:  Zoom Classroom showing students and staff on a 2020 Master Gardener Training Session

Zoom Classroom showing students and staff on a 2020 Master Gardener Training Session

Master Gardeners Continue to Work with the COVID-19 Restrictions

(June 2, 2020, Jamestown, NY ) – Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chautauqua County Master Gar-deners Program planned on holding the MG core volunteer training back in 2019 for the Spring of 2020. New volunteers once recruited, would undergo 38 hours of training under the direction of Cornell Uni-versity Cooperative Extension. Training was to start at JCC in April. The education committee chair-woman, Patricia Martonis was faced with postponement of the class due to the COVID-19 virus and the stay at home orders. She and the committee members met, and then said, “What about a video conference classroom?”. This distance learning had been tried for some Master Gardener training classes in Suffolk County back in 2018, but not the entire classroom training over a video conferencing Zoom meeting.

After some checking with Extension leadership at Cornell University, considering the extraordinarily unusual circumstances, the willingness of the candidates, and the approval of the CCE Executive Direc-tor, Emily Reynolds the committee was allowed to proceed with the training.

Starting in early May, video conferencing Zoom meetings were scheduled every Monday and Wednesday for the 38-hour core training program requirements. Happily, the master gardener candi-dates will be completing the classes at the end of June. After completion, the candidates will be re-quired to volunteer 50 hours of time on a gardening project or contributing gardening service to the community before becoming a full Master Gardener. About some of the difficulty encountered, Patri-cia said, “other than some of the logistics of meeting in smaller side groups for a few of the exercises, the Zoom programming has worked fairly well.”

The successful completion of these Master Gardeners in training and our current active Master Gar-deners volunteers will bring us to a full complement of 53 Master Gardeners supporting Chautauqua and Cattaraugus Counties. The Cornell Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners Program educate and serve the community gardens, and the public at large with research-based horticultural infor-mation. Our focus provides reliable fact-based gardening programming that shares best practice and train others in gardening techniques. Please call the CCE-Chautauqua office with any suggestions of gardening activities that will benefit the community, contact Emily Reynolds about the CCE-Master Gardener Volunteer Program at 716-664-9502 Ext. 201.

The Master Gardener Program is one of many programs offered by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chautauqua County (CCE-Chautauqua). CCE-Chautauqua is a subordinate governmental agency with an educational mission that operates under a form of organization and administration approved by Cornell University as agent for the State of New York. It is tax-exempt under section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The association is part of the national cooperative extension system, an edu-cational partnership between County, State, and Federal governments. As New York’s land grant uni-versity Cornell administers the system in this state. Each Cornell Cooperative Extension association is an independent employer that is governed by an elected Board of Directors with general oversight from Cornell. All associations work to meet the needs of the counties in which they are located as well as state and national goals. For more information, call 716-664-9502 or visit our website at www.cce.cornell.edu/chautauqua . Cornell University Cooperative Extension provides equal program and employment opportunities.

Last updated June 2, 2020