Farm bureau members honored for their work
Awards and honors were bestowed on members of the Butler County Farm Bureau at the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau's annual meeting held in Hershey last week.
In what could be a first for the county, William Thiele of the Thiele Dairy Farm in Cabot was elected to the state farm bureau board of directors.
County and state bureau officials said no one from the county has served on the state board in recent history, and Thiele could be the first.
Thiele quickly jumped in by attending a board meeting Thursday, the day after the three-day annual meeting ended.
“Overall, it went very well. I'm looking forward to making decisions,” said Thiele, who believes the county has been represented on the state board sometime in the past. He said the member he replaced is from Mercer County.
He was elected by members of District 15, which includes bureaus in Butler County, Mercer County and the combined Beaver-Lawrence county bureau, to a two-year term and has the option of staying on the board for four more terms.
“I'm sure it will be a good experience. People tell me it's a great experience, meeting farmers across the state,” Thiele said.
Evelyn Minteer, the county farm bureau information officer, received the 2021 Outstanding Woman in Agriculture Award for developing a four-page “Buy Local” flyer that contains names, addresses and phone numbers of livestock, hay, grains, farm markets and milk producers and other farm-related services. More producers and service providers are being added to the 2022 flyer.
The award also recognized Minteer for her efforts in organizing basket raffles that have raised money to buy grain rescue tubes for the Prospect, Saxonburg and North Washington volunteer fire departments. She said plans are in the works to raise money to buy another rescue tube for another fire department.
“I'm thrilled about it. It's not about me. It's about the Butler County Farm Bureau and what I do for the farmers,” Minteer said.
She credits the staff at Ace Bros. Printing in Butler Township for coming up with the idea for the flyer.
For many years, the bureau has distributed a directory of members and agriculture service providers to bureau members. When she went to the printer to have the directory printed, she was talking to staff about how people who aren't bureau members heard about the directory and wanted a copy, so they could find places to buy products locally. Staff then suggested producing a flyer for consumers.
“We printed 5,000 copies. It was distributed to businesses to distribute to the general public, and it was distributed at the farm show,” she said.
Minteer said her husband died 16 years ago, but she continues to run their farm in Franklin Township. She raises beef cattle and chickens, and relatives plant and harvest the fields.
Doug Dick, a bureau member who works as the chief of emergency medical services for Superior Ambulance in Grove City, won the Distinguished Local Affairs Leader Award for collaborated with other bureaus to put on a rural road safety event that was attended by more than 180 people.
The one-day event featured 10 different learning stations, including a rural road safety video, a 1/64th-scale farm, tractor and equipment demonstrations, and a petting zoo, among other interactive exhibits. The program also benefited local fire and EMS providers.
