{"id":12082,"date":"2025-09-03T08:59:53","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T13:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/?p=12082"},"modified":"2025-09-03T08:59:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T13:59:53","slug":"boone-county-extension-dinner-creates-connections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/2025\/09\/03\/boone-county-extension-dinner-creates-connections\/","title":{"rendered":"Boone County Extension dinner creates connections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Town-and-Country-2-scaled-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1321\" src=\"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Town-and-Country-2-scaled-1.png\" alt=\"Jeff Branch addresses attendees.\" class=\"wp-image-12084\" style=\"width:350px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Town-and-Country-2-scaled-1.png 2560w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Town-and-Country-2-scaled-1-300x155.png 300w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Town-and-Country-2-scaled-1-1024x528.png 1024w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Town-and-Country-2-scaled-1-768x396.png 768w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Town-and-Country-2-scaled-1-1536x793.png 1536w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Town-and-Country-2-scaled-1-2048x1057.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Jeff Branch addresses attendees.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Last week, I enjoyed attending the 65th Town and Country Dinner hosted by MU Extension in Boone County at the Jeff Branch Farm in Ashland. This annual tradition brought together around 170 attendees, ranging from families and local leaders to state legislators and Extension representatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Founded as a way for rural residents to thank businesses that support the county fair, the dinner has evolved into an important opportunity to connect urban residents with Boone County\u2019s agricultural heritage \u2013 which remains one of the county\u2019s largest industries. This year\u2019s guests included MU deans, Extension administrators, Boone County Presiding Commissioner Kip Kendrick, Boone County District II Commissioner Janet Thompson, state Rep. Kathy Steinhoff, state Rep. John Martin, state Sen. Stephen Webber and staff from Congressman Bob Onder\u2019s office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Town-and-Country-1-scaled-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1148\" src=\"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Town-and-Country-1-scaled-1.png\" alt=\"Attendees at the Town and Country Dinner\" class=\"wp-image-12083\" style=\"width:350px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Town-and-Country-1-scaled-1.png 2560w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Town-and-Country-1-scaled-1-300x135.png 300w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Town-and-Country-1-scaled-1-1024x459.png 1024w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Town-and-Country-1-scaled-1-768x344.png 768w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Town-and-Country-1-scaled-1-1536x689.png 1536w, https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Town-and-Country-1-scaled-1-2048x918.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It was a memorable evening that celebrated the transformative work of Extension, Missouri 4-H and the many volunteers who make a difference across the county and around the state. I appreciated the chance to recognize MU Extension\u2019s impact and to celebrate the strong connections it continues to build throughout our community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2014 Mun<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, I enjoyed attending the 65th Town and Country Dinner hosted by MU Extension in Boone County at the Jeff Branch Farm in Ashland. This annual tradition brought together around 170 attendees, ranging from families and local leaders to state legislators and Extension representatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12082\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/president.missouri.edu\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}