Dinah Rowe wins distinguished award for youth influence

Pictured L-R: University of Georgia College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences Dean Sam Pardue; Lindsay Bridges, Georgia EMC; Susan Goldman, Madison County Extension Agent; Kate Whiting, Peach County Extension Agent; Dinah Rowe, Heard County Extension Agent; Cheryl Poppell, Toombs County Extension Agent; and Gale Cutler and Dennis Chastain, Georgia EMC

(Tucker, GA) — Dinah Rowe of Heard County was recently awarded the William H. Booth Award (Northwest District), which recognizes the outstanding work of Georgia extension agents in the 4-H program.

The Booth Awards, sponsored by Georgia Electric Membership Corp., were presented July 26 in Atlanta at the Annual Georgia 4-H State Congress. Georgia 4-H’ers and county/ state faculty and staff were honored at a banquet held the final evening of the three-day event.

“Like Georgia 4-H, Georgia’s electric membership cooperatives have strong ties to communities all across the state,” said Georgia EMC Senior Public Relations Coordinator and Georgia 4-H Advisory Committee member Gale Cutler.

“EMCs share a long-lasting commitment to improve the communities they serve and join 4-H in placing a priority on developing young leaders. 4-H agents like Dinah Rowe are always helping children learn, achieve goals and earn awards. The Booth Award gives us a way to recognize excellence in a 4-H agent by turning the spotlight on the person who is typically behind the scenes.”

Rowe has worked as an extension agent for 13 years in Heard County, in addition to serving as the current vice president of Georgia Association of Extension 4-H Agents (GAE4-HA).

In her role as an agent, she has promoted healthy living on the district, state, and national levels as a member of Georgia’s Healthy Living Team; authored a lesson plan featured in “Health Rocks”; and co-instructed a “Cooking Matters” course.

Rowe has found many ways to give back to her community by coordinating and working local events from Farm City Breakfast to Heard County Back to School Bash.

“My role as a 4-H agent is to give youth the tools they need to cultivate their own gardens of knowledge,” says Rowe. “In showing children how to become responsible, I am equipping them with the tools needed to become successful in life, to believe in themselves and to love themselves.”

Extension agents from all four Georgia 4-H districts (Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest) are nominated by their peers for the Booth Award and must fill out a thorough application and go through an interview process.

The nominees are judged on their 4-H philosophy, professional achievements, 4-H and Extension program marketing efforts, volunteer training and recruiting and service. After this extensive process, the board awards an extension agent in each district and also awards a state winner.

The Booth Awards are named after rural electric pioneer and charter member of Jackson EMC William H. (Bill) Booth.

Booth not only helped start the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and Oglethorpe Power Corp. but was also the first to suggest that Georgia’s EMCs support Georgia 4-H and other youth events.

Georgia EMC is the statewide trade association representing the state’s 41 EMCs, Oglethorpe Power Corp., Georgia Transmission Corp. and Georgia System Operations Corp. Collectively, Georgia’s customer-owned EMCs provide electricity and related services to more than four million people, nearly half of Georgia’s population, across 73 percent of the state’s land area.