Heifer International celebrates its 75th Birthday today.
It was not founded in Little Rock, but has been located here since the early 1970s. The Heifer campus in downtown Little Rock is nestled along the Arkansas River between the Clinton Presidential Center and the burgeoning East Village.
Visitors to the Heifer Village can learn more about Heifer International. The center features unique, hands on exhibits about the work of Heifer as well as facts about hunger, poverty, and empowerment of individuals.
Heifer International’s mission is to work with communities to end world hunger and poverty and to care for the Earth. Dan West was a farmer from the American Midwest and member of the Church of the Brethren who went to the front lines of the Spanish Civil War as an aid worker. His mission was to provide relief, but he soon discovered the meager single cup of milk rationed to the weary refugees once a day was not enough.
And then he had a thought: What if they had not a cup, but a cow?
That “teach a man to fish” philosophy is what drove West to found Heifer International. And now, 75 years later, that philosophy still inspires their work to end world hunger and poverty throughout the world once and for all.
Jeannette Edris Rockefeller only lived in Arkansas for about fifteen years. But her impact on the cultural life of Little Rock and all of Arkansas continues to be felt today.
On July 6, 1902, future Little Rock Mayor Haco O. Boyd was born in Leslie, Arkansas. At the age of four, his family moved to Little Rock; he graduated from the Little Rock public schools. He attended and graduated from Hendrix College.
Future Little Rock Mayor James Weldon “Buddy” Benafield was born on July 5, 1927 in Coy, Arkansas. As a child he spent part of his time chopping cotton. He graduated from England High School and then served in the U.S. Navy. Following his stint in the military, he enrolled in Arkansas State Teachers College (now the University of Central Arkansas).
