Virginia Cooperative Extension agents honored for Hurricane Helene response
The Virginia Agribusiness Council awarded agents from 21 Southwest Virginia counties with the 2025 Land Grant University Award.
The Virginia Agribusiness Council has recognized the dedicated service of Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) agents in the wake of Hurricane Helene with the 2025 Land Grant University Award. The award acknowledges agents from the 21 counties of Extension’s Southwest District for their extraordinary leadership and tireless efforts to help their communities recover help their communities recover from the hurricane’s devastation.
The recognition came as a surprise for the 450 people attending Virginia Cooperative Extension’s recent winter conference at the Inn at Virginia Tech.
Jim Riddell, a retired Extension leader and longtime agent, took the podium under the guise of sharing an account of Extension’s history. Instead, Riddell, who is also vice president of the Virginia Agribusiness Council’s board of directors, presented the agents with the Land Grant University Award.
“It’s been a terrible time for families, farmers, and your communities — but Virginia Cooperative Extension was there,” Riddell said. “You mounted an all-hands-on-deck effort to help. Your people, your farmers, your community — they will never, ever forget you for this. I’ve never been prouder to say I was an Extension agent.”
As he called the Southwest District agents to the stage to receive the award, the audience gave them a standing ovation. Grayson County Extension Agent Kevin Spurlin said he was overcome with emotion.
“The emotions came from knowing that the Southwest Virginia Extension agents responded to the crisis not for recognition, but because our communities needed us,” Spurlin said. “We were there helping our clients who are also our neighbors, family, and friends. We expended so much of ourselves over the last four months, and all of that came out during the awards presentation.”
Riddell then recognized Dan Goerlich, Extension’s associate director for economy, communities, and food, with a Land Grant University Award for his outstanding service to Virginia agribusiness. Goerlich was instrumental in supporting the hurricane response and in coordinating relief with agents and federal and state agencies.
“This award is a tremendous honor,” Goerlich said. “I consider it a testament to the dedication and hard work of our Extension agents, specialists, and staff, who live and work in service of all Virginians 365 days a year.”
Extension agents play a vital role in the recovery of Virginia’s agricultural communities — the backbone of the state’s largest private industry — in the days, weeks, and months following natural disasters. In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Extension agents agents worked quickly to assess more than $174 million in direct damages on 3,672 farms. Using those assessments, Virginia Tech agricultural economist John Bovay estimated that long-term losses to farmers, landowners, and businesses across the state could range between $416 million and $630 million.
Lee County Extension Agent Amy Byington worked with agricultural partners across the state to quickly establish the Southwest Virginia Agricultural Relief Program, which matched farmers in need with donations of hay, feed, and supplies. Agents set up 10 collection and distribution sites throughout the region, resulting in donations of hay, feed, fencing, and other supplies valued at over $500,000.
Byington said extensive flooding and wind damage that hit the region again in mid-February has only protracted the recovery of many farmers still reeling from Helene. Four months after Helene, agents in Southwest Virginia and across the state are conducting a new round of damage assessments in response to widespread impacts of current winter weather and flooding, and working to assist their landowners and communities.
“I am proud that we advocated for farmers and helped them get the resources they needed,” she said. “I’m probably most proud that Extension agents took the time to listen to and make sure that farmers didn’t feel like they were alone. Sometimes the only thing we could do for them was listen and I could see how much that meant to many.”
