RURAL YOUTH 



At AFBF Meeting 



FOURTEEN Illinois young people at- 

 tended the youth section of the Midwest 

 meeting of the American Farm Bureau 

 Federation held in St. Paul, Minn., June 2~ 

 to 30. Illinois Rural Youth mcmhers ably 

 carried the responsibility of recreation on 

 Sunday evening following committee meetings, 

 the vesper service, and the reception. 



They did the job so well that the committee 

 responsible for Monday night's recreation asked 

 them to "take over" for the second night. 

 Illinois Rural Youthers accepted and then in 

 turn asked the various states represented to 

 provide part of the youth leadership. 



Activities of the youth section were of the 

 training school type. Rural Youth delegates 

 tried to find out why both extension service 

 and Farm Bureau are interested in farm 

 youth. They found there is a close working 

 relationship between these two sponsoring 

 agencies. Both are interested in developing 

 leadership, in furthering activities for indi- 

 vidual and group development, and in as- 

 sisting youth to find the employment suited to 

 their talents. 



Farm Bureau, using facts provided by ex- 

 tension is ready and able to train youth for 

 leadership in specific programs to develop 

 leaders in agriculture. Some of these pro- 

 grams are talk fests, action programs in safety, 

 educational short courses in the study ot 

 cooperatives, program building along lines 

 dealing with rural life, and tours to study 

 problems, experiments, and successes of farm 

 people. 



Following a general presentation of the 

 problems of farm youth which bring both ex- 

 tension and Farm Bureau into the picture, 

 there followed small group discussions by the 

 young people upon those phases of most in- 

 terest to them. Some of the pictures on this 

 page show Illinois Rural Youthers taking 

 part in the small group discussions. 



At Sports Festival 



Rural Youth has swelled the ranks of par- 

 ticipants and spectators at the annual Illinois 



Farm Sports Festival during past years. This 

 month more Rural Youth members than ever 

 before will engage in the various activities 

 of this biggest athletic event for farm people 

 sponsored in the state of Illinois. 



On Aug. 26 and 2~, the various teams and 

 individuals throughout Illinois who have been 

 working for team organization, physical de- 

 velopment, and places of honor, and have 

 been given the high rating in county and dis- 

 trict sports festivals will converge upon the 

 U. of I. campus at Urbana to engage in 

 strong and heated competition. Participants 

 going to Urbana should make a careful check 

 to see that entries are in order. It is better to 

 be sure now than sorry later. So check with 

 your county sports festival leader and make 

 sure that all entries and plans have been 

 properly made. 



Mr. and Mrs. Orville Johnson (Dorothy 

 Longe) ore members of the Rural Young 

 Married group of Montgomery county. Or- 

 ville was a member of Rural Youth in 

 Macoupin and Dorothy a member in Mont- 

 gomery where they now live and where he 

 is organization director. They were in at- 

 tendance at the Midwest meeting in St. 

 Paul when this picture was taken. 



In County Activities 



Clay County Rural Youth did a lot of 

 talking about their approaching June meeting 

 and now that it is over they arc still talking. 

 We thought you might be interested in the 

 reason why, writes Dons Baity, new youth as- 

 sistant tor Clay. "Gurnam Singh, large land- 

 owner of Punjab, India, spoke to nearly 150 

 Rural Youth nnembers and their guests on 



By ELLSWORTH D. LYON, Director 



Young People's Activities 



Agricultural Conditions in India.' Singh, who 

 wears the tr.iditional turban of the Sikh re- 

 ligion, graduated this month from the Cx>l- 

 lege of Agriculture at the University of Illi- 

 nois. He discussed with us the problems of 

 mechanizing Indian farming, and dispelled 

 some of the conjured ideas Americans Iwve 

 about India. 



TIk- Rural Youthers' Hobo Band, or The 

 Clay Cotinty Country Slickers, made their 

 tir-t appearance, and no doubt was left in the 

 minds of tlie audience about the talents of this 

 newly organizvd assembly of noise.' 



Christian^ August meeting will be an 

 all out hayride Aug. 19, starting at Dale 

 Bauer's home. Extra events in educational and 

 retreational features have been planned. 

 Twent\-two new members were adtled to this 

 gniup in a recent membership drive in which 

 1" different townships were represented. 



Stephenson is now marking its tenth year 

 bv preparing a ten-year anniversary book. 



Rural ^'outhtrs of Wabash are cooperating 

 with the program and slogan of Farm Bureau 

 in a "Fly Free State in ' IR " Jane Jackman, 

 secretary, says this group recently saw the 

 movie Rid the Farm of Flics." It was of 

 much interest to all present. 



Kane not only served a good banquet on 

 June 21, but also featured C. V. AmenoflF, 

 editor Elhurn HtrjIJ. in a discussion of 

 doughnut dunking. "C. V. ' did more than 

 dunk properly. He gave an impressive talk on 

 world peace and the necessity of broadening 

 our approach of other peoples. 



North Cook marked the end of its second 

 year with a big banquet in Wheeling. Presi- 

 dent Marvin Anderson and his committc-es had 

 well planned features throughout the evening 

 program. 



It 



1) 



1 



Illinois Rural Youth are shown above taking a leading part 

 in group discussions held by Rural Youth from throughout the 

 Midwest at the AFBF Midwest Training School at St. Paul in 

 June. Left: Edna Dew, Ogle county, (second from right) speaks 



her mind. Center: Harold Holt (left), Michigan; and Mo« 

 Pitstick, La Salle county. Right: Rex Emory (left), McOonough 

 county; Marion Smith (center), Indiana; ond Betty Borr, Lo Solta 

 county. 



AUGUST, 1948 



21 



