Stanly County Service Club Members Praised, 1939

Published Dec. 22, 1939, in the Albemarle News and Press

By F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, North Carolina State College, Raleigh

In Stanly County, as in other counties of the state, rural young men and women, beyond 4-H club age yet too young to feel perfectly at home in the older adult organizations, have perfected what they call a service club. Not only do the members of this club carry on constructive projects in agriculture and home-making but they also uphold the hands of the county farm and home agents to improve the rural life of the county. Last Tuesday evening, I had the pleasure of attending the 8^th annual banquet of the Stanly County Service Club and I don’t know when I have taken part in a more delightful occasion.

In the first place, the banquet was tendered to those 4-H club members who had accomplished outstanding results in their projects this year.

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I felt greatly honored to sit at the side of Annice Huneycutt, a president of the service club and a most delightful young person. Virgil Moss, a former club member and now one of the leaders among the young farm folk of Stanly, welcomed the champion 4-H boys and girls to the banquet and extolled their work. Clay Tom Carpenter, a member of the Aquadale club, responded…. Jewell Almond rendered a piano solo after which Lillie Branshaw, home agent, read the citations of the championship members and told something of what 4-H club work had been accomplished in the county during the year 1939. All guests were introduced by J.E. Wilson, the county farm agent.

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I was especially impressed with a talk by A.C. Oosterhuis, representative of the commercial milk processing company which has recently opened a receiving station at Albemarle. Mr. Oosterhuis told of the effect of dairying in other parts of the country and said that though this Albemarle plant was not now getting the supply of milk needed to maintain such a plant, he had great hopes of more people keeping cows for the building of a more balanced agricultural system.

He told me that his company will discuss with county agents in that territory the possibility of financing high grade dairy cows for the 4-H club boys and girls. The plan is for his company to buy the cows outright and then sell them to the club members at cost and each club member to pay for his cow by sales of milk to the receiving station. Within a short period, if the boy or girl gives her cow the proper attention, the animal will have paid for herself and the club member will have a valuable cow that possibly could not have been obtained in any other way. The only condition attached is that the family shall have another cow to produce milk for home use so that the production from this additional animal shall be available to the milk plant.

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Personally, I think this is one of the finest things that I have ever heard of any commercial company doing. It allows the farm boy or girl to get a good cow from money he or she would not have had….