Carla Boutin has always had a heart for people and helps wherever she can.

“That’s what insurance is, basically just helping people,” said Boutin.

Originally from Blue Ridge, Boutin says she feels at home in the north Georgia mountains and loves being active in the community.

“Dawson County has been great as far as to open their arms and welcome me and make me feel a part,” said Boutin.

She attended what was then North Georgia College and State University in Dahlonega with a basketball scholarship and received her degree in education. She spent three years teaching health and physical education at Fannin County Middle School and coached basketball and softball for the high school.

In 1993, she led her basketball team to their first state championship. Boutin was inducted into the Fannin County High School’s Hall of Fame in 2014 both as a player and coach.

Though she was passionate about education and sports, Boutin began thinking it wasn’t the path for her.

“I decided I just wasn’t really sure that’s where my true calling was going to be forever,” she said.

Boutin took a job at an insurance agency in Jasper, began working with State Farm in 1995, and hasn’t looked back.

Getting into insurance is what Boutin describes as “kind of an accident.”

“It ended up being the best decision of my life,” she said.

In 2003 Boutin gladly accepted the offer to open her own State Farm office in Dawson County. For the past 15 years, she has been very active in promoting business and doing what she can to give back to the community.

Boutin served as the Dawson County Rotary Club president from 2012-2013 and was the board chairman of the Dawson County Chamber of Commerce from 2015-2016. In March 2017, she was awarded the Chairman’s Award at the 26th annual Chamber of Commerce gala. She is also a charter member of the Dawsonville Civitan Club.

“Being involved in a community was important to me because I wanted to give back,” she said.

Boutin has been a member of the Rotary Club since 2003 and has been active with the club’s many fundraisers. She is a Will Watt Fellow with the Rotary and is passionate about the Georgia Rotary Student Program.

This year, Boutin is getting out of her comfort zone and expanding her community involvement by becoming a board member at the Bowen Center for the Arts.

Boutin wants to be able to help support the arts and education in the area because she believes the arts are an important component to education. Since she comes from a background in education, she feels passionate about helping the Bowen in any capacity she can.

Although a member of Free Chapel in Gainesville since college, Boutin enjoys helping local churches by supporting their fundraisers. She’s talked with Pastor Brian Haas at Mountain Lake Church about launching a ministry program in the county jail.

With her busy schedule as a full time insurance agent and her volunteerism and involvement in the county, Boutin lives by her calendar and makes sure she always schedules time to stay active and healthy. She enjoys exercising in her home and loves playing golf. Every year she looks forward to the Monet Golf Tournament, an all-woman golf tournament hosted by the Bowen. She’s a fan of the Falcons, Braves and the Georgia Bulldogs.

Boutin lives in Big Canoe with her husband Charles and their cats: Bubba, Alonzo and Colonel Sam Tate.