Before there were Master Gardeners in the state, Betty was a member of the Orange County Horticulture Committee with the Texas Extension Service, now Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. The organization hosted talks and workshops to promote horticulture activity and education in the Orange County. Betty was here when the Orange County Master Gardener Association was organized. She completed training in 1997.
Since then, Betty has been a volunteer in every project imaginable. She served the chapter as Volunteer Hours Chair for several years, keeping track of everyone’s time with paper forms and inputting the hours on a spreadsheet, in the “olden times” before the Volunteer Management System came to be. She also served as Secretary and later filled in when various Secretaries were absent. Betty grew trailer loads of plants to contribute to our plant sales. She shared many cuttings or babies from her plants, along with her extensive horticultural knowledge with everyone she met.
This year Betty found it necessary to resign as an active member because of her health and illness in her family. Because of her life-long devotion to fostering horticulture in Orange County we feel Betty Patten deserves the honor of Emeritus Master Gardener