Congratulations to all the winners of our 2021 UF/IFAS Blogger Awards!!! With all of the amazing bloggers who are a part of the Blogs.IFAS community, it was not easy to pick the winners! Thank you to everyone who participated. Here are our winners in each category:

Most Impactful

This award recognizes a blog post that resonates with your community. This post may have inspired readers to action, informed readers on local projects or events, or answered a community question.

Winner: Ana Zangroniz

Post: What Goes Up Comes DOWN! Alternatives to Helium Balloons

While many written pieces address the detrimental outcomes of helium balloon releases, this piece by Ana Zangroniz takes it one step further and offers creative alternatives, prompting readers to change their behavior. This post encourages readers to embrace more sustainable approaches to celebrations and special events.

Quirkiest Story

This award recognizes a blog post that shares information that is little known or frames something known in a new perspective, often with an interesting title.

Winner: Dr. Bonnie Wells

Post: Unearthing the World of Cemetery Turf Care

This post provides unique insight into turf management in an area not often considered: cemetery turf care. Dr. Bonnie Wells knows about turf care, as most of her clientele belongs to the turf management industry, including cemetery groundskeepers. For Halloween, she was inspired by interactions with the groundskeeper at the National Cemetery in Mims to document how cemetery turf care compares with other sectors of the turfgrass management industry. Her post also includes interesting facts she learned along the way, including historical people laid to rest in Brevard County, as well as a local unsolved murder mystery.

Best Series

This award recognizes the time and effort involved in developing a blog series that will connect with readers.

Winners: Carol Wyatt-Evens, Mindy Hanak, Kevin O’Horan

Series: Edible Gardening QOTW

The posts in the Edible Gardening series provide solutions for the lives of community stakeholders. By developing content based on questions received at the Edible Gardening webinars, the series authors promoted collaboration and community at a time when it felt disrupted. This blog series is informative on its own and was enhanced by original video content, providing a searchable catalog reference for edible gardeners. The series is a collaboration between Carol Wyatt-Evens, Mindy Hanak, Kevin O’Horan, and previous UF/IFAS agent Sarah Bostick.

Freshness Award – Blogger

It takes time and effort to develop quality blog posts on a regular basis: this award recognizes that dedication.

Winner: Ralph Mitchell

Ralph Mitchell’s posts are informative, entertaining, and frequent! His writing style is fresh and engaging, making it fun to learn about new topics related to horticulture.

Freshness Award – Blog

Multiple bloggers posting on a regular basis makes for a great reader experience when visiting a blog, and this award recognizes this combined effort.

Winner: Escambia County

The agents at Escambia County have worked hard to develop quality blog posts—and they are posting with amazing frequency! Readers return to the Escambia County blog for the great content and new posts.

Freshness Award – District

Maintaining current blog posts takes a lot of effort, and for an entire District to be posting actively is quite an accomplishment! This award recognizes the District that has the most Counties actively posting.

Winner: Central District

The Central District of County Extension Offices wins this award for having all Counties in the District actively posting. Thank you to the following Counties: Flagler County, Hernando County, Lake County, Marion County, Orange County, Osceola County, Putnam County, Seminole County, St Johns County, Sumter County, and Volusia County.

Thank You to All Our Bloggers!

We want to thank all our bloggers—your contributions help improve the lives of Floridians and beyond!

Featured image by sergign – stock.adobe.com

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