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Celebrating Farmers: Raising Hope and Farmer Appreciation Day · Talking FACS

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  Welcome to Talking FACS, what you need to know about family,
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  food, finance, and fitness.
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  This nationally recognized, award-winning podcast is hosted by the University
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  of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program.
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  Our educators share research knowledge with individuals, families,
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  and communities to improve quality of life.
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  Hello, and welcome to Talking FACS, where we share the news you need to know
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  to strengthen your family, your community, and our state.
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  I am your host, Mindy McCulley, Extension Specialist for Instructional Support
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  with Family and Consumer Sciences Extension at the University of Kentucky.
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  We are housed in the Marti-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment.
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  Several years ago, when Paul Harvey recorded the commercial for the Super Bowl,
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  "So God Made a Farmer", you probably remember those poignant words.
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  You may not remember what the commercial was for, but you remember the feelings that it evoked.
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  Far too often, we forget to celebrate and recognize the valuable contributions
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  that our farmers make to society.
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  So you probably have heard of Appreciation Days for firefighters or healthcare
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  providers or your local library or teachers, but have you ever heard of a Farmer Appreciation Day?
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  Well, my guests today are here to share with us about just such an event.
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  Raising Hope, the Farmer Appreciation Day that's going to be held September
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  18th, in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
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  I want to welcome Dr. Cheryl Witt, who is our Extension Specialist for Farm
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  Health and Safety, and Dale Dobson, who is the Safety Administrator for Kentucky
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  Department of Agriculture.
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  Welcome to you both. Thank you, and thank you for having us here. We appreciate it.
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  Before we get too far into the weeds, first of all, tell us why is this This
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  recognition day is so important.
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  Well, it's important because we want farmers to feel appreciated for what they
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  do and deal with and know that we recognize what they have to do and deal with
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  to get food and fiber into our local communities,
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  into our state, into the nation, and for the whole world.
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  And what they do is very important.
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  And we want them to know that we appreciate this.
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  I agree 100 percent because they really are the backbone of our nation, aren't they?
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  Well, they are. We could not get through our days. Any of us,
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  we could not get through our days. We would be hungry and naked.
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  Exactly. Exactly. So, Dale, why have we chosen to celebrate in Bowling Green?
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  Well, we did it in Frankfurt last year. Last year was our first annual Farmer Appreciation Day.
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  And thanks to Representative Reed and Representative Rudy and Richard Heath
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  and them, they put it in statute last year that on the Wednesday of Farm Safety
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  Week, we should gather somewhere in Kentucky and have a Farmer Appreciation Day.
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  That's where our celebration point is. But the whole day, the whole state is
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  a Farmer Appreciation Day, I think.
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  September 18th, you see your farmers appreciate it. Why I went to Bowling Green
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  this year, I did it in Frankfort last year. I'm in Bowling Green this coming
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  year, on 18th, and next September I will be in Murray.
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  Our purpose of moving around the state is to be every four years to be within
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  two hours of every FFA chapter of this so that the FFA students can come to
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  our appreciation ceremonies.
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  And by moving around the state, it allows more students and more farmers the
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  capability to participate in our day.
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  Dr. Jones and some of the crew down here at Western Kentucky University and
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  the Kentucky Partnership for Farm Family Safety and Health has been a big partner,
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  a big player in developing a Raising Hope.
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  So we went to their home this year to host it down at the Western Kentucky University Farm.
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  And you mentioned Raising Hope. Can you tell us a little bit more about what Raising Hope is?
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  Raising Hope started out as a farmer suicide prevention and stress management program.
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  Back here, when I first met Dr. Witt, she had an idea that wanted to promote
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  suicide side prevention for farmers and do health and she was persistent enough
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  that she'd come at Parkman and Wagner.
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  And Commissioner Quarles sent her
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  over to the safety program to us and the marketing to sit down and talk.
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  And long story short, 2021, we created a program called Raising Hope.
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  We had partnerships with UK and the health department. It got started.
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  But me and Dr. Witt teamed up, and our partnership out of this has led to what
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  Raising Hope is officially as of today.
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  July 1st, we reorganized things. and Raising Hope, just talking about suicide
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  by itself didn't get us no traction.
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  So Raising Hope is the top umbrella. We kind of like that name. It has a good name.
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  And with the division of Raising Hope, we now have farm safety and farm safety between farm and home.
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  We have farmer health, which is physical and mental, and that's all under Dr. Witt here.
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  And then we have a farm rescue on that side over there.
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  By putting all three of these together in the package, package that creates
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  Raising Hope and I think we have developed a very successful package of reaching
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  out to people on that part there.
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  I think too though we quickly realized that all
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  had such a relationship between the other for you know farmers rate their health
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  by their abilities to perform the work that they need to do want to do on the
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  farm and as long as they can do that, they'll rank their health pretty well.
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  Even if a farmer had no arms and no legs, and you ask them to rate their health,
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  and as long as they could do what they needed and wanted to do on the farm,
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  they say, well, I'm doing pretty good.
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  But if they're not safe on the farm and, you know, develop chronic disability
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  and can't do what they need to do, it affects their mental health.
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  If they develop a chronic illness or disease by working on the farm,
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  then, and can't perform what they want and need to do on a daily basis,
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  then it begins to affect their mental health.
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  So it all ties together. So that's one reason why we found that encompassing
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  all the areas together, it's been more successful.
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  And Dale's point is well taken because farmers don't line up to talk about their
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  emotional health, but they will line up to hear about grain safety or equipment
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  safety or, you know, some of the newest and biggest equipment upgrades.
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  Et cetera, and how they can use that to benefit their efficiency on the farm.
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  But everything that we do, whether it's equipment safety, grain bin safety,
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  or even health education, we always encompass some piece of mental health in there, too.
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  So it's been a successful program for us.
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  Well, and I think recognizing the interconnectedness of all of these topics
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  is part of why you are in family and consumer sciences and not in agriculture,
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  as many people might think that you might be.
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  Well, there are, you know, we have to remember that it's not just the farmer,
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  but there are factors unique to working and living on the farm that put us at
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  either a higher risk for injury or causes exposure to things that will cause
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  certain illnesses just from living on the farm, too, not just working.
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  So let's get back to the Raising Hope of Farmer Appreciation Day.
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  I know you're going to be awarding some big awards that day.
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  Do you want to share with us a little about those? Sure. Sure.
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  Friend, we call them friends of Raising Hope. So the person doesn't necessarily have to be a,
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  farmer, but somebody who shares the passion and dedication and has done something
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  to help promote the safety and health of our farmers and farm families in some form or fashion.
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  Sometimes it's volunteer hours. Sometimes it's a monetary thing.
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  Sometimes it's just out of the goodness of their heart that they've done something
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  or continue to promote the health health, and safety of our farmers.
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  And then, Dale, I'll let you talk about the Farmers of the Year.
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  The Farmer of the Year Award, when we come up to the Farmer Appreciation Day
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  last year, there's nowhere around here that anybody did anything anywhere to recognize a farmer.
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  Just to tell them you appreciate, just appreciate you for what you're doing.
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  All kinds of appreciation days for ours, EMS teachers. I'm not saying nobody
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  gets it, don't deserve it. They do.
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  But to add to it, we need a day, one day a year. We tell our farmers in the
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  state of Kentucky, we appreciate you and we love you, and let everybody hear that that day.
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  And with that being put together, we created what we called a Raising Oak Farmer
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  Year Award. We can give way up to three of them a year.
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  And to be eligible for this award, you have to have decades promoting farm safety,
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  farm health, and farm rescue.
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  When I say decades, I'm talking about 20-plus years.
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  I'm not talking about just two decades. I'm talking about three-plus decades,
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  and that's a long history.
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  I've been with Frank for 26 years, and I've been teaching farm safety and rescue now for 35 years.
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  And there are some farming operations out here in the past few years that really
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  started doing good putting safety out there.
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  But when I say decades, I'm talking about somebody like Billy Ray Smith was
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  a winner last year, and he helped start this program.
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  In 1996, he said, when you got money, you're going to do it.
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  In 1998, we made it official. That's decades.
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  Had John and Jerry Griffith out of Western Kentucky. They've been helping teach
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  farm safety to elementary kids down there.
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  It's a day of school for close to 30 years of every year, shutting their farming
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  operation down for a day, the day after election, every year at Wednesday,
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  and went to took all the equipment at school, teach kids safety. That's decades.
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  And then we have Maryview Farms up here and around Augusta, Brooksville up here
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  in the Bracken County area.
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  And they've been teaching farm rescue and hosting child safety day camps since 1998.
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  I know that because I helped them do the first one in 98.
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  And they went all the way on to the point that all these years of hosting farm
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  safety, farm rescue, grain rescue, heavy farm rescue classes,
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  to the point to moving their equipment over to Maysville there to the college
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  for us to park it on top of cars and help us teach rescue.
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  To Mr. Dale Appelman, went back, and he's still a full-time farmer,
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  but he went to become an EMT and a volunteer firefighter to help serve his community.
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  And Dale's dad and their mom, they cook food for us, and they have spent decades
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  helping farm safety and health. That was last year's winners.
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  And the winners we got coming up this year have that same kind of history tied
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  to them, but I ain't going to tell you who it is yet.
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  We've got to have some bit of suspense, don't we?
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  You know, I know that it is so important that we recognize and celebrate our
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  farmers because without them, as Cheryl said at the beginning,
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  where would we be? We would be hungry and we would be naked.
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  And so it is important to celebrate and recognize the accomplishments and the
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  work that they do every day to support and encourage and really make our nation great.
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  Before we wrap up do we have any last thoughts
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  that we need to to share well one thing that we always promote with every single
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  as i mentioned earlier no matter what we're talking about we always come back
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  to the mental health piece and our emotional well-being and the importance of.
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  Checking on our neighbors just to let them know you're thinking about them and
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  let them know that they're in your thoughts and in your prayers,
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  and that you appreciate them for being in your life.
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  And don't wait until they're having a bad day.
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  Let's do that every day and support each other. And you just never know how
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  smiling at somebody or texting them that day, letting them know that you're
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  thinking about them, it might just be the thing that gets them through that day.
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  So check on your neighbors and your friends and you just never know how that's
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  going to affect the next person.
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  It might be you that needs that encouragement the next day.
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  So be a friend and we got to check on each other. We're rural people and that's what we do.
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  We take care of our own. That's exactly right.
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  You know, I happen to think we said that we're celebrating in Bowling Green
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  on September 18th, but we did not say where in Bowling Green.
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  At the Western Kentucky University Farm on the south side of Bowling Green down
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  there. We'll be celebrating.
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  It will be set up outside the arena and down in the arena.
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  The ceremony will take place in the arena. And here's something we're adding
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  to this day, making this day a little more special.
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  We have roughly 700 people at the Farm Appreciation Day last year, a lot of FFA.
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  We're inviting FFA from all over the place. And we will have safety demonstrations
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  outside. We'll have rescue demonstrations outside.
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  We've got fire rescue, EMS, helicopters, all that coming.
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  And then we go inside for a celebration there.
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  And I sent you a flyer with all the exact times. But on the inside,
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  we're going to have an ag career fire this time for the FFA students to come,
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  to show them there's all kinds of careers in agriculture and
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  some people try to figure out how they can have a public job pay
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  their insurance pay their bills and farm or being a
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  firefighter or an emt or a paramedic flight
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  nurse some of these things here offer a golden
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  opportunity because you can go in work a 24-hour shift
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  at the firehouse make a good living for
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  you and your family and then go home and farm for 48
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  hours and have income and support and
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  lessen your stress just how you're going to pay your bills each
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  year you know we got some that want to weld and
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  farm i mean there's many different things you can do and be safe and healthy
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  and have a good life with you your family on the farm and that's what we're
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  trying to promote i think that's excellent and i will definitely link the flyer
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  in the show notes so that people will be able to access that as well.
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  Thank you both for your time, and we will be excited to celebrate with you in
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  Western Kentucky at the Western Kentucky Farm.
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  Now, this is open to the public. Lunch is provided on as long as it lasts,
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  and ice cream, too, and then plus all the events and letting farmers know that
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  we certainly appreciate what they do.
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  Perfect. Thank you both for your time. Thank you for having us.
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  We appreciate it. If you are just tuning in, you're listening to Talking FACS,
• 15:25
  then you can find us wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.
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• 15:36
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• 15:40
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• 16:04
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• 16:11
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  Music.