Michigan

Ray is a 51-year-old veteran operating an 80-acre orchard in St. Clair County, Michigan. After a car accident 25 years ago, Ray was unable to continue working on a submarine. Ray's condition was made worse due to thyroid cancer, which has caused severe swelling in his back and hands. Despite the pain, he purchased McCallum's Orchard & Cider Mill in 2016 and has been working hard to improve the farm. Ray is considered 100% disabled by the VA, so Vocational Rehabilitation and Michigan Rehabilitation Services will not support his work. Michigan AgrAbility fundraising helps support persevering clients like Ray... and encourages others to help by visiting the business.

Michigan AgrAbility is still recruiting readers to read and record the Pesticide Applicator's Training Manual for a sight-impaired AgrAbility client. The project is half finished, but the reader went off to college and has this thing about studying and homework. :) The completion date goal is Dec. 31, 2018. Please contact MI AgrAbility at 1-800-956-4106 or contact Ned directly at Nstoller@essmichigan.org Thanks!

Serving others is often what Michigan AgrAbility clients do! Take Jill Nichols for example. Jill raises pumpkins and other produce near Munith, Michigan, and operates the farm's market stand. Grit and determination kept her going after an amputation and she now mentors others in similar situations as a trained mentor.

Highlighting success is important to Michigan AgrAbility. AgrAbility staff are all in this together to assist clients in need of services. AgrAbility programs in Nebraska and Illinois clients were highlighted on the Michigan AgrAbility Facebook page to show Michigan AgrAbility followers the assistance other state AgrAbility programs provide and to increase their knowledge of the services AgrAbility can provide.

As everyone knows, farmers are at a high risk of losing their ability to hear due to the duration of exposure to high levels of noise. Noise-induced hearing loss is particularly devastating because it's irreversible, and medication and surgery don't help. Marjorie McCullagh, professor at the University of Michigan School of Nursing, developed several hearing education programs, including Hear on the Farm, which consists of training and online education materials for adults. That intervention gave rise to Hearing Heroes, a program targeting farm and rural youth.

Staff Changes and Recognition

Please welcome our NEW Michigan AgrAbility Team member, Dr. Ron Bates! Existing staff are so very pleased to have him join Michigan AgrAbility. His experience in agriculture, his contacts within Michigan's agricultural community, his business acumen, and his educational background, will bring new expertise and a new eye for opportunity for Michigan AgrAbility. In his own words, Ron would like to introduce himself to all of you.

"I have worked in extension throughout my career and specifically in MSU Extension for the past 22 years, in couple of different roles. I am a professor in Animal Science and been involved in both extension and research, primarily working with the pork industry. I have had the opportunity to work with leaders in the pork industry and have learned much from them. Three years ago, I became the Director of the Agriculture and Agribusiness Institute within MSU Extension. This has allowed me to work with our 74 Extension Specialists, Educators, and Program Instructors housed across Michigan who deliver educational programming. I have learned so much from our staff as they work across the tremendous diversity we have in Michigan agriculture. Furthermore, it has been exciting to see how we inform the non-farming public about farming in Michigan as well as work with residents across the state in home and landscape horticulture. AgrAbility is a relatively new opportunity for me and I am appreciating how important this program area is. Farming is an exciting, challenging, and difficult, business. The day-to-day challenges in farming can lead to physical injuries or cause limitations to farmers that can detrimentally impact their ability to continue farming. AgrAbility provides farmers resources and opportunities to help them mitigate health challenges so they can continue farming and maintain the lifestyle they have worked so hard to achieve. I am looking forward to learning more about how AgrAbility can help Michigan farmers be successful."

Welcome aboard Ron!

Submitted by Deb Chester