Beech Tree News Network

The Butler County Extension Office hosted a country ham breakfast to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the Cooperative Extension Office. Statewide, clubs were finding different celebrating the event in their local communities. “We wanted to do a breakfast for the community,” says Extension Agent for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Gregory Drake. The breakfast featured traditional southern fare of biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, and country ham cured by local 4H club members.

During the breakfast two award winning speeches were presented by 4H member Gabe McFayden, one a humorous and informative work on Country Ham, followed by a history lesson and patriotic exhortation to political activism, centering on our Founding Fathers.
“Do you know how to store a country ham? Just hang it in a sock!” Gabe said during his speech for the 4H Country Ham Project, a project attempting to show community youth where their food originates. “There’s not much to it,” he goes on to say, detailing the process that carries the ubiquitous southern staple from pig to plate. He said, “last year I got into 4H, did my first couple speeches. I was beet red, nervous, almost to collapsing, then I thought to myself, if I can do this, I can do anything.”

Gabe McFayden, age 11, is involved with several 4H activities, and won numerous ribbons at state of myriad categories and themes.
Gregory Drake‘s sentiment is that by allowing young people opportunities to go out into the communities and be involved with public speaking you help their development, and that conviction is what  makes him want to provide those opportunities for youth when he can.

Extension offices came about when in the year 1914 legislation was put into action, and laws such as the Morrill Act of 1862, in combination with the Smith-Lever Act, were formalized, granting land to universities for the purpose of teaching and equipping citizens to improve themselves and their communities through “agriculture, home economics, mechanical arts, and other practical professions,“ a goal that, according Gregory Drake, continues to drive those that are a part of it, even after a century.

“What the Extension Office does it takes research based information that is generated in Lexington at the experiment stage, and we make [the finished product] available to the local people, from people they trust. It’s not a sales pitch. That’s the heart of what we do, help community development, and the soul is the research.” 
There is an extension office in every US state, as well as territories such as Guam, American Samoa, and Puerto Rico.

Story by J. Harris, Beech Tree News