CCFB News» January 2023

We are coming off of a very successful year. Last weekend at the Illinois Farm Bureau Annual Meeting, Cook County Farm Bureau was recognized in a number of ways…

• Summit teacher, Eva Manzke, received Illinois Ag in the Classroom Teacher of the Year honors.
• Greg Stack was recognized by the Illinois Ag in the Classroom as a Volunteer of the Year.
• Will County Farm Bureau presented to Cook County Farm Bureau a Chief Illiniwek wall hanging to commemorate and memorialize the service of Tim Stuenkel.
• Cook County Farm Bureau volunteers met with Cook County legislators.
• Cook County Farm Bureau submitted substantial Policy Resolutions that were adopted by the IFB delegates and will be used across the state to strengthen rural-urban partnerships with individuals and groups.
• A podcast featuring Eva and Katrina was recorded for Illinois Farm Bureau Partners.
• The Cook County Farm Bureau Commodities/Marketing Team received an Activity of Excellence award for Farm Crawl for the Public.
• Cook County Farm Bureau received the Pinnacle Award for the large County Farm Bureau group, the highest County Farm Bureau award recognizing complete and well-rounded organizational excellence including goals/ objectives, planning, implementation and results.

Cook County Farm Bureau Pres., Janet McCabe, accepted on behalf of the Cook County Farm Bureau the Pinnacle Award from Illinois Farm Bureau Pres. Richard Guebert Jr.. The Pinnacle Award is the highest – level award given to the most outstanding County Farm Bureau in each membership group recognizing overall program excellence, planning, and implementation as they relate to the county Farm Bureau’s goals and priorities.	(L to R) Janet McCabe, Dan Biernacki and Gerry Kopping represented Cook County Farm Bureau as delegates during the Illinois Farm Bureau policy debate and approval process. A number of Cook County Farm Bureau generated policy resolutions were approved during the policy process on the delegate floor. See page 9 for an article regarding those Cook County Farm Bureau generated policies.
Cook County Farm Bureau Board member, Greg Stack, was recognized on stage at the Illinois Farm Bureau annual meeting as a Illinois Agriculture in the Classroom Volunteer of the Year for his work he did for the Ag Literacy Team programming this past year.	Eva Manzke received recognition from Illinois Farm Bureau Pres., Richard Guebert, Jr., as the Illinois Agriculture in the Classroom Teacher of the Year for her efforts to teach agriculture concepts in her classrooms and afterschool program in Summit. She will represent Illinois for the national teacher of the year competition.

Cook County Farm Bureau is well respected across the state. This is because of the energy, commitment and leadership provided by a tremendous group of volunteers on the Cook County Farm Bureau board and teams as well as the skilled staff of the organization.