Master gardeners meet for awards banquet

MILTON — The Santa Rosa County Master Gardeners program, a department of the University of Florida Institute of Agricultural Sciences, UF/IFAS Extension Dec. 12 held its annual awards banquet.

Area master gardeners who attended received awards for years of service, volunteer service hours accumulated and other individual awards. The highlight of the event was the presentation of the President's Lifetime Achievement Award given to master gardeners who have reached 4,000 hours of volunteer service. This year the awards went to Michael Burba, Patricia Fandt and Norene Gideon.

According to their website, UF/IFAS Extension was established by the Smith-Lever Act of 1914. It is a partnership between state land grant universities, the United States Department of Agriculture and the county governments throughout the nation. All of these groups share in the planning, financing, and operation of extension programs. In Florida, the Cooperative Extension Service is administered by the University of Florida.

Extension Agents, located in every county, are the bridge between specialists on the University campus and area residents. The Extension Staff develop and coordinate educational programs in the fields of agriculture; 4-H, family & consumer sciences; horticulture and marine science.

All Florida Master Gardeners are volunteers, trained and certified by the University of Florida Institute of Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Cooperative Extension Service, to assist Extension Agents in disseminating residential horticultural information to the residents of Florida. For more information contact the local extension office at 850-623-3868.

This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Master gardeners meet for awards banquet