Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-09-19

There is no more capable and en-
thusiastic club worker in Kennebec
county than Mrs. Mary A. Nickerson
Mrs. Nickerson is now county club
leader, as well as leader of the Sew
Sew Club of Readfeld. She has been
in active work continuously longer
than any other club leader in the
county. OF club work for county
boys and girls Mrs. Nickerson says:
Club work for boys and girls,
carried on for a long time in the
South and West before reaching us,
is now firmly established in our
State and is more prosperous this
year than ever. This work, planned
at our State College, conducted by
a Local Leader, always ably assisted
by the County Agent and Home
Demonstration Agent, is proving of
great benefit to our rural boys ana
girls.
CLUBS help to counterbalance the
too numerous pleasures of auto
rides and movies by offering work
in systematic and attractive form.
They help to- combat, what, accord
ing to Edward Box, are the two
greatest faults of the American peo-
pie, lack of thrift and lack of thor
ougnness. The prizes given in club
work are. presented in the form Of
bank book, with different sums
placed to the credit of the recipient,
and always some official from the
bank gives the children an interest
ing talk on thrift and the rapidly
with which money left at interest
increases. That these talks are bear
ing fruit is proven by the fact that
while the Augusta Savings Bank has
given out in prizes one thousand
dollars in the last five years, the
| boys and girls have increased that
sum to nearly three thousand by
| letting it remain at interest and by
adding to it money which they
earned through their own efforts.
1.-THE motto Of club work Is, To
make the best better and each
| child is urged by the State Leaders
| and by the Local Leaders to do his
work just as well as he possibly can.
For the good Of the Nation, we
( must have a contented, intelligent
F., rural population, and another object
of club work Is to interest our boys
and girls in life on the farm. Not
all will or should settle on farms,
but unless some percent take up
country life, the Local Leaders who
have given their time and strength
will have made the sacrifice in vain.
However. when our boys and girls
awake to the fact that work on the
farm and in the home calls for the
intelligent use of their heads as well
as their hands, and that no occu-
patton is more interesting or calls
for more all round talents than
farming or home making, I believe
more will enter these professions.
Club meetings, conducted in a
more or less formal manner, teach
simply parliamentary usages, and
help fit our children for their du-
ties later in life. Through club
work. our daughters are being
taught, not only how to make their
own clothes, but how to shop wisely
and how to dress becomingiy. They
are being taught not simply how to
make good bread and cake. but how
to combine the correct foods In one
meal, and how to select the differ
ent substances which the body needs
for its health and growth.
I'm the life Of the-rural child.
club work, in measure, takes the
place of the domestic science Taught
in the city schools.
MANY boys and girls who visit
the State College as county cham
pions are Influenced through the
wider vision gained there to try for
a higher education. Surely some
number of these young people will
come back to our rural commune
ties splendidly fitted for leadership
and full Of enthusiasm for the farm
and farm home.
During my leadership in Read
field, my club boys and girls have
always done particularly good work
in school Miss Mildred Brown, or
Readfield, who was twice County
champion in canning, took the do
nestle science course at Orono
and graduated last June. Rodman