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| | Front Row: Alvin G. Davis, Texas; Harold Darden, Ga.; Ellen Elliott, NAE4-HA; Ann Keene, La.; Florine Swanson, Iowa; Dalton Proctor, N.C.; Graham Wright, Ariz.. Back Row: Don Floyd, CEO 4-H Council; Larry Shaffer, Del.; Brevoort Conover, N.J.; Marcia McFarland, Kan.; Grant Schrum for Luke Schruben, 4-H Headquarters and National 4-H Council; Jim Douglas, Alaska; Dan Tabler, NAE4-HA; Mary Kay Munson, Ill.; Lester Spell Jr., Miss.; Earl McAlexander, NAE4-HA President; and Lisa Lauxman, 4-H Headquarters. Not in attendance: Wally Smith, Okla.. |
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News Release Distributed 09/14/10
TALLULAH, La. – Longtime 4-H volunteer Ann Keene, of Tallulah, La., will be inducted into the National 4-H Hall of Fame Oct. 8 in Washington, D.C.
Karol Osborne, the LSU AgCenter 4-H agent in Madison Parish, will accompany her to the ceremony.
Keene joined 4-H in the seventh grade in 1953 and continues to serve as an active 4-H volunteer, working in Madison Parish and the entire state.
Keene says she feels she would not have become the person she is today at age 67 without the support and encouragement of 4-H agents, extension personnel and especially the 4-H members. She has worked as a 4-H volunteer with more than 5,000 youth and 3,000 adults on parish, state, regional and national levels.
Keene became involved with the Louisiana 4-H Foundation in 1981, serving as board member or committee chair every year, including serving as chair for three years. She was selected for a two-year term as one of three trustees to serve on the national planning committee for a Kellogg Foundation grant to increase the fund development capacity of extension and 4-H foundations.
She has attended the Southern Region Volunteer Leadership Forum in Rock Eagle for 27 years, presenting workshops and serving on the regional planning committee. Keene is a charter member of the Louisiana 4-H Volunteer Leader’s Association and has served on the executive board and planning committees.
She presently serves as co-chair of the Louisiana Master Volunteer Initiative Task Force, realizing a career-long dream for a professional development training program in Louisiana.
In 2002, Keene was selected chair of the Louisiana 4-H advisory committee comprising 4-H members, 4-H agents, state and regional 4-H staff, legislators and 4-H volunteers to provide direction for the Louisiana 4-H program.
She has been awarded the Louisiana Attorney General’s Award as an outstanding 4-H volunteer.
For the past seven years, Keene has served as an assistant to the state livestock show manager in organizing and conducting the show every February. She has received the Louisiana 4-H Alumni Award and has been named Volunteer Leader of the Year by the Louisiana State Fair.
Keene realized 4-H’ers began dropping out in the seventh grade. Feeling Louisiana needed a special program for that group, she served on the first committee that developed 4-H Challenge Camp, a program for seventh graders that still exists today.
She has paid fees anonymously for youth to attend 4-H summer camp, Achievement Day, 4-H University and Challenge Camp.
Keene serves on the local Chamber of Commerce, Relay for Life Committee and Madison Voluntary Council on Aging and is a eucharistic minister, lector and choir member at her church.
She is married to C. L. Keene, a retired administrator of the Regional Support Enforcement Office. They have three children: Mary Kathryn Keene Book and C.W. Keene, of Tallulah, and Meg Keene Thomas, of Bossier City.
Mary Ann Van Osdell