Retired engineer Lois Caron’s lifelong thirst for knowledge led her to the University of Missouri Extension office where she often bent the ear of MU Extension horticulturist Donna Aufdenberg.
“She was a lifelong learner,” says Aufdenberg. “We had something that she wanted. We had knowledge, and she wanted that knowledge.”
Caron, who held numerous patents, wanted to learn to grow her own food as part of her effort to be self-sufficient in her retirement. She found a comfortable place in Aufdenberg’s extension office. It was a place where she could share her own challenges and how she worked to lessen the struggles of others.
The random office chats on gardening, recycling, solar energy and helping the less fortunate led to an unlikely bond. “MU Extension brings different people from different walks of life together,” Aufdenberg says.
Aufdenberg’s love of horticulture extends beyond the work walls. Each year, she spends countless dollars of her own money to grow and donate bedding plants to nine community gardens, MU Master Gardeners, 4-H and church gardens and youth groups in four southeast Missouri counties.
Master Gardeners and 4-H members in Cape Girardeau County help Aufdenberg by giving their time to help grow and distribute over 250 flats and 550 pots of vegetable and flower plants. The demand for vegetable plants continues to grow as retail produce prices and food insecurity rises.
“It combines my personal passion with my 21-year Extension career,” she says.
Upon her death, Caron left Aufdenberg with a small inheritance to carry on her work in the community she serves.
Source: missouri.edu
Categories: Missouri, Crops, Fruits and Vegetables, Rural Lifestyle