Smith County Master Gardeners Earn Awards
At the Texas Master Gardener Conference, held last week in Conroe, the Smith County Master Gardener Association received several awards from their peers for their outstanding volunteer and educational programming for 2007.
The Smith County Master Gardener Association received first place in the Graphics Presentation category for a PowerPoint presentation on “Bulbs for Northeast Texas,’’ which was shown during the 2007 Fall Garden Conference and Bulb Sale.
Other awards included: second place in the Mass Media category for the Smith County Master Gardener Web site (ht-tp://scmg.tamu.edu); second place in the Publication category for the Butterfly Gardening brochure used in the IDEA Garden and for other events; third place in the Project category for the Tyler Rose Garden Docent program and third place award in the Association category for overall excellence in programming.
Nine Smith County Master Gardeners joined the 700 attendants at this annual conference where they received advanced training in a wide range of subjects, plus getting an opportunity to see what other Master Gardeners are successfully doing in their counties.
Currently there are 138 certified Texas Master Gardeners in Smith County, along with 17 interns. In Texas, there are 115 counties with Master Gardener programs, where volunteers are trained in a wide range of horticulture topics in exchanged for service in their counties by providing educational programs and information in gardening to the adults and youth in their counties. The Master Gardener program is a volunteer program of the Texas AgriLife Extension Service.
Based on the Independent Sector’s dollar valuation of $19.51 for a trained volunteer’s time, Smith County Master Gardeners volunteer time in 2007 of 10,000 hours, in over 20 different educational projects and programs, equates to $195,100 benefit to Smith County.
The next volunteer training in Smith County will be in January, 2009, with applications accepted beginning this fall. For more information call 903-590-2980. Residents of other counties should contact their respective county Extension offices.
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