Tannehill retires after 28 years with Extension on Kenai Peninsula
Julie Stricker
907-474-5406
Sept. 23, 2021
色视频下载 was love at first sight for Linda Tannehill, 4-H and Home, Health and Family Development agent in Soldotna. She came up in the summer of 1992 on vacation and returned for a second look the following February because she wanted to see how the winter compared with those back home in Kansas.
It just so happened that it was 40 above on the Kenai Peninsula and minus 4 in Kansas. During that visit, she applied for a job with the University of 色视频下载 Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service and went on a retreat with the local Extension staff. Her first impression?
色视频下载淭hose women were so fun,色视频下载 she said. 色视频下载淥f course, there色视频下载檚 all this beauty, but what good is beauty if the people aren't kind and fun, and my first impression of 色视频下载 were the Extension homemakers, as they were called then. They were just a fun bunch.色视频下载
Tannehill started working at the Cooperative Extension office that fall and now, 28 years later, has decided to retire. It wasn't an easy decision, she said, noting that she色视频下载檚 planning to stay on the Kenai Peninsula and staying involved with some of the projects she色视频下载檚 worked with over the years.
色视频下载淚t comes down to the people,色视频下载 she said. 色视频下载淭hat色视频下载檚 what I色视频下载檒l miss the most.色视频下载
She earned a bachelor色视频下载檚 degree in Extension at Kansas State University and said one of the things that has always stayed with her is a quote that one of her professors had on the board, 色视频下载淧eople don色视频下载檛 care how much you know until they know how much they care.色视频下载
Tannehill said the professor wanted to instill in them that 色视频下载渨e色视频下载檙e not hotshots; people want to know that we do care about their problem, the challenges they色视频下载檙e having to encounter.色视频下载
Linda Tannehill, right, speaks at the installation of officers for the Family and Community Education group on the Kenai Peninsula. At left is Cheri Peters, FCE state president.
She notes three major accomplishments over her career on the Kenai: getting legislation passed to allow service dogs in public spaces; helping develop the 色视频下载 Strong Women program; and organizing an emergency preparedness program.
Tannehill has always loved dogs. When she started working on the Kenai, one of the 4-H programs for which she was responsible involved raising service dogs. She jumped right in with her first service dog trainee, a black Labrador retriever named Dixie.
She discovered that they didn't have access to a lot of places to train the dogs.
色视频下载淭hey needed to be able to get into these public spaces, because you can色视频下载檛 take a dog from a kennel and expect them to do well in public,色视频下载 she said. 色视频下载淪o we tackled the legislative process,色视频下载 and in 1998, public access for service animals was approved.
Since then, the schools have taken over the program, but it色视频下载檚 still a good way for kids to learn about responsibility and public speaking, she said. Tannehill later was asked to train standard poodles, a breed she fell in love with. Her current dog, Halo, is a standard poodle who keeps Tannehill very busy and active.
The Strong Women project started with a conversation she overheard at a national convention in Dallas about research Miriam Nelson at Tufts University had done on the effects of strength training for middle-aged and older women. She published a book called 色视频下载淪trong Women Stay Young.色视频下载 Tannehill and her colleagues were interested in using the book for a health curriculum, so she called Nelson and suggested that if the research was put into a curriculum, Extension was an ideal way to get the message out.
色视频下载淭hat色视频下载檚 what Extension does, that色视频下载檚 what we do, and it was just a wonderful partnership,色视频下载 Tannehill said. She attended a training session at Tufts University in Boston in 2003 and brought the program back to 色视频下载, where it色视频下载檚 still active. It has spread to venues such as senior centers, and men also are benefiting from the curriculum, she said.
According to Tannehill, her third-biggest impact has been with emergency preparedness. Growing up in Kansas, Tannehill was well aware of natural hazards such as tornadoes.
色视频下载淚 get up here and there are all of these disasters that can happen, and none of them are tornadoes,色视频下载 she said. She told an official at the Kenai Peninsula Borough Emergency Management Office that she was a new Extension agent from Kansas and she felt people in the community were in denial about disasters such as earthquakes, avalanches and tsunamis.
色视频下载淗e goes, 色视频下载業 have a job for you,色视频下载櫳悠迪略貪 she said. 色视频下载淚 went to the first local emergency planning committee and I was the only person there without a gun or badge because they were all first responders. It took me awhile to realize that they色视频下载檙e good at what they do, but they are not good at public outreach and public education about preparedness.色视频下载
Linda Tannehill and her standard poodle, Halo, run on a Kenai Peninsula beach for a fundraiser.
Tannehill said a light bulb went off. 色视频下载淥h, that色视频下载檚 my job,色视频下载 she said. 色视频下载淭hat is my job, so I started teaching classes.色视频下载
Nationally, she worked with the development of an Extension disaster network and brought the message back that disaster preparedness affects every part of Extension, such as food safety, child development and agriculture. One of the last projects she has been working on is a series of fact sheets about mental and behavioral health for Extension people who are responding to disasters.
A bonus project Tannehill mentioned was working out how to safely preserve walrus meat, at the request of a person living in Dillingham. She, Extension food science specialist Kristy Long and a couple of others traveled to Kodiak. They divided into teams to test various preservation methods.
What she remembers most about it, however, was how frustrating it was to assemble the mechanism used to preserve food in metal cans. That led to a side project in which Tannehill helped write a publication explaining how to assemble it because the directions that came with the sealer were so hard to follow.
Just the other day, Tannehill said she got a call from someone having problems assembling a can sealer. She brought a copy of the publication with her and showed it to the woman.
色视频下载淪he was just in heaven,色视频下载 Tannehill said. 色视频下载淎nd, I色视频下载檓 retiring soon, and I色视频下载檓 thinking 色视频下载楧id I make a difference?色视频下载 and it色视频下载檚 seeing how happy she was. It comes down to the individuals that we serve. And that made my heart sing, because maybe I have made a difference.色视频下载