Little Red Bam is Important Part of Somerset Dairy Promotion
BY MARGIE FUSCO
Cambria County Correspondent
JOHNSTOWN - When the dairy
industry is promoted in Somerset,
Cambria, Bedford and Indiana
Counties, it’s a cinch the Little Red
Barn will be there. The Little Red
Bam is a mobile dairy bar, owned
by the Somerset County Allied
Milk Producers’ Cooperative, Inc.
The bam was bom three years
ago, when a group of Allied
members put their heads and
hands together. Current Allied
president Bill Blough, along with
Mike and Ralph Stutzman, Lowell
Friedline, and Gary Lynch
planned and built the bam, with
additional help from Richard Neri,
a Somerset building contractor.
Technically, the Little Red Bam
is an 8-by-12 aluminum outbuilding
mounted on a house trailer frame.
Inside, the shed is equipped with
two freezers, a cooler, and a three
bay dispenser, as well as its own
generator for electricity and
running water. Total cost of the
project: around $ll,OOO.
But the Little Red Bam is more
than a shed. It has an identity of its
own. The blue silo on one side and
the homey cat in the rear window
help to give the vehicle a special
character. And its use, as a mobile
marketing tool, has made it
synonymous with the dairy in
dustry. The Little Red Bam serves
as a float for dairy princesses, a
center for free recipes, a bar for
tasty sampling. In short, it’s
become recognized by consumers
as the source of something good.
For example at a recent shop
Cambria Co. Correspondent
Margie Fusee
Margie Fusco took the long
way around to agricultural
writing. In 1981, she turned to
freelance writing after more
than a decade in public
relations, advertising, and
technical editing. During dry
spells in her home-based public
relations and editing business,
she wrote for the Milton
(Pennsylvania) Standard. It
was through the Standard that
she was asked to write some
agricultural features in 1984.
“I suppose I had two strikes
against me as an ag writer,”
she admits. “ I spent the first 29
years of my life in the city
(Pittsburgh). And I’m allergic
to milk.
“Living in Northumberland
County for seven years, I finally
realized that cows don’t give
milk in quart containers.
Moreso, I’ve learned to value
farm families and to care about
the nation’s agricultural future.
And of course I’ve listened to
enough dairy princesses to
know that I can still get my
calcium from cheese and ice
cream.”
In May she moved from
Northumberland County to
Cambria County, where she
lives with her husband and four
year-old son in the Johnstown
area. She says, “I’m looking
ping center promotion, where
customers could purchase ice
cream cones for 19 cents, the bam
attracted 250 customers the first
day and 300 the second day, despite
chilly, rainy weather. “And a lot of
that was repeat business,” notes
Dorothy J. Naugle, Allied’s dairy
marketing specialist in the region.
“The Little Red Bam is one of a
kind,” Naugle notes. “You’re not
going to find another one like it
anywhere.” That uniqueness may
explain the Little Red Bara’s jam
packed schedule. For example, the
vehicle has at least 20 bookings
scheduled in June and nearly 30 set
for July. The uses vary from
parades to store openings to mall
promotions.
One frequent user is Sani-Dairy
of Jonestown, which incorporates
the Little Red Bam into its store
opening and new product
promotions. This summer, Sani-
Dairy is promoting its premium
ice cream, 12 percent butterfat
Country Classic. With events
planned as far away as
Jamestown, N.Y., the firm has
hired a student who is specially
assigned to the Little Red Barn for
the summer.
“The barn is wonderful,” says
Sani-Dairy representative Bud
Ward. “It catches people’s eye. It
brings them over to see what’s
happening. We love using it.”
When the Little Red Bam gets a
chance to rest, it can usually be’
found in Somerset County, on or
near Bill Blough’s Meadowbrook
Dairy Fafm. Blough is responsible
for scheduling the Little Red Barn.
mer
Margie Fusco
forward to getting to know my
new territory. The Extension
agents and farm folks I’ve met
have already been a great help,
and I know I’ll enjoy telling
Lancaster Farming readers
about what’s happening here.”
Margie earned a bachelor’s
and a master of fine arts degree
in creative writing from the
University of Pittsburgh and
has been an instructor in mass
communication at Bloomsburg
State University, in addition to
her work in the com
munications field.
»
Student Greg Horner, a Sani-Dairy employee, will spend most of his summer behind
coolers in the Little Red Barn promoting Sani-Dairy ice cream.
Dorothy J. Naugle, dairy marketing specialist for Somerset County Allied Milk
Producers Co-op. Inc., poses in front of the Little Red Barn.
Workshops Set to Help Farm
Families Cope With Stress
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - A
grain farmer, threatened with the
loss of a farm his family has owned
for generations, can’t sleep, barely
eats, and snaps at his wife and
children without provocation. “My
whole life seems pointless,” he
confides to a close friend.
“Sometimes I just don’t want to go
on.”
• The 20-year-old daughter of a
dairy farmer breaks up with her
fiance while away at college, but
does not tell her parents. She ex
plains her silence this way:
“They’re under so much financial
strain right now, that I’m afraid to
add to their burden with bad
news.”
• A farmer’s wife complains to
her doctor about sharp stomach
pains. “There is no physical reason
for your illness,” he tells her.
“Are you under any unusual
pressure on the farm?”
These real-life stories are not
about farm families from the
Midwest. They are about farm
families from rural Maryland
families who are hurting.
Faced with low prices for what
they sell and high prices for what
they buy, Maryland farmers are
under severe economic pressure.
And while this economic pressure
is not as intense here in Maryland
as it is deep within the Farm Belt,
it still takes its toll emotionally.
“There’s a lot of pent-up pain out
there pain which has a ripple
effect on the entire farm family,”
says Elna Butterfield, Kent County
agent with the University of
Maryland Cooperative Extension
Service.
She adds: “We haven’t had the
violent kind of tragedies making
headlines in the Midwest, hut
tension exists here and we can’t
afford to be complacent.”
To provide support for Maryland
farmers, Butterfield and Ex
tension colleague Judy Pugh will
give a public workshop on “Stress
and Farm Families,” at the
Baltimore County Campus of the
University of Maryland, June 11 at
10:30 a.m.
Designed to help farm families
handle both minor and major
stresses, the workshop is part of
“College Days” - three days of
informal, self-help classes spon
sored by Extension.
Says Pugh: “Extension and
other agricultural organizations
are recognizing that in tough times
like these, farmers need more than
technical advice on planting,
harvesting, and business
management. They also need
advice on coping emotionally.”
Among the coping strategies that
experts recommend:
• Be alert to the red flags of
stress overload, such as
irritability, unfocused anxiety, and
changes in sleep, eating,' and
sexual habits.
• Talk about pressures and
problems openly and as a
family. Suppressing tension can
trigger illness, from ulcers to
hypertension. Moreover, problems
that aren’t “talked out” often
appear worse than they are.
Consider the predicament of a
nine-year-old boy afraid to spend
his allowance because he assumed
that the family fanning business
was in worse financial shape than
it was.
• Schedule leisure time and
spend it away from the farm. Non
farm families typically leave their
offices at the end of a pressure-pot
day. Farm families need to get
away, too and regularly.
• Remember that exercise is a
good release, but don’t count farm
chores as exercise. You need
physical activity that will divert
not remind you of farm-related
tensions. So try running, swim
ming, or brisk walking instead.
• Re-establish your sense of
control by setting priorities. For
example, don’t be overwhelmed
with an impossibly large objective
such as “saving the farm.” Think
instead of more manageable tasks,
such as renegotiating financing,
selling unnecessary machinery, or
supplementing income with off
farm employment.
• Don’t hestltate to seek help
when stress mounts. Consult your
physician, church or synagogue, or
mental health clinic. Remember,
stress is not a sign of weakness.
It’s a sign of being human.
To register for the upcoming
workshop, call (301) 454-5174 in
College Park.