Kp loilg four Mwl
Helms’ name graces
agricultural grants
Money to go to internship, leadership
BY ERIN FRANCE
STAFF WRITER
Former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms
was honored Saturday with the
establishment of an endowment
catering to agricultural students
in North Carolina high schools and
eolleges.
Funds for the Senator Jesse
Helms Agricultural Legislative
Internship Endowment will be
split among a summer leadership
program for high school students
liosted at Wingate and Campbell
universities and a Washington,
D.C., internship for students
studying agriculture at N.C. State
and N.C. Agriculture & Technical
universities.
Justin Lowe, a junior double
major in horticultural science
and agricultural education at N.C.
State, is the first recipient of the
Washington internship, where
he will serve as an aide to Sen.
Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C.
“I am elated,” Lowe said. “I’m
still in that awe moment.”
The endowment will provide
enough money to send three col
lege students each year, one per
semester, to Washington.
A smaller portion of the endow
ment will be used to send a group
Tobacco buyout helps N.C. family
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW BERN - With each
spring comes renewed hope for the
Hill family.
They’re a dwindling breed of
family farmers, which means that
John; his wife, Theresa; and the
two children do the work.
With tobacco as his money crop
and the weather always looming as
the wild card, he knows each year
of farming could be his last. This
will be his 17th year.
He’ll tend close to 30 acres of
tobacco, along with 350 acres of
soybeans this year on rented land
in the Janeiro Road area southwest
of Oriental.
He’s had as much as 50 acres of
tobacco, before government allot
ment cuts came along. With allot
ments now a thing of the past, he
has contracted with Phillip Morris
USA in recent years.
The workings of a small farm
are filled with good and bad times.
He was down to 19 acres of tobac
co last year, which he says was the
bare minimum he and his family
could get by on. This year, he’ll get
about 10 more acres.
Even as he and the family were
putting seeds into the greenhouse
beds last month, he already knew
his price per pound this year would
be about 40 cents less. But, on the
flip side, with allotments gone, he’ll
save about $6,000 in payments to
the allotment owner.
For him, the buyout, or Tobacco
Transition Payment Program, has
been a blessing.
“That is probably the only thing
that saved us, because they were
talking this year, if they hadn’t
passed it, they were going to cut
tobacco 30 percent,” he says. “In
other words, we would have had
10 or 11 acres. In other words, we
would have been gone.”
His hope is that with the buy
out and direct company contracts,
tobacco will rebound.
“My best years were when I had
right at 50 acres. At that time,
that was sufficient money for a
family,” he recalls. “It was good
for three or four years and then
they started cutting the quotas
and we started losing 10 and 15
percent a year. We lost half of
our crop in four years. You might
as well say you lost half of your
income in four years.”
John grew up on a tobacco farm,
and except for a few years as a trav
eling musician, he’s only known the
labor of the land.
His father, Cecil, moved to
Pamlico County 42 years ago, the
year John was born. It was a dif
ferent time in many ways: Tobacco
was a crop that the state boasted
about, a crop that was not under
social and economic siege.
But the small family farm prin
ciple applied.
“We worked a lot. That was
when tobacco wasn’t so easy. It was
getting up at three o’clock in the
morning,” he recalls of life for him
self, three sisters and a brother.
Those were the days of the
tobacco barns and tobacco sticks,
mostly now crumbling ruins in
local fields.
“With the stick bams, he had 12
to 14 head he hired, because it took
a lot of people pulling it by hand,
and then it took just as many loop
ing it,” he says. “They used to loop
it on the sticks the old-fashioned
way.”
N.C. high school students par
ticipating in the 4-H Club or the
Future Farmers of America to
the Free Enterprise Leadership
Conference at Wingate and
Campbell, both private colleges in
North Carolina.
Courtney Hughes, a 4-H mem
ber at Crossnore Academy in Avery
County, is the first recipient of the
endowment and will attend the con
ference at Wingate this summer.
John Dodd, president of The
Jesse Helms Center, said he hopes
more agricultural students will be
chosen to attend the summer pro
grams, which usually draw hun
dreds of high school students.
“We’re hoping for 10 to 15 stu
dents to attend,” Dodd said.
The students are chosen through
nominations by 4-H and FFA and
will spend their time during the
program managing a virtual agri
cultural business, Dodd said. Other
students will manage different sec
tors of the virtual economy.
Many donors said they hope
students will gain experience dur
ing the program and become more
competitive in the job market.
“Because of the internship expe
rience, they could land jobs very
quickly,” said Peter Daniel, assis
His father had extremely good
luck with the weather, he remem
bers.
There were dry spells, but the
needed rain always came. Like the
other farmers, he had his strict allot
ment of how many acres to plant
and how many pounds to sell.
“He sold his pounds all 28 years
Mama always said, you can never have
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News
tant to the president of the N.C.
Farm Bureau.
Other donors said students
could inform legislators on agri
cultural issues.
“One of the best ways to estab
lish a rapport with legislative mem
bers is through staff members,” said
Jim Wilder, executive vice presi
dent of the N.C. Soybean Producers
Association.
Although agricultural work
ers only account for 2 percent of
the workforce in North Carolina,
Wilder said Helms always appre
ciated the farming community.
“Senator Helms has been a
strong advocate for farmers,”
Wilder said.
Keith Oakley, president of the
agricultural foundation at N.C.
State, said Helms deserves to be
the award’s namesake because of
his influence on the recent federal
tobacco buyout.
“It allowed many farmers in
America to stay in agriculture,”
Oakley said.
No specific events are planned to
raise more funding, though Oakley
said talks are continuing with the
three largest donors, who might
share Helms’ name on one of the
internships.
Contact the State & National
Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
and that’s incredible,” John says,
adding that his own luck has not
been so fortunate.
“I’ve sold my pounds out
of 16 years not many years,”
he admits. “There’s something
constantly happening with the
weather. I’ve had a bad string of
luck with the weather.”
N.C. emergency response
effective, report affirms
Communication
needs some work
BY ASHLEY SIMMONS
STAFF WRITER
The explosion at Kinston’s
West Pharmaceutical chemical
plant in 2003 that killed six and
injured 37 people prompted UNC
Hospitals to explore the state’s
ability to respond to emergen
cies.
UNC Hospitals admitted 10
patients to its Jaycee Bum Center
after the blast, and seven survived
their injuries.
The evaluation, which was
released Friday, was meant to cri
tique past responses and look for
improvements to be made in the
future, said Bruce Cairns, associ
ate director of the Jaycee Burn
Center.
“The biggest issue is effective
communication both at the scene
of the accident and among hospi
tals,” he said.
“In these situations, commu
nication lines frequently break
down.”
During the initial moments of
the Kinston explosion which
occurred Jan. 29, 2003, when
a combustible dust used by the
plant accumulated above a sus
pended ceiling and ignited hos
pitals across the Triangle area,
including UNC Hospitals, were
mistakenly informed that the
incident involved a plane crash,
he said.
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But even with the erroneous
reports, hospitals were able to
execute emergency plans effec
tively, successfully treating most
patients.
“We were very pleased with our
overall coordination and our deci
sions during the incident,” Cairns
said.
He said the conclusions of the
report show that North Carolina
is well-equipped for responding
to catastrophes, but added that
there always is room for improve
ment.
State officials say they have
similar goals concerning North
Carolina’s ability to handle large
scale emergencies.
Kenneth Taylor, director of
the N.C. Division of Emergency
Management, reported in
December that the state has a
strong working relationship with
hospitals, which should make the
road to better communication less
painstaking.
“We strive to be a knowledge
able, professional and prepared
emergency management team
who coordinate and implement
preparedness,” he stated in the
report.
“We exercise programs that
will respond and recover from
terrorist incidents and other
threats.”
On the national front, there is
a concern with communication
during fire disaster situations,
but officials hold that tremendous
improvements have been made
since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
“The biggest
issue is effective
communication
...at the scene and
among hospitals.”
BRUCE CAIRNS, jaycee burn center
attacks.
Courtney McCarron, com
munications affairs manager
of the Association of Public
Safety Communications Officials
International Inc., said past mis
haps on both the national and
state levels help provide stability
for the future.
“We need examples to help us
first prevent these disasters when
we can,” she said.
“And if that’s not possible, then
they can help us develop better
methods.”
Cairns also said experience is
a major part of North Carolina’s
ability to handle emergency situ
ations.
“A lot of us at UNC saw the
chicken-processing plant incident
of ’9l, Pope Air Force Base plane
crash in ’94 and then Kinston in
’03,” he said.
“North Carolina is one of two
states said to be the best in emer
gency management. We just have
so many people with vast experi
ence.”
Contact the State & National
Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
9