Although he is quick to credit the groundwork laid by his predecessor, Eric Eskew has reaped rewards in his three years at the head of the Louisiana 4-H Foundation, which has seen pledges rise from $54,000 in fiscal 2005-06 to $290,000 for 2008-09. Eskew says that was due mostly to a long-overdue computerization of paper-donor records going back 30 years, initiated by 2007 Forty Under 40 winner Trey Williams.
“It was all kept track of by hand,” Eskew says. “You can imagine how old some of those addresses were. I took that database and put forth the effort to travel the state and make those connections. We’ve definitely brought in over a million dollars total in three years.”
Eskew grew up immersed in 4-H. His father was a 4-H agent for Jefferson Davis Parish, and his mother was active in the Lake Charles branch. Eskew joined up for fourth through 12th grades and says he did plenty of livestock caretaking. Today, he says 4-H involves more service-related work, from visiting nursing homes to cleaning up roadside trash and conducting canned-food drives. He says only 7% of 4-H youths focus on caring for farm animals now.
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“The responsibility and dedication that teaches a kid—whenever you have an animal that relies on you to make sure that it’s taken care of—that’s the principal core of what 4-H is all about,” he says, noting that there is now a strong push for scientific, engineering and technology programs at summer camp events.
One of Eskew’s responsibilities is integrating a 30-acre former Girl Scout Camp adjacent to the 50-acre Grant Walker 4-H Education Center near Pollock, land that was acquired by 4-H and finally paid down in December. Meanwhile, plans for the original camp include a new general-purpose hall near the cafeteria and classrooms.
Eskew also oversaw the opening of a 4-H museum this summer in Marksville, close to where the state’s 4-H program began in 1908 and funded partly by the local Tunica-Biloxi Tribe. “It’s such a culture-rich state,” Eskew says of the diversity he finds across the 64 parishes. “Every section is so unique.”
Age: 32
What was your first job? “Cutting grass for two lawyers in Jennings. They are both now judges. I painted. I cut the yard. I was their little slave labor for a couple summers.”
Click here for the complete list of 2009's Forty Under 40 winners.
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