Last week at the Clemson Extension Spotlight on Agriculture Dinner, Connie Daniels was recognized as the Horticulturalist of the Year. Bryan Smith presented the award and highlighted some of the recipient's accomplishments. We were lucky enough to get a copy and will share some of this information here:
This year’s Horticulturalist of the year is Connie Daniels, a transplant from the corn belt state of Iowa, where you only needed to stick a seed in the ground to make a plant grow. She says it was quite a shock for her to find an absence of topsoil in South Carolina. She really wanted to learn about the soil and how to make plants grow. At one time, in desperation, she attended a lecture entitled “Learning to Love Red Clay”. In 2012 she enrolled in the Master Gardener course and became a certified Master Gardener in 2013.
Connie has been an active member in the Master Gardener Association and has held the positions of President, Vice-President, Acting Treasurer, Program Chair, Web Master, and Administrator of the Facebook Page.
Her accomplishments include:
-Spearheading the establishment of the 501 c3 non-profit status for the Laurens County Master Gardener Association.
-Enlisting the Master Gardeners’ participation in Team Ecology, an educational program for all 3rd grade public school students in Districts 55 and 56. The program is focused on resource conservation and recycling and is sponsored by the Laurens County Soil & Water Conservation District and the Laurens County Chamber of Commerce.
Through the years Connie has remained a ready volunteer in all activities and programs of the Laurens County master Gardener Association as well as being an advocate of the Clemson Extension Master Gardener course. She recommends the course for everyone who wants to grow anything in the Upstate of South Carolina. She feels it’s a real eye-opener!