Rural People Working Together, 1955

By Mrs. Carl Holland, Cool Springs Home Demonstration Club, Statesville, 1955

I feel that the major objective of the Home Demonstration Club has been and still is, seeking a solution to the problem of how men can live together in peace and striving to project into the thinking of the rural people their individual responsibility in contributing to the program of building world peace.

Incorporated into their program are the following projects and organizations.

Country Women of the World, an association whose purpose is to sponsor a fellowship program around the rural people of the world, binding them closer together as they work to improve world conditions.

The Penny for Friendship program to which each Club member is asked to give one penny to promote friendship among the nations of the world. The Home Demonstration Clubs are participating in UNESCO projects—an international agency closely connected with the United Nations—emphasizing the fact that the people must want world order if it is to be brought about.

Pen friends where Home Demonstration Club members correspond with rural women of other countries to tell the of our mode of living, demonstrates a friendly attitude binding them closer together and bringing about a better understanding among our nation and other nations of the world.

The Home Demonstration Club works closely with the 4-H International Student Exchange Program where our young people live, work and play with farm families in other countries for four to six months. These exchange programs make lasting friendship and bring about better understanding among the people of other nations. In return young people from other countries are invited to come into our country and live in the homes of our rural families for the same period of time. These young people return to their respective homes to share these experiences and information about the customs and community life of these people of other countries by speaking at group meetings in the community and showing slides of their work.

Home Demonstration clubs of North Carolina sponsors an educational tour of the United Nations annually. Approximately 100 women from every county in North Carolina visit and study the United Nations at work. These delegates return to their homes and communities and give this information which they have learned not only to their club members but also to the people of the entire community, speaking to church groups and other organizations. The Home Demonstration Club members have made United Nations flags and presented them to churches, schools and other organizations. They sponsored programs on the United Nations that our people may be informed of the purpose of this organization.

Home Demonstration Clubs are contributing to world peace by emphasizing good citizenship. Impressing upon the individual his responsibility as a citizen in his community helps him to know his rights and privileges and to share them with others. Stressing the fact that being a citizen is not enough but he needs to be a Christian citizen in his home and in his community. In this program of good citizenship people learn to live together and they are taught the things that it takes to make a good citizen. The programs start in the home where families are striving to build those attitudes whereby members of families learn to get along together, where each one respects the rights of others, where there is affection, understanding and cooperation in the home and where families work together and play together. The old saying “where families play together, they stay together” is believed.

To be a good citizen a person must be informed in home, community, state, national and world affairs. He must live good citizenship. All these things have been emphasized by Home Agents at regular club meetings, Demonstration programs by speakers at Council meetings, Achievement Day programs, at Federation meetings, Farm and Home Week, community programs and in many other ways. As these attitudes and practices are established in the home the same attitudes and practices will be established in the community. The influence of such homes and communities flow out to influence the state and nation and even the world. For this reason then, it is important to strive for the best in Family Living and build right attitudes of family and community life.

No organization is more dedicated to the tasks of making the peace than that of the Home Demonstration Clubs where all projects for all age groups are directly or indirectly contributing to the building of good citizenship and sympathetic understanding as the people of the world long for peace.

So it is with pride that I have tried to review for you some of the projects and programs of the organization to which I belong. Through these programs the Home Demonstration Clubs are contributing toward world peace and everywhere women are becoming increasingly aware that if peace and order come to our troubled world, women must do their part as citizens. These women are singing with a clearer understanding,

“This is my song, O God of all the nations,

A song for peace for lands afar and mine.”

[from A Song of Peace]