By Amanda Irwin
Boys and Girls Home of N.C.
This year’s Southern Farm Days held March 15-17 on the Boys and Girls Homes Farm attracted some of the largest crowds in the farm heritage festival’s 14 years with more than 6,000 people attending.
The event benefits BGHNC, and Cape Fear Farm Heritage Association president Robert Mills recently presented a check for $24,000 from this year’s event to BGHNC President/CEO Marc Murphy.
“It’s been a great partnership. When we first approached the home and we told them what we would like to do in the fall of 2008, we had recently organized our club and immediately started making plans to do an annual show,” said Dave Parks, one of the group’s founders. “It was tough at first, but we pulled it off that first year. It was accepted by the area and well beyond Columbus County. It grows every year.”
Today, people come to visit Southern Farm Days from as far away as Florida and Ohio.
Cape Fear Farm Heritage Association also started a new tradition this year. They awarded a $2,500 scholarship to Charley Tilley, who graduated from East Columbus Jr./Sr. High School. She plans to attend East Carolina University in the fall to study social work.
“This year it worked out great. It was well-received,” Mr. Parks added. “Though she is not pursuing an agriculture-related degree, she was very involved in the FFA program and took ag-related classes [in high school]. She just stood out as having an interest in agriculture and was an excellent student.”
Southern Farm Days has become a tradition on the third weekend in March each year for Columbus County as one of the area’s largest events. The next Southern Farm Days will be March 14-16, 2025.
Cape Fear Farm Heritage Association
The mission of Cape Fear Farm Heritage Association is to promote interests for collecting, preserving, and restoring tractors and other equipment with historical agriculture value and to educate the public by providing information, demonstrations, and exhibits about local farm heritage and culture. Its largest event each March is Southern Farm Days, benefiting Boys & Girls Homes.
Boys and Girls Homes of North Carolina
Headquartered in Lake Waccamaw, NC since 1954, Boys and Girls Homes of North Carolina has served more than 7,500 children as a not-for-profit, 501(c)3 agency. Its mission is to provide a comprehensive array of services for children and youth who have been removed from their homes due to abuse, neglect or other family challenges. BGHNC offers adoption, family and therapeutic foster care, Success Coach services to prevent children from coming into foster care, and free children’s therapy, as well as residential care on the campus at Lake Waccamaw. The campus features a SACS-accredited charter school with a middle and high school curriculum, vocational education, recreation facilities, farm, equine therapy and a chapel. BGHNC is nationally accredited by the Council on Accreditation. To learn more, please visit https://boysandgirlshomes.org/
