FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Ann Bailey Berry, WVU Extension Communications
Phone: (304) 293-4221, ext. 3416; e-mail: Ann.Berry@mail.wvu.edu
To be archived after March 30, 2007
Kate Burbank’s successful community development projects in Roane County have garnered praise for her from the West Virginia University Extension Service (WVU-ES).
Burbank, a WVU Roane County Extension agent and Extension associate professor, received the 2006 WVU Extension Service Individual Program Excellence Award for her “sustained, long-term effort … resulting in significant contributions to the well-being of the citizens of West Virginia.” She was among exemplary faculty and staff recognized at an awards ceremony held recently at WVU Jackson’s Mill State 4-H Camp, Weston.
Her strong leadership and grantsmanship skills have led to the development of the Spencer Antique Mall, Spencer Farmers’ Market, Stash the Trash countywide cleanup, two tri-county community mini-grant programs and new cabins at 4-H’s Camp Sheppard.
In 1994, Burbank secured the community mini-grants program in the tri-county area of Roane, Jackson and Calhoun counties. In 1998, she coordinated a similar grant program to fund recreational programs. More than 1,100 people worked on the two programs, which received $273,000 in grant money. The mini-grants led to tangibles such as new picnic shelters, baseball fields and library books, and intangibles such as new working relationships.
Both legislators and private donors have heeded Burbank’s call to make infrastructure and capital improvements at Camp Sheppard. Since 1995, she has been instrumental in raising more than $700,000 for the community facility’s new cabins and a renovated dining hall.
In 2001, the Extension educator worked through Tri-County Partnership Inc. to receive grant money to organize a three-county cleanup called “Stash the Trash.” In five years, more than a million pounds of trash and recyclables have been collected in Roane County alone.
Other Burbank projects focus on downtown revitalization. She chaired the committee that developed the Heritage Days Festival, which observed its sixth year in August. She was successful in developing the Spencer Antique Mall, Arts and Collectibles, which opened in July 2005. The mall created three jobs, houses 42 vendors and boasts of nearly $140,000 in sales its first year.
Burbank and other community-based Extension faculty work on local issues with families, businesses and organizations through offices in each of the state’s 55 counties. WVU-ES’s four major program areas are 4-H Youth Development; Families and Health; Agriculture and Natural Resources; and Community, Economic and Workforce Development.
Information about WVU-ES programs is available on the Web (www.ext.wvu.edu).
The WVU Roane County Extension office is located at 110 Parking Plaza, Spencer.
—WVU-ES—
fsm 11/06
Last modified
December 13, 2006
Comments to: Extension Service Web
