Volunteers

Each year, the Tennessee 4‑H program awards two outstanding individual volunteers through the 4‑H Salute to Excellence Award Program. These two award winners are simultaneously nominated for regional (U.S. Southern) and national consideration. The Outstanding Lifetime Volunteer Award is given to an individual who has spent 10 or more years as a 4‑H volunteer while the Volunteer of the Year Award is given to an individual who has volunteered for 4‑H less than 10 years.

Karen Smith has been named the 2023 Tennessee 4-H Salute to Excellence Volunteer of the Year.  Karen Smith, from Jefferson County, is the epitome of an exceptional 4-H volunteer.  Karen is currently the County 4-H Sewing Project Group volunteer leader and represents the Eastern Region of Tennessee on the 4-H VOLS State Committee.

Karen is active on the County, Regional, State and National level.  She is a very active leader with the Jefferson County 4-H Volunteer Committee. Karen participated in the 2022 National 4-H Volunteer Conference at Rock Eagle in Georgia; and was a co-coordinator for a subsequent State Workshop event that was held five months later.  The event was titled “Volunteer Jam,” and was organized to help bring back ideas from the National event to Tennessee.  Karen came up with the creative, fun name and the colorful graphic for publicity; and, helped to organize 12 volunteer-led workshops for this statewide event in Lebanon, TN.

Dee Wolters has been named the 2023 Tennessee 4-H Salute to Excellence Outstanding Lifetime Volunteer.  In addition, Dee has been named the U.S. Southern Region Winner by National 4-H Council. Dee Wolters has been the glue that has held many Maury County programs together. She leads the Homeschool/Community Club, helps facilitate and conduct Honor Club meetings, leads clubs in the public schools, and helps with nearly every county 4-H event offered.

Beyond volunteering within Maury County, Dee also serves on the State and National level.  As a Central Region representative on the 4-H VOLS State Committee, Dee helps to orchestrate, conduct, and evaluate many state-level 4-H activities. As a member of the Planning Committee for the National 4-H Volunteer Conference at Rock Eagle, Dee has helped conduct the event and has helped Tennessee to have the largest state delegations in 2021 and 2022.

Dee has also been a past recipient of the Tennessee 4-H Adult Volunteer Leader Award, Central Region Friend of 4-H, and attended National 4-H Congress as part of the official delegation.