Scott, general manager and program director at KCNN-AM radio in Grand Forks, started developing a very close working relationship with the Grand Forks County extension office in early April 1997 after the eighth blizzard of the season struck, causing widespread power outages in the Red River Valley. Margaret Tweten of the Grand Forks County staff provided food safety information on the radio. When the Grand Forks area was struck by major flooding later in April, KCNN was one of the few radio stations on the air and immediately switched to emergency mode, serving as "Recovery Radio" to help citizens. Margaret again contacted Scott at KCNN to ask about air time to provide flood recovery information. His immediate reply was, "What time works best?" Early in the recovery process Scott and KCNN gave the six local extension agents three hours of air time every day, seven days a week, to take calls from listeners and answer their flood recovery questions. Live programming was gradually reduced to just one hour per day as public needs were met. In all, KCNN provided about 70 hours of live time to Grand Forks County extension during the flood crisis. This level of time commitment is nearly unheard of in the broadcast industry, but Scott and KCNN recognized that the NDSU Extension Service had credible information needed by people trying to return to their homes and clean and disinfect their belongings.

Melana, director of patient care services at West River Regional Medical Center in Hettinger, has worked in a very positive way to bring the center's educational outreach closer to NDSU's extension education work. She supervises the nursing departments, nine clinics serving 18,000 square miles, home care services and various outpatient departments. Recognizing the role of extension education in health issues, she has supported extension in the legislature and has involved extension staff to prepare proposals that involve extension. These proposals have led to a great deal of leadership training in southwestern North Dakota. When Mary Whitmer of the Hettinger County extension staff retired, Melana began working on having the center create a half-time position to merge with extension's part-time position to create a full-time extension agent/health education position. She also represented extension at a planning grant meeting in Montana to help prepare a proposal for significant funding for rural health. She also serves on the Hettinger Research Extension Center advisory board.

Steve, a reporter and anchor for KXJB television in Fargo, was first introduced to the NDSU Extension Service as a 4-H member in the Minot area. This youthful interaction helped build a base for his future professional relationship with extension and NDSU. He has routinely used extension specialists and agents as sources for agricultural stories. He works with the communication unit and through his own associations with extension staff to cover such major stories as the drought of the late 1980s to the severe winter, flooding and crop disease epidemics of the 1990s. In 1989 Steve provided leadership in telling the story of extension's efforts in dealing with drought recovery through a series of half-hour shows called "Focus on North Dakota" that aired statewide on the KX Television Network. As a general assignment reporter, he also works with extension staff in areas other than agriculture, doing stories of interest to urban homeowners and items on family economics and nutrition. Steve believes in the educational mission of extension and in extension as a source of information for the public.