BRYAN — David Rodriguez, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agent for horticulture in Bexar County, has received a Superior Service Award in the agency’s county agent category.

Superior Service Awards recognize AgriLife Extension faculty and staff members who provide outstanding performance in Extension education or other outstanding service to the organization and to Texans. The award was presented Jan. 12 during the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Conference awards dinner at the Brazos Expo Center in Bryan.

Rodriguez has served as the horticulture agent in Bexar County since 2006, after working professionally in the commercial nursery industry in the San Antonio area for over 10 years.

According to the award nomination, Rodriguez built a program to address the needs of the green industry as well as youth and adult education. He has worked closely with the Texas Nursery and Landscape Association and the Coordinated Extension Marketing Assistance Program to bring plants, including Texas Superstars, to commercial nurseries. He also coordinates various educational programs for the nursery industry and for area youth and adults.

In providing oversight for the Bexar County Master Gardener program, since 2010 Rodriguez has trained 332 Master Gardeners and currently coordinates 410 Master Gardeners who have presented 810 programs reaching 20,364 area residents. In the past five years, these Master Gardener volunteers have submitted 156,634 hours with an in-kind value of over $3.6 million.  In Master Gardener specialist trainings since 2010, he has trained 132 people from 46 counties.

As Extension committee chair for planning and implementation of the Texas Experience exhibit for the San Antonio Livestock Show and Rodeo, Rodriguez oversees dozens of volunteers and helps provide educational outreach to 135,000-165,000 visitors to this 18-day event. He also oversees sales of plants and the popular rodeo tomato offered annually.

“Our annual participation in the San Antonio Livestock Exposition and Rodeo would be extremely difficult without David’s help,” said Barbara Lutz, Bexar County Master Gardener president. “Months before the rodeo dates, he determines how many plants we will need for our many exhibits and for our plant sale.”

Rodriguez also provides training programs to teach adult leaders how to plan, build and maintain a classroom garden for their students. In addition to the trainings, the Youth Gardens Program assists all classroom garden leaders who attended the trainings with seeds, plant material and fertilizer. In 2014 alone, the Classroom Gardens effort of this program trained 242 adult classroom garden leaders representing 124 different schools during its spring, summer, and fall educator trainings.

According to the nomination, the “crown jewel” in Rodriguez’s efforts is the Children’s Garden at the San Antonio Botanical Garden. The program, which is held in the spring and fall, not only teaches life skills, but also encourages gardening, the consumption of fresh vegetables, the benefits of outdoor exercise and the importance of making healthy lifestyle choices.

Rodriguez has also promoted horticulture through his weekly garden talk show on WOAI Radio, newspaper columns and articles, as well as through the Bexar County Youth Gardens Program Facebook and the Bexar County Youth Gardens Blog.

Over the past five years, he also generated more than $440,000 in funding from various sources, as well as garnering another $230,000 worth of in-kind plant materials. Additionally, since 2012 he has conducted 56 fee-based programs with a total registration of 1,655 individuals, resulting in a total cost recovery of almost $24,000.

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