Maxwell Center opens today
By From staff reports
Published in News on March 1, 2018 5:50 AM
In a county born of agriculture, the Maxwell Regional Agricultural and Convention Center will celebrate its roots with an Ag Expo today -- its inaugural event for the center's grand opening.
The expo will begin at 9 a.m. with the center's celebratory ribbon cutting. The expo will continue until 3 p.m. featuring a gardening demonstration at 10:30 a.m. and a cooking demonstration at 1:30 p.m., with various exhibits throughout the day.
Coordinating the Ag Expo is Jennifer Johnson, applied animal science instructor at Wayne Community College, along with members of the Carl Best Leadership program.
There will be agriculture-related businesses, farm equipment and more.
Some of the exhibits will include Ag Carolina, Aycock Tractor, Baker Pipe, Atlantic and Southern Equipment, Butterball, Case Farms, Coker Feed Mill, First Citizens, Goldsboro Builders, Goldsboro Milling, Hog Slat, Holly Grove Goat Dairy, North Carolina Forest Services, North Carolina Pork Council, North Carolina State Grange, Odom Farming, Secret Garden Winery, University of Mount Olive, Wayne County Chamber of Commerce, Wayne County Extension and Community Association, Wayne County Public Library and Wayne County Master Gardeners.
In breakout rooms, local groups will have information on what they do, such as Wayne County 4-H.
There will also be a video room where visitors can watch agriculture-related videos.
Michelle Estrada, food and consumer sciences agent for Wayne County, will have a cooking room, where she will have several booths set up on food safety and more.
In the morning, she will do a cooking demonstration from her new kitchen at the Maxwell Center. The cooking demonstration will be shown throughout the day at the center.
Extension agent Jessica Strickland will do a demonstration on container gardening, and it will be shown throughout the day.
There will be about 50 FFA students from across the county representing each of the high school FFA chapters assisting at the Ag Expo.
Some of the animal science students at Wayne Community College helped set up the day before the event and are also helping during the event.
Johnson is hoping to see more than 1,000 visitors.
"It's a showcase of agriculture," Johnson said. "What we're going to do is have a celebration to show what agriculture has done for Wayne County, and also show what the Maxwell Center is about."
Johnson said the last Ag Expo was held several years ago at Wayne Community College.
"But we have the new Maxwell Center now and wanted to do a showcase and coincide it with the grand opening of the center," she said.
The grand opening events will carry on through the weekend with an opening gala Friday night followed by a family open house from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. The open house will feature family-friendly exhibits, games, health screenings and the American Red Cross will host a community blood drive from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
On Sunday, an open house entertainment event will be held from 1:45 to 4:45 p.m. with choirs and bands from Wayne County Public Schools performing.
MAXOut The MAX!, from 5 to 7 p.m., will be a multi-denominational youth rally for middle and high school students.
MAXOut The MAX! will have games, food and prizes as well as a keynote speaker.
Bill Rose Jr., founder and lead pastor of a church in Holly Springs, will discuss faith, fitness and leadership with youth.
The ag expo, family open house, open house entertainment and MAXOut The MAX! are free and open to the public. The opening gala is a ticketed event.