Service Award: Cheryl Cheadle, 15 Years

OCC Chairman George Stunkard and Executive Director Mike Thralls joined by Governor's Liaison Jeanette Nance presented Blue Thumb Coordinator Cheryl Cheadle with a certificate acknowledging Cheadle's 15 years of service to the Conservation Commission. In the photo above, from left, are George Stunkard, Cheryl Cheadle, Jeanette Nance and Mike Thralls.

At the March meeting of the Oklahoma Conservation Commission, OCC Blue Thumb Coordinator received a certificate acknowledging her 15 years of service to the Conservation Commission and the state of Oklahoma.

"Cheryl Cheadle is an outstanding example of a conservation district employee who, through her work with Commission programs at the district level, found employment at the Commission in the Water Quality Division," said Dan Butler, Water Quality Division director.

Cheryl started work in the conservation family as a district manager for the Tulsa County Conservation District where she was hired to run the Tulsa County Blue Thumb program in 1991. During her tenure as district manager, in addition to all of the normal duties of that position, she built and administered a large volunteer monitoring program, the Blue Thumb Program, from the ground up. "To this day, Cheryl feels a very close tie to districts," Butler said.

When the WQ Division decided to expand the Blue Thumb program to a statewide program, Cheryl was a natural to oversee it. Since then, in addition to volunteer monitoring, Blue Thumb has grown to include various producer education themes, including no-till and proper forestry practices to protect water quality, educational displays at legislative days and similar events, and a host of other themes.

"Cheryl is indeed a star of the WQ Division," Butler said.