Salisbury, Md. — Junior Achievement of the Eastern Shore in Maryland is committed to educating and inspiring young people to value free enterprise, business and economics to improve the quality of their lives. One way Junior Achievement (JA) does this is through its Our Region® program for fourth-graders in the public schools in Wicomico, Worcester and Somerset counties by focusing on regional agricultural businesses and helping students understand how they produce goods and services for consumers.
As part of its ongoing commitment to education, Perdue has provided a $10,000 grant funded through the Arthur W. Perdue Foundation to help Junior Achievement reach nearly 500 students through its Our Region® program.
“We are so grateful to have the support of the Perdue Foundation for the Our Region program,” said Jayme Weeg, president of the Junior Achievement of the Eastern Shore. “Through the support of their contribution and a Perdue volunteer, students on the lower Eastern Shore will have the opportunity to understand the impact and interdependence of agriculture on the economy. Not just locally, but regionally, nationally and globally. What a perfect collaboration!”
Bill Hetherington, executive director of the Arthur W. Perdue Foundation, in presenting the grant, said, “We are honored to present this grant on behalf of Perdue through the Foundation in support of Junior Achievement’s innovative learning opportunities. Junior Achievement brings a unique element to a young person’s education by introducing fundamentals of how businesses function. We think that it provides a very valuable learning experience and we’re proud to support their efforts.”
JA Programs Empower Students
Junior Achievement’s programs are designed to empower students from kindergarten through 12th grade to own their economic success. The Our Region® program focuses on regions through a series of five activities. Students focus on the production and distribution of goods and services in a state or region. They learn about the importance of human, capital, and natural resources to the operation of a business. They learn about the flow of money through the economy and that businesses and industries are interdependent. They solve basic business problems in a regional economy.
“With this Junior Achievement project for fourth-graders, we will be able to reach 500 more students and help them learn how they can be a part of something big — helping feed the hungry — and make a living while analyzing markets, addressing scarcity, and being a part of a core economic driver for not just our area, but America and the world,” said Dr. John Fredericksen, superintendent of Wicomico County Public Schools. “If we’re to be successful as a country, our children will have to understand these core concepts at a personal level early, as they learn and grow.”
Volunteers Important To JA Success
John Reichenberg, a retail customer service representative at Perdue, has been a volunteer teacher for Junior Achievement of the Eastern Shore since 2004. Through the Our Region® program, he helps students distinguish U.S. economic regions, identify resources businesses use to make products, learn how resources relate to business income and expenses, calculate profits and losses, and understand how important location is to a business.
“One of the examples I use is that you wouldn’t want to run a surf shop in Arizona,” said Reichenberg, who was named the 2009 Junior Achievement Volunteer of the Year and the 2011 Junior Achievement Community Hero. “On the Shore, this really is a key program for students of this age who are starting to form relationships between money and its value, and how businesses operate. I really enjoy my time in the classroom.”
About Junior Achievement of the Eastern Shore
Junior Achievement of the Eastern Shore was established in 1987 as a non-profit organization to educate and inspire young people to value free enterprise, business and economics to improve the quality of their lives. It counts entrepreneurs Richard Henson and Frank Perdue, and Greater Salisbury Committee as its founding fathers.
To learn more about Junior Achievement of the Eastern Shore, visit them on the web at www.easternshoreja.org or at Facebook at www.facebook.com/JAeasternshore.
About Perdue and the Arthur W. Perdue Foundation
The Perdue Family of Companies includes Perdue Farms, Perdue AgriBusiness, and our shared services organizations. Since our beginning on Arthur Perdue’s farm in 1920, through expansion into agribusiness and the introduction of the PERDUE® brand of chicken and turkey under Frank Perdue, to today’s third-generation of family leadership with Chairman Jim Perdue, we’ve remained a family-owned company dedicated to making Perdue the most-trusted name in food and agricultural products.
The Arthur W. Perdue Foundation, the charitable giving arm of the Perdue Family of Companies, was established in 1957 by company founder Arthur W. Perdue and is funded through the estates of Arthur W. Perdue and Frank Perdue. As part of our belief in supporting the communities where and with whom we do business, the Foundation provides grants on behalf of the Perdue Family of Companies in communities where large numbers of our associates live and work.
At the Perdue Family of Companies, we believe in responsible food and agriculture™.
For more information, contact Perdue spokesperson Julie DeYoung at 410-341-2533 or visit www.perdue.comTM
Source: Perdue