TownTalk 12-17-20: Pete Burgess; The Man; The Farmer; The Community Advocate
— written from WIZS Staff contributions plus information from a VGCC press release
A farmer must cultivate his crop to ensure a productive yield. First comes the groundwork – literally. The field has to be ready for planting and then kept weed-free so the young plants can flourish. Often, the ultimate success of the crop depends on how well the field was looked after and tended to.
Talmadge R. Burgess, Sr., “Pete” to friends and colleagues, knows the value of cultivation. He has shared this philosophy locally during his decades-long work in agriculture and in service to his community. And that is why the Vance County chapter of the North Carolina Farm Bureau has created a scholarship at Vance-Granville Community College in honor of Burgess.
“We are proud to establish this scholarship to express our appreciation to Pete Burgess for his many years of service to the Farm Bureau, the farming community and Vance County as a whole,” said Thomas Shaw, president of the Vance County Farm Bureau, which Burgess once led.
In a Town Talk interview earlier this week, Burgess reflected on his livelihood, and the importance of being active in the community in which you live. “Anybody has to have help to get started,” he said. When he started out in farming in 1968, it was with the help of family. Now retired, Burgess and his wife Sylvia enjoy farming from a distance while son Talmadge continues the family tradition.
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Tobacco has given way to other crops, Burgess noted, and his son grows hay for livestock and wheat straw for the landscaping industry. But no matter the crop the field produces, there must be a way to sell. Burgess was instrumental in establishing the Vance County Regional Farmers’ Market in Henderson, which allows local producers to showcase everything from cut flowers and tomatoes to locally sourced meats and handicrafts.
In this 2014 WIZS file photo, you can see the Pete Burgess plaque on an easel prior to being placed outside the facility’s meeting room. The VCRFM opened in 2014.
He enthusiastically recalled the steps taken to get the market from concept to reality. “That was probably the most ambitious project the Vance County Farm Bureau ever took on,” he said. It started with a pot of money from the Golden Leaf Foundation and a local group formed to determine how to spend the roughly $2 million Vance County allocation. Schools and fire departments were the top two choices to receive the money, Burgess said. But the third choice was construction of a farmers’ market, and Farm Bureau decided to take it on. ”They thought I wasn’t doing anything much,” he joked, “so they put me in charge of seeing…how to make that project a success.” It took four years to accomplish the goal, but the result is a facility that has functioned since 2014 as a venue to sell local produce as well as a gathering place for meetings and workshops. Burgess remembered how the installation of the large roll-up doors came about – at a cost of $1,500 each, they were just too expensive to include in the original project. Burgess got area businesses to sponsor the purchase of those doors, “and that was the easiest money I raised to build that farmers’ market,” he said.
The farmers’ market is a fairly recent project that Burgess was involved with, but he has long supported a variety of local programs and agencies, from fire departments to civic groups, many of which centered around the Epsom community. Whether it was the annual Lions Club pancake supper or the volunteer fire department fundraisers, Burgess feels it is important to give back.
An active community volunteer, Burgess served as a board member of the county and state Farm Bureau organizations, president and board member of the Epsom Lions Club, board member of the Epsom Volunteer Fire Department, member of the Vance County Planning Board and board member for the Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce. For his contributions to the county and, in particular, for his leading role in securing the land and funding for the regional farmers market, Burgess was honored by the Vance County Commissioners with the “Community Hero” award.
“Throughout his life, Pete Burgess has demonstrated an interest not only in agriculture but in giving back and supporting his community, so this scholarship is a fitting way to honor his service,” said Eddie Ferguson, VGCC’s endowment fund director. “We are grateful to the Vance County Farm Bureau for continuing to support Vance-Granville students through this new scholarship.”
The scholarship is another resource that can be used to cultivate “good” in the community and reward deserving students for their efforts in the classroom. Burgess said he was “kind of amazed at all that’s happening and what’s going on, but it’s very exciting.” The Farm Bureau is known as being an advocate of the farmer, whether it is helping with legislative matters or agricultural matters – whatever a farmer needs to be successful. Burgess seems to have employed a similar philosophy in his lifetime of service to Vance County and beyond – cultivating good habits and positive outcomes to benefit the community as a whole.
The Vance County Farm Bureau is encouraging friends of Pete Burgess to make donations to the Endowment Fund to help endow this scholarship at the Presidential Merit Award level. For more information or to make a contribution, call Kay Currin at (252) 738-3409.
Contributions to the scholarship fund can also be mailed to the Vance-Granville Community College Endowment Fund, at P.O. Box 917, Henderson, NC 27536.
Through the Endowment Fund, VGCC has awarded more than 9,700 scholarships to students since 1982. Scholarships have been endowed by numerous individuals, industries, businesses, civic groups, churches and the college’s faculty and staff. Tax-deductible donations to the VGCC Endowment Fund have often been used to honor or remember a person, group, business or industry with a lasting gift to education.
