WSTFA DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD Pt 1

WSTFA DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD Pt 1

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
From the Ag Information Network, this is today’s Fruit Grower Report. Several awards were handed out at last month’s Washington State Tree Fruit Association Annual Meeting.

This year’s recipient of the Distinguished Service Award was Leo Garcia of Cashmere …

GARCIA … “I’m honored to receive this award from the tree fruit industry. I have worked for the last, I don’t know, 38 years, probably longer, for the tree fruit industry.”

Originally from Mexico, Garcia moved here at the age of 19 and attended Washington State University …

GARCIA … “When I finished college, I wanted to work for the fruit industry in Washington, because my wife, her dad was a grower and she told me, you will be a fieldman one of these days. And I went, really, what do fieldmen do?”

But, Garcia says, as fate would have it …

GARCIA … “I did. I became a fieldman, and I saw firsthand big changes in the industry. You know that this new generation of farmworkers, a junior generation of supervisors and managers were Latino.”

That’s where Garcia’s language skills came in handy …

GARCIA … “I saw them speaking and many times I had to translate. And I was right then popular because I’m bilingual, bicultural and I know who these people are that work in the orchards because I grew up with them, yet I have the education.”

Tune in tomorrow for something Garcia quickly picked up on that turned out to be a big help for the tree fruit industry.

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