Award honors decades of service to community
If there’s one thing Dianne Scoggins has learned from decades helping children in crisis, it’s to listen.
“Most of the time, they just want somebody to listen rather than sit back and say, you need to do this, that and the other,” she said.
Scoggins won Gilmer County’s Citizen of the Year award at the Gilmer Chamber of Commerce’s banquet Friday, Jan. 30 at First Baptist Church.
The award isn’t for someone who has done remarkable work this year. It’s for someone who has spent a lifetime bettering the community and helping others.
“My heart’s still full, and I just want to give God the glory and praise,” she said. “I love working with youth, which is what we’ve done since we’ve been here, for 60 years.”
As she received the award, Scoggins shed tears.
She has a long list of ways she has served Gilmer County children.
Scoggins has spent the last 30 years working with the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program. This program recruits volunteers to advocate for children in the foster care system.
For 23 years, she served as the director for CASA.
“I told Judge Brenda Weaver I’d give her two years,” Scoggins said. “And I was there for 22.”
She is a charter member and current vice chair for the Georgia Safe Harbor Commission for Sexually Exploited Children.
Scoggins helped create and fund the Kids Kottage, the Gilmer County visitation center for children. This center helps children and parents involved in the court system meet under supervision.
She chaired the task force for the Appalachian Children’s Center, which provides counseling and forensic services for families and abused children.
“The greatest resource we have are our youth,” Scoggins said.
Scoggins was charter president for the Gilmer-Fannin Mental Health Services from 1978 to 1985. She also organized the Christian Learning Center in Gilmer. Most recently, she started a mentoring program for Gilmer High School students and helped create a Gilmer College and Career Academy.
Scoggins is a member of Ellijay First Baptist Church, a Greater Gilmer Community Foundation Trustee, a Charter member and officer of the Gilmer County Optimist Club and GCOC Foundation officer.
She is a mother of two children and has succeeded in business.
Scoggins’s ability to listen and show interest in others is immediately obvious in conversation. And it’s necessary when working with suffering children.
Sometimes she will take several lunches with a child or teen getting to know them before she starts asking questions or giving advice.
“I think one of the most important things we can do is have more face-to-face contact.,” Scoggins said.
Previously, she has won Child Welfare Legislative Award in 1998 and the Appalachian Children’s Center’s Angel Award in 2016. In 2018, Speaker of the Georgia House David Ralston passed a House Resolution honoring her.
But it’s not awards that help people.
It’s paying attention to needs and taking action.
“It’s not about me,” Scoggins said. “It’s about service and making a difference in somebody else’s life.”