Calif. women in agriculture honored

CHICO, Calif. — Four Northern California women will be honored for their extraordinary contributions to agriculture and their communities during the 2017 Common Threads North Award dinner to be held at Butte Creek Country Club on April 19, 2017.

All recipients have deep roots in agriculture, and each has demonstrated a history of service to agriculture and her community through volunteerism and philanthropy.

Receiving awards will be Diane Avrit of Butte County, Linda Borror of Tehama County, Kelly Mora of Tehama County and Nicole Van Vleck of Sutter County.

The event will be held at Butte Creek Country Club on Wednesday, April 19, 2017, beginning with a reception at 5 p.m. followed by dinner and awards at 6 p.m. Tickets are $55 each. For tickets, contact the Butte Agriculture Foundation at 530-533-1473.

Common Threads is cosponsored by the California Agricultural Leadership Foundation, California Women in Agriculture, the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom, Center for Land-Based Learning, nine county Farm Bureaus, several resource conservation districts, California State University, Chico and University of California, Davis.

The Recipients:

Diane Avrit

Diane Avrit is known throughout the Butte County Agriculture community for her selfless service, leadership and dedication. As an active member of the Butte County CattleWomen for more than 40 years and a 4-H leader for some 25 years, Avrit delivers and promotes Ag in the Classroom, volunteers at agricultural functions and, together with her family, built a successful insurance agency that regularly supports community events and activities. Avrit and her husband, Stan, bred and raised polled Hereford cattle throughout their marriage, and they now farm walnuts in their retirement.

Linda Borror

Linda Borror is a voice for agriculture through her involvement in the Tehama County CattleWomen, Tehama County 4-H and the Presbyterian Church. She is also known as the voice and the face at Tehama Angus Ranch (TAR). Most recently, Borror served as the Tehama County CattleWomen President for the past two years. One of her proudest moments was getting the CattleWomen back in the classroom in celebration of Earth Day and to educate children about all of beef’s benefits.

Kelly Mora

As owner of Heritage Ag Insurance Agency alongside her husband Steve, Kelly Mora feels a sense of responsibility to give back to the community that supports her family and livelihood. She has chaired the Capay Volunteer Fire Department’s annual fundraiser dinner dessert table for 20 years. She is a leader in the North Valley Chapter of the California Women for Agriculture (CWA), volunteering for school and community outreach, the Glenn County Fair Heritage Foundation, California Nut Festival, Farm City Celebration Harvest Festival and End of Frost Dinner. Kelly is an active AGvocate on social media and uses her voice as an administrator for the Heritage Ag Insurance, NVCWA and Glenn County Fair Heritage Foundation Facebook pages to promote a positive image of farming and share local agriculture events.

Nicole Van Vleck

Nicole Van Vleck is the president and CEO of Montna Farms, a vertically integrated, family-owned rice operation owned and operated by Van Vleck, her sister, Michelle Vogt, and her parents, Al and Gail Montna. Montna Farms also is a partner in American Commodity Company (ACC), and Van Vleck serves on the ACC board. She has served on the California Rice Commission (CRC) as a director since 2000 and chair of the California Rice Producers Committee for the last four years. Van Vleck has also been an active member in the CRC’s communications committee, blogging and participating in videos to enhance the public’s understanding of rice farming and connected resources. She also sits on the Board of USA Rice Farmers. As a board member of the Northern California Water Association and the chair of the organization’s communication committee, she volunteers countless hours to maintaining Northern California’s water rights and advancing solutions to the state’s water needs for agriculture, our communities and the environment. She also serves as an officer for two local water districts.

Van Vleck was the former chair of the State Fair Ag Advisory Board. She serves on the boards of River Valley Community Bank and the UC Davis’ College of Ag Advisory Board. She invests time and resources with Sacramento County Fair’s Livestock Auction and Sacramento Country Day School. She and her husband, Stan, have two high school children, Christian and Tori, who are currently keeping them busy with tennis, baseball, volleyball and market lambs.

—CSU, Chico College of Agriculture
Center for Land-Based Learning

For more articles out of California, click here.