The Muskogee County MasterGardener Program is providedby the Muskogee County OSUExtension Office as part of astatewide program for consumerhorticulture education and vol-unteerism.

The program includes bothclassroom and hands-on learningcomponents. The initial 10-weekcourse consists of classroom les-sons once a week taught by exten-sion specialists and extension as-sistance from Oklahoma StateUniversity in Stillwater. Classesare held on Thursdays at thecounty extension office at theMuskogee County Fairgrounds.

Students learn everythingabout the basics of gardening.Topics covered include flower bedcare, gardening, insect and dis-ease control, landscaping, andlawn care. Fruit and nut produc-

tion, pruning, soil improvement,tree fruit production, tree plant-ing, house plants, herbs, and oth-er horticulture care complete the

course. The courseis capped with acomprehensive ex-am of the materialcovered. ExtensionAgent MandyBlocker says themost popular top-ic is growing veg-etables with Dr.Brandenberger,and the most en-tertaining class isentomology taughtby Dr. Erik Re-beck. Meeting the

experts who work behind thescenes with county extensionagents across the state providesa greater awareness of the vast

range of knowledge and resourcesavailable from the MuskogeeCounty Extension Office.

After the 10-week course, stu-dents participate in a volunteerinternship program, coordinatedby Blocker. To earn the title ofmaster gardener, participants arerequired to give 50 hours of assis-tance to Muskogee County OSUExtension and the communitywithin a year of completing theirclassroom work. In subsequentyears, master gardeners mustcomplete 20 volunteer hours and20 hours of continuing educationat conferences and workshops in-cluding those offered by the ex-tension service.

Extension assistance includesanswering horticulture relatedquestions and making presenta-tions to community groups. Vol-unteers also work in the commu-

nity at the Honor Heights ParkPapilion and Chandler Commu-nity Garden. At the Papilion, theyhelp with planting and maintain-ing the demonstration plots andvolunteer during special eventsunder the direction of KathyCoburn, Papilion manager andmaster gardener. Volunteers atChandler Community Gardenare working to beautify the areasaround the garden plots and out-side the garden fence with na-tive perennials under the direc-tion of Jon Stoodley, master gar-dener.

Thirty-five master gardenersgraduated from the last twoclasses, and 25 are now activelyvolunteering. A fall 2014 class isplanned for October through De-cember. The classes are open toanyone with a high school diplo-ma or equivalent who has a gen-

uine interest in horticulture andenjoys sharing knowledge withothers through volunteerism.Blocker notes that her favoritepart of the program is seeing peo-ple from all walks of life developfriendships by learning togetherand working side by side to applywhat they’ve learned in the com-munity.

Anyone interested in partici-pating in the fall class can stop bythe Muskogee Farmers’ Marketon Wednesday or Saturday orcontact Mandy Blocker at (918)686-7200 or mandy.blocker@ok-state.edu for information aboutregistration and fees. Those whosign up will receive informationin the mail and will be contactedto schedule an interview.

Reach Rebecca Walkup at (918)683-4600 or rwalkup@nbn-nrc.org.

Muskogee Phoenix Sunday, May 11, 2014 Section A, Page 9Local/State

Two men convicted inMuskogee County who areserving life sentences andone who is serving 70 yearswill be considered for pa-role.

• Sean Lamont Wright,42, is serving life for rob-bery with a firearm. Hissentence be-gan in Sep-tember 1991.Wright wasconvicted ofrobbing ateenager of agold chain in1990. Whenhe was given a suspendedlife sentence, then-DistrictJudge Jim Edmondson toldhim that if he ran afoul ofthe law again, he wouldserve his time. In June1991, Wright was convictedin Okmulgee County of ad-ditional felonies and sen-

tenced to three years inprison. In February 1992,Edmondson ordered him toserve his life sentence inprison.

• Donald Lee Robertson,43, is serving 70 years forfirst-degreerape. Hissentence be-gan in May1992. Robert-son was con-victed of rap-ing a 10-year-old girlin 1991. In December 1991,he pleaded guilty and wasgive a two-year suspendedsentence. But Drew Ed-mondson, district attorneyat the time, had that sen-tence overturned. Robert-son withdrew his plea, andstood trial. The victim andher family moved to anoth-er state. The girl required

surgery to correct injuriessustained from the rapeand treatment for a venere-al disease.

• Andre L. Traylor, 35, isserving two consecutive lifesentences — one for drugsand one for first-degreemurder. Hissentence onthe murdercharge beganin 1996.Traylorpleadedguilty in De-cember 1996to shooting to death 1-year-old James Boykins Jr. onThanksgiving Day 1995.The shooting was in retali-ation for the slaying ofMichael Billings, 22, whowas fatally shot the previ-ous day. Traylor testifiedwhen he fired into theBoykins’ home, he was try-

ing to shoot James BoykinsSr., the baby’s father. Tray-lor was sentenced to life inprison for a previous drugconviction. He was on pro-bation at the time of the fa-tal shooting.

The Oklahoma Pardonand Parole Board will meetMonday through Wednes-day at the Kate BarnardCommunity CorrectionsCenter, 3300 N. MartinLuther King Ave. in Okla-homa City.

Victims or victims’ rep-resentatives may testify be-fore the board makes a de-cision.

Video conferencing isused to conduct personalappearance hearings. A vic-tim or victim representa-tive who wishes to appearat a parole board hearingcan notify the Pardon andParole Board.

Information: Pardon andParole Board, First Nation-al Center, 120 N. RobinsonAve., Suite 900W, Okla-homa City OK 73102 or call(405) 602-5863.

Muskogee County• DuVALL, Joel L. As-

sault. Five years. Sentencebegan October 2013.

• GANN, Stormy S. As-sault and battery with dan-gerous weapon. 10 years.Sentence began July 2011.

• McCOG, Dean K. In-timidation of a witness. 10years. Sentence began Sep-tember 2011.

• PATTERSON, Floyd R.III. Eluding police officer.20 years. Sentence beganJanuary 2006.

• ROBERTSON, DonaldL. First-degree rape. 70years. Sentence began May1992.

• TRAYLOR, Andre L.Unlawful possession of nar-cotic with intent to distrib-ute. Life. Sentence beganMarch 1996.

• WRIGHT, Sean L. Rob-bery with firearm. Life.Sentence began September1991.

McIntosh County• JONES, Myricco A.

First-degree burglary. Sev-en years. Sentence beganJune 2010.

• OLIVER, Johnnie L.Trafficking in illegal drugs.12 years and six-months.Sentence began August2007.

Wagoner County• RAMOS, Eleazar L.

Possession of controlled sub-stance. Five years. Sentencebegan September 2013.

Three Muskogee County convicts among parole hopefuls

Wright

RobertsonTraylor

Master Gardener Program sprouts volunteers

A new program is de-signed to promote healtheducation to pregnantwomen and new momsthrough the Text4baby ini-tiative, according to a me-dia release.

The Oklahoma State De-partment of Health, Okla-homa Health Care Author-ity, and more than 20 part-ners are working toimprove birth outcomesand prevent infant mortal-ity in Oklahoma.

Text4baby is a free textmessaging service providinginformation on a broadrange of topics critical to ma-ternal and child health, in-cluding vaccination, breast-feeding, smoking cessation,safe sleep, the importance offull-term delivery (at least40 weeks), and more.

Text4baby has evolved toinclude interactive appoint-ment and immunization re-minders, educational videos,urgent health alerts ontime-sensitive issues such

as product recalls and natu-ral disasters, and links toOklahoma-specific health-related services. Sincelaunching, Text4baby hasenrolled more than 688,000moms nationwide and near-ly 14,000 Oklahoma moms.

To sign up for Text4ba-by, text the word “BABY”(“BEBE” for Spanish) to511411 from a cell phoneor register online atwww.text4baby.org. Text4baby’s annual state enroll-ment contest kicks off to-day. Participants will re-ceive FREE text messagesuntil the baby is 1 year old.Individuals will not becharged for text messagesthrough this program.

To learn more aboutText4baby, visit www.text4baby.org. For informa-tion about the “Preparingfor a Lifetime, It’s Every-one’s Responsibility” initia-tive, visit http://iio.health.ok.gov or call (405) 271-4480.

RebeccaWalkup

NonprofitBuzz

Baby health programuses text messages

Meigs Jewelry of Tahle-quah was named the Down-town Business of the Yearat the 25th annual MainStreet Awards Banquet, amedia release states.

The Oklahoma Main

Street Center announcedthe winners in 20 competi-tive award categories at thebanquet May 6 at the Na-tional Cowboy and WesternHeritage Museum in Okla-homa City.

Tahlequah store wins award