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A- FT Club Week
11 March 6 14
& proclamation bp Qty ^obetnor
7'//H lU'LUiTiy> Irwinton, Georgia. JPriday Starch 5, 1954 Established lS9~t
GEORGIA FOUR-H CLUB
CENTER BEING HAILED THE
WORLD OVER AS A PINNACLE
OF ACHIEVEMENT
Progress made at the State 4-H
Club Center alone is reason
enough for Georgia’s 131,385 four-
H boys and girls to take an active
part in the observance of Nation
al 4-H Club Week this year.
The Center has been the No. 1
project of Georgia 4-H’ers for sev
eral years, and now their efforts
along with those of their county
Extension agents, local leaders and
others —stand as .the crowning
achievement in 4-H the world
over. It is attracting nation - and
world-wide attention, and delega
tions from states as far away as
New York, Pennsylvania and Kan
sas have visited and studied it as
a model 4-H camp.
The Center —its layout, its plan,
its arrangement—is a story in it
self, but how the $2,000,000 pro
ject came to be is a greater story.
Planned originally as a long
term, drawn-out undertaking with
construction to be spread over a
period of possibly 15 or 20 years,
the Center is expected to be far
enough along for dedication dur
ing Thanksgiving week this year,
and plans are to begin using it in
1955.
The 1,452 acres of land and the
110-acre lake were made avail
able in 1950. Ground breaking
exercises were held in 1951. Con
struction started in 1952.
And when construction started
there was $40,000 on hand to build
a $2,000,000 project. The move to
start the Center under such cir
cumstances is being hailed the
country over as a tribute to the
faith and determination of Geor
gia 4-H’ers and the adults who
work with them. It has been call
ed other things, too, but time —
and progress — proved them in
correct.
And now, as 4-H’ers celebrate
National 4-H Club Week, 1954,
they can do it with less worry
about where the money is coming
from to complete the Center.
As of a month ago all but $200,-
000 of the necessary $2,000,000 was
in the 4-H Foundation till.
No, 4-H boys and girls didn’t
raise all that money, but they
raised the first money for the Cen
ter. And W. A. Sutton, state 4-H
Club leader; W. S. Brown, asso
ciate Extension Service director
and chairman of the 4-H Founda
tion; and Donald Hastings, chair
man of the State 4-H Club Advis
ory Committee, agree that 4-H
members’ enthusiasm, their will
ingness to work, and their eager
ness to start the ball rolling them
selves caused business and civic
organizations, foundations and
government officials to support
the great undertaking.
The minute the Secretary of
Agriculture signed the lease trans
ferring Rock Eagle Park from the
Soil Conservation Service to the
Board of Regents'of the University
of Georgia and plans were an
nounced to go ahead with the
Center, 4-H’ers got busy.
Orphan club members at the
Baptist Childrens Home near
Baxley did without their eggs for
breakfast one morning, selling
them and donating the money to
the 4-H Foundation. A group of
Colquitt County 4-H’ers grew a
cotton crop, and gave the profit
WORKING TOGETHER FOR WORLD UNDERSTANDING
WHEREAS: Georgia’s 131,385
members of 4-H Clubs are ob
serving National 4-H Club Week
March 6-14, 1954, and
WHEREAS: The 4-H Clubs com
pose Georgia’s largest youth or
ganization, and its purpose is to
give equal training to the head,
heart, hands, and health, being
conducted by the University of
Georgia College of Agriculture
Extension Service through the
County Agricultural Agents and
Home Demonstration Agents,
along with the help of 14,134 lo
cal 4-H Leaders, who are leading
men and women in the local com
munity, and
WHEREAS: Georgia 4-H Club
members are working faithfully
and diligently to make the dream
of a 1,200-capacity State 4-H Club
Center at Rock Eagle Park become
a reality to be dedicated in 1954,
thus providing invaluable training
for thousands of boys and girls
who heretofore could not be given
such training due to lack of faci
lities, and
WHEREAS: One of the best
ways this country has to keep our
Democratic way of life is the
sound and valuable training that
is being given to 4-H Club mem
bers, now
THEREFORE: I, Herman E.
Talmadge, Governor of the State
of Georgia, do hereby proclaim
March 6 to the 14th, 1954, as Na
tional 4-H Club Week and urge
all our people to support and en
courage the work of this organiza
tion, that we may have “Better
Living for a Better World.”
In Witness Whereof, I have
hereunto set my hand and caused
the Seal of the Executive Depart
ment to be affixed, this the 9th
day of February, 1954.
Signed:
Herman E. Talmadge, Governor
for the 4-H Center. Four-H’ers in
Lowndes County held “odd jobs
days,” doing whatever their em
ployers asked, taking whatever
their employers offered, then giv
ing it all to help build their Cen
ter. Up in Towns County, 4-H
members sold honey at the Geor
gia Mountain Fair.
And so the story ran — all over
the state. And before long, 4-H
members had raised $60,000. Then
they went to others for help.
Gov. Herman Talmadge and the
State Board of Corrections gave
the Center a boost in May, 1952, a
month before construction began,
by approving the transfer of a
skilled prison labor camp to Rock
Eagle to do the work.
Then, the governor went a big
step further and announced that
the state would match all funds,
dollar for dollar, that 4-H’ers-and
their friends raised for the Center.
Four-H’ers found that they have
a lot of real friends. Nearly 25 in
dividuals, business organizations
and foundations gave SIO,OOO each
to build cottages. Four gave $25,-
000 apiece to build larger struct
ures.
Four-H members’ dimes and
dollars kept pouring in, too, and
the state matched every penny.
Then came November 18, 1953,
and a million dollar story. The
story was made possible by a
$2,144,000 grant from the Kellogg
Foundation and $1,600,000 in state
funds for a Continuing Education
Center on the campus of the Uni
versity of Georgia. A million dol
lars of the state funds was ear
marked for construction at Rock
Eagle.
So Georgia 4-H’ers are extreme
ly happy — and thankful — dur
ing this National 4-H Week.
This writer, and others, have
found it impossible to describe the
4-H Center in words. That’s why
open house is held at the project
each Sunday afternoon. Four-H’ers
and Extension officials want
everyone to visit Rock Eagle to see
the project and the accomplish
ments that are being made there.
Located near Eatonton in Put
nam County, 45 miles south of At
hens on U. S. Highway No. 441,
the 4-H Center is near the heart
of the state and easily accessible
to all counties.
You will have to see it to be
lieve it. About all a reporter can
do is to point out that the Center
includes 12 miles of roads, all of
which will be paved this spring;
mention the fact that a building
on one side of the Center will be
nearly a mile from a building on
the other side; explain that the
Center will be a city with up to
1,200 new residents each week; re
mind everyone that the buildings
are being permanently construct
ed with attic fans (the 1,200-capa
city auditorium will be air condi
tioned) for comfort the year
’round.
Os course, he can mention the
buildings that will be included 72
cottages, eight educational and de
monstration buildings, central din
ing hall, auditorium, exhibition
hall, health building, administra
tion building, warehouse, guest
house, and five residences for per
manent personnel.
He can explain that. the con
struction of the cottages is con
crete floor with asphalt tile, paint
ed concrete block walls, wood
framing for composition shingle
roof, wide overhang, aluminum
double- hung windows. The larger
buildings are of concrete block
with brick exteriors and steel
framing for the roofs.
Each cottage has its electric hot
water tank, a gas closet-type hot
air heating system, an electric
drinking fountain —and the attic
fan. And each cottage has a living
room, will house 18 people in two
dormitory rooms and a counse
lor’s room, has a bath for the 4-H
--’ers rooms and a private bath for
the adult leaders.
The cottages, most of which face
the lake, are being arranged in
groups of 18. Each such group will
accommodate 300 people. And for
each group there will be two of
the educational buildings and a
play area.
Then, the cottages within the
group of 18 are arranged in three
smaller groups of six each. Such
a group will accommodate 100
people. What it all means is that
twelve 100-capacity meetings, four
meetings with 300 people each, or
one large meeting of 1,200 can be
held at the Center at one time—
and without interferring with any
other event being held there.
Construction is moving ahead
full steam. There is no let-up in
sight. And Georgia 4-H’ers are
looking forward to the dedication
day —a day expected to be the
greatest in Georgia 4-H history.