served us well in Bladen

Bladen County government will bid farewell to two of its good department heads this week as both have accepted positions in different work arenas. Neither will go far. One will still be working within the county borders here in Bladen, and the other will be working in a neighboring county. But, both will be lost as servants to the general population of Bladen.

Sherwin Rice, who has led the Bladen County Library system as Head Librarian for the past 10 years, will become Librarian at Bladen Community College. Dr. Martha Warner, who has led the Bladen County Cooperative Extension Service as its Director since 1995, will become Director of the Brunswick County Cooperative Extension Service.

Both Warner and Rice have had long and distinguished careers as public servants in Bladen. Warner first came here in 1982, when she joined the Bladen Extension Department as a 4-H agent. She left the staff in 1991 to pursue her doctorate, then returned in 1994 after completing work on the degree.

When she was named county director in 1995, she represented two milestones for Bladen Extension work: she was the first woman to serve as director, and she was the first Bladen director to hold a Ph.D. She has used both qualifications (if womanhood can be called that) well.

Perhaps she will be remembered best here for her advocacy and leadership of the Bladen Business and Agriculture Expo. The Expo was begun a few years before she became director, its initiation has to be credited to a predecessor, but certainly, once she became director, she made the Expo a point of emphasis. Already successful, the Expo has continued to grow under her leadership and now is a genuine fall fixture in the county.

She has, as director, broadened the role of the Cooperative Extension Service in the county. Her many years as a 4-H agent gave her unique insight into Extension's role in the importance of youth programs to the future of Bladen County and the state as a whole. Under her leadership, the agency vigorously pursued programs to provide opportunity to the county's youth and to help at-risk youth meet the challenges facing them. She has served on the board of directors of a number of programs that focus on bettering the lot of our children.

Ironically, the betterment of youth in the county is also one of the things you immediately think of when you begin to consider the work of Sherwin Rice. Inside and outside her duties at the library, improving the condition of and opportunities for young people have been a focus for her. She has formulated and initiated library programs to that end, and she has worked in community roles other that as librarian to that end. The E. Floyd Martin Achievement Award which she was presented in 1997 documents both the work and its effectiveness. The award was presented "for inspirational youth leadership" by the Bladen Central Alumni Association.

An Elizabethtown native, Rice began working part-time at the library when she was still a student at East Bladen High School. She continued work there as she pursued her college education at Bladen Community and Fayetteville State. Not long after she got her Master's in Library Science in 1992, she was named Head Librarian.

It was a classic case of hometown girl making good, and it has been a classic case of hometown girl doing good. Rice has led the library into new frontiers, in programming and in services. We have a library system in Bladen County for which we can all be proud. Sherwin Rice, as the system's leader, must get much of the credit for that.

We appreciate the dedicated service of these two departing department heads to the people of Bladen. We wish them well in their new jobs.

--30-