ideas back on his farm.
• Lisa was impressed with the mental health and opioid related workshops and will share the information in her community and when she returns to work as an OT, (and farm family member).
• Don & Regenia made a great connection with the lavender farmer (and stopped at her lavender farm on their way back to Ohio). They also appreciated meeting so many other people who are living and working with disabilities and getting so many new ideas on how make their farm more accessible.
• Mary Ann enjoyed the lavender farm workshop (although she will not be converting their chicken farm to a lavender farm). She also appreciated the ideas for niche marketing and the workshops on farm family relations.

Submitted by Laura Akgerman