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USDA grant benefits rural Pennsylvanians
	The Creating Health initiative has been awarded a $365,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utility Service.   “The grant will provide computers and other communications equipment to Penn State Cooperative Extension agents in 31 of the most rural and economically disadvantaged counties in Pennsylvania,” said Ted Krichels, assistant vice president for outreach and general manager of Penn State Public Broadcasting. “The extension agents will use the equipment and Creating Health materials generated by the Penn State units involved in the project to work with local community groups.”   When the new equipment is in place, Penn State Public Broadcasting will be able to broadcast materials to the Cooperative Extension offices in the 31 counties using digital television technologies. Extension agents will then be able to transfer the broadcast materials to laptop computers to use in community activities and presentations.   “Each Cooperative Extension office will receive a multimedia laptop computer, a desktop computer and a portable video projector,” Krichels noted.   “Access to high-bandwidth Internet service is limited in many areas of rural Pennsylvania,” Dr. Theodore R. Alter, associate vice president for outreach, director of Cooperative Extension and associate dean in the College of Agricultural Sciences, said. “This equipment permits high-bandwidth services without high-bandwidth connections.”   Osteoporosis and Bone Health aired on public television stations WPSX-TV and WITF-TV in 2001 and 2002. The second program in the series focuses on diabetes.   “Creating Health is an extraordinary example of University-wide cooperation and collaboration to share the University’s expertise and resources to solve a societal problem,” Alter said. “Eventually, we want to link all 67 county Cooperative Extension offices in Pennsylvania to Penn State through high-bandwidth connections.”
© 2002 Outreach Communications,   Outreach & Cooperative Extension,   The Pennsylvania State University phone: (814) 865-8108,   fax: (814) 863-2765,   e-mail: outreachnews@outreach.psu.edu