I’ve spent the last 40 years fighting crime in Madison County with badge and book. I’ve arrested people when I had to, but I prefer teaching trades and other paths to lawful livelihoods.
I’ve seen some of the best and worst of Madison County. I can say without qualification that 4-H Camp Cherry Lake is in the best category. I’m so thankful for supporters who helped build a new educational pavilion at the camp. But when I attended the ribbon cutting, too much of the camp looked just like I remembered it—from when I myself was a 4-Her there nearly half a century ago.
Cabins have rot, sagging floor support beams are propped up with cinder blocks, doors don’t fit neatly into their jambs, the mess hall’s kitchen is antiquated. Our kids deserve better.
That’s why I’m so pleased that Congressman Al Lawson is championing the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension proposal to invest in 4-H Camp Cherry Lake’s modernization.
It’s personal and professional for me. When I was a camper, I swam, fished, and learned about soil and trees. I also gave speeches and had to write in defense of my ideas. I started developing interpersonal skills that helped me become a police chief and a college administrator.
That’s what Camp Cherry Lake does all summer long for kids in Madison, where I live and work and 30 miles from where I was raised. It does the same for kids across the area North Florida College serves—Hamilton, Jefferson, Lafayette, Madison, Suwannee and Taylor counties.
Congressional funding would not only modernize the camp for youth but transform it into a learning-by-doing job-training center for Florida agriculture during the 10 months the 4-Hers aren’t there.
The new 4-H Camp Cherry Lake would have facilities to train and certify adults in the principles of animal husbandry or the vegetable, nursery and landscaping industries. Others would learn to write about, broadcast, photograph and market farm life. Yet others would learn to weld and fix engines. Some would get schooled in resource conservation, biotechnology or the use of drones.
I see the benefits of job training every day as the immediate past associate dean of economic development and workforce education at North Florida College and the current director of the college’s public safety programs. People leave here with associate degrees and a path, whether as a nurse, an emergency medical technician, a law enforcement officer or a commercial truck driver.
If Congressman Lawson succeeds in securing funding for this special place in his district, youth and adults who learn by doing would develop the skills and confidence that make them better job applicants. It could do for agriculture what I try to do at North Florida College for the medical and law enforcement professions—connect people with careers to provide the workforce we need for a thriving North Florida economy.
It would continue creating better citizens, too. In so doing, it could save on public spending on incarceration. I already believe North Florida is the best place to live and work. But I also believe that Camp Cherry Lake modernization would put into practice the 4-H motto, “To Make the Best Better.”
Rick Davis is director of public safety programs for North Florida College and a resident of Madison County.
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