At our 69th Annual Meeting in February, we kicked off a County-Wide Collection of Bottled Water for Flint, Michigan. For two month we held meetings, sat in front of local stores on the weekends, published news articles on water quality in the local newspaper, and publicized our efforts on the local radio stations. With the help of Tierney Warehouse, we were able to store the water until it could be shipped up to Michigan. They generously put the packages of water on pallets and shrunk-wrap the bottles so they would stay in place while being shipped. Cole Hardwood and Troy Sparks Trucking donated time and gas to deliver the water to Flint, Michigan on May 18, 2016. Cass County Soil & Water had collected enough bottled water to fill two semi-truck loads to help the people of Flint, Michigan.
We had a booth at the Cass County 4-H Fair in July with a theme of water. We built a 4-foot x 8-foot mechanical aquarium with moving fish. We also had a place where people could take their pictures with fish. Information on water quality was handed out. The booth drew quite a crowd of people wanting to take pictures on their phones with the fish.
In August, we worked jointly with other SWCD’s to be a part of the Tri-Green Tractor Show in Kokomo, where we all contributed information on Cover Crops. Then in September, we sponsored a Cover Crop Meeting near Walton, with 60 people being present.