LAKEPORT >> The Lake County Chapter of California Women for Agriculture (LCCWA) held its yearly Fall Social the evening of Dec. 4 at the Riviera Hills Restaurant.
Newly elected officers for 2015 inducted by Marilyn Holdenreid, a founding member of the local chapter, included incoming President Sharron Zoller; vice presidents Toni Scully and Diane Henderson, Recording Secretary Susie Kauffman, Corresponding Secretary Cheri Cunningham and Treasurer Paula Bryant.
Area representatives include Karen Hook for the Kelseyville region; Bonnie Sears for the Lakeport region; Colleen Rentsch for the Upper Lake area and Karen Jones for the south county region.
Lori McGuire and Rachel White oversee the production of the LCCWA newsletter and Sausha Racine heads the chapter”s scholarship committee. Rebecca Southwick is the chapter”s publicity chair and Terry Dereniuk provides community support for LCCWA.
Zoller honored Annette Hopkins, recipient of the Lake County Farm Bureau community service award, and Diane Henderson, recognized as the agriculture Star of Lake County, and LCCWA members for their outstanding contributions to Lake County agriculture.
Hopkins arrived in Lake County 15 years ago from Santa Cruz where she participated in “Agri Culture,” an established educational program with a 25 year history. In 2009, Hopkins approached LCCWA with a proposal for a program to provide information about agriculture”s influence on Lake County”s economy and culture by educating community leaders, local and state government officials and local influence makers in a four-day long interactive educational program.
The LCCWA board embraced the program, called AgVenture, and Hopkins lead the committee to create the educational series for the first two years. She was the LCCWA president from 2011 to 2013. Today, she remains active on the AgVenture committee and in CWA.
Henderson, from a fifth-generation Lake County farming family, farms the home orchard that her great-grandfather, Louis Henderson, planted in 1891. Henderson earned a bachelors degree from California State University, Chico and a masters in English from California State Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo. She taught in the Language Arts Department of Cuesta Community College for 12 years before returning to Lake County to farm.
Henderson is a pioneer of integrated pest management and sustainable farming practices. She served on the research committee of the California Pear Advisory Board for more than two decades and she currently serves on the board of directors for the California Pear Growers, the Lake County Farm Bureau and the LCCWA. As a featured speaker of the AgVenture program, her orchard is a favorite stop for the AgVenture class each year.
To learn more about the Lake County Chapter of California Women for Agriculture, visit www.lakecountycwa.org.
