Wanting to formally thank not only volunteers and patrons for their support during the past year, but also coordinating partners, and legislators, a Holiday Open House was planned by agents. The event was envisioned as an occasion where the cooperative extension office opened our doors not only to our volunteers, patrons, and coordinating community partners, but to the public, in general, especially those to those who do not normally access our services.

The event started with spreading the word to all. Emails, postcards, flyers, save the dates and reminders via social media were created and sent/posted. The Holiday Open House flyer was in each program newsletter in advance of the event.

A festive, fun and friendly environment was created to welcome guests. Guests where given festive “Thank You” bags as soon as they walked in and were encouraged to take part in hands-on activities, such as wreath making, bird seed ornament creating, recipe demonstrations, and food tasting by each program area, along with sweets and punch offered. Displays with photos and literature made gathering information about cooperative extension programs easy.  Early on, our volunteers and regular clients came to support but as time went (especially lunch hour) many elected officials offices, public school staff, and others came to take part in the food, fun and activities.  One group from a local school said they wanted to come because they always wondered what type of things we did here at cooperative extension.  One particular participant and his family said it was the first time they had ever been to extension office but they were curious to see what we did.  That participant and his wife came to horticulture classes throughout the spring after that exposure.

It was agreed that the open house had been a one hundred percent success and it is planned to become a yearly event.